SPLODY MOUNTAIN!

[annathepiper]

So, news is coming in that Mt. St. Helens is restless. Half of me is intrigued by this news and half of me is just a tad nervous, because, well, ACTIVE VOLCANO IN MY STATE. I mean, it could be worse--it could be Mt. Rainier acting up--but still.

I barely remember when St. Helens blew in 1980; I remember it being mentioned on the news and talked about at school. But the only lingering impact it has in these parts is all of the various little touristy knickknacks made out of what purports to be St. Helens volcanic ash, which you see sold at places like Pike Place Market downtown. But I had to poke around a little about the eruption just because, what with setting Faerie Blood in Seattle and having a heroine who grew up here, that event would have been part of her childhood and I wanted to figure out what she would remember. "Ash all over the place" is the answer to that question, for a five-year-old who grew up in Fremont.

Here's hoping St. Helens is just shifting around in her sleep. I'm all for getting life experiences to add verisimilitude to my writing, but a volcano blowing close enough to have an impact upon my life is one experience I can do without.

Comments

[annathepiper]

*snicker* I have a diary that's more or less from 1982, and it sometimes amuses me to go back and look at it just to giggle at the awfulness of my handwriting. I mostly wrote about nifty episodes of my favorite TV shows at the time. God, I was a nerd. ;)

I have another diary from 1985 which is harder to read, partly due to writing about family ick, but also just due to my having written most of it in pencil, which is fading, and ALSO having written it in German script as a security measure to keep my brother from reading it.

[firni.livejournal.com]

I pretty much wrote about how much I hated school, everybody in it, the people who constantly tortured me, and how I'd love to blow each and every one of their heads off.

THESE days they'd probably put me away for writing that.

Also, Mt. Rainier blowing up would RULE. BYE BYE, PUYALLUP!

[annathepiper]

And Tacoma. Tacoma would be BURIED IN BOILING MUD! (solarbird has worked this out, you see. That's my lifemate!)

[firni.livejournal.com]

Excellent *rubs hands together in glee*

Oh wait, would Spanaway get it? Because my friend Marie lives there. I'd have to teleport her out, of course. *digs out brazier*

[annathepiper]

risu says that they would have to rename the airport to "Seattle-Boiling Mud Flats International Airport". Doesn't quite roll off the tongue in the same way, but it does have a certain panache to it!

Of course, I expect that landing the planes on boiling mud would be a bit awkward.

The airport itself would be safe

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

But Tacoma would not, so the name change would be apt. The Carbon, White, and Puyallup Rivers all converge into the Puyallup River at Commencement Bay. It's just not pretty.

None of Seattle's rivers flow out of Mt. Rainier, so it'd be fine.

Re: The airport itself would be safe

[annathepiper]

Yeah, we'd be mighty inconvenienced, I daresay, but that ain't nothing compared to TOWN COVERED IN BOILING MUD. *shudder*

Probably not

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

Spanaway is east of Tacoma proper, and closer to Mt. Rainier. So you might think it would get it worse than Tacoma.

However, the Puyallup River is the main vector for mudslides, which are the big threat to life near Tacoma during a Mt. Rainier eruption. It passes well north of Spanaway and straight through Puyallup, and straight into Commencement Bay in downtown Tacoma. Orting, further up the river, is even more fucked. That's why they have regular emergency volcano drills there. Buckley and Enumclaw are pretty screwed too. If a big eruption comes, all those places are going to be covered in mud from 30 to hundreds of feet high.

The Nisqually River is another major vector for mudslides, but it passes well to the south of Tacoma. Fort Lewis would be cut in two, though, and Eatonville and Yelm would be buried. I-5 would probably have bridge washouts at both rivers, leaving higher-altitude parts of Tacoma that were not buried in mud isolated from the rest of the I-5 corridor. Supplies to help people in the city would have to be airlifted in, as the detour through the Narrows would probably be too long. That's assuming the accompanying earthquakes didn't take out the Narrows Bridge.

Hopefully, my mom, my sister Lisha, and various friends who live in the area will be out of town during this scenario.

Re: Probably not

[annathepiper]

So what you're telling us is, basically, a LOT of people would be extremely fucked.

HEY, MT. RAINIER! Let's not do the boiling mud scenario, okay? Kthxbye!

Re: Probably not

[firni.livejournal.com]

As long as it takes out Sumner Junior High School, I'll be a happy curmudgeon. For a few minutes.