hey old guys! what was Mnt. Saint Helons like?

[microbet]

I lived about 60 miles away and was in Jr. High.

It was no where near the scale of what is happening now. Mt. St. Helens wasn't a very populated area and they knew an eruption was coming. Most of the few people that lived in the area evacuated before it happened.

There was considerable property damage, but nothing even remotely like what is happening in New Orleans.

Our Moms made us all wear masks when we went outside because people were worried the ash was carcinogenic.

I don't believe there was any looting, if that is what you are getting at.

edit: Oh yeah, and it was absolutely awesome to see.

[Stu Pidasso]

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Can any of you posters who were around and rememeber Mnt. Saint Helons please post some thoughts on what that disaster was like and compare it to this current one?

Was there the same wide spread chaos? Did the officials seem lost? Or are things mush easier whenever those who stay behind just die?

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Can't really relate to Mt St Helens, but I lived in So Cal back in the 90's and remember the Northridge Quake quite well. I owned a condo and had to move out of it for 6 months due to damage.

I don't think you can really compare the two. Although much of the infrastucture was damaged or destroyed people were still in a position to take care of themselves. For instance, immeadiately after the quake our home wasn't very habitable so we just pitched a tent outside. Next day we found out which roads were good and my wife and kids left town for my inlaws(I stayed behind to guard our [censored] from looters). I ate the perishable food first, cooking it on my gas BBQ(I became very adept cooking frozen pizza on the BBQ). Water was restored in a couple of days but you couldn't drink it. However it meant you didn't have to [censored] into a garbage bag and that made a huge difference. We had an earthquake kit so I had enough drinking water to last quite a while. Relatively quickly bottled drinking water was trucked in and you could go to stations and pick up as much as you needed. It was still pretty easy to meet the basic needs of life. Because of that people could cooperate and help each other with cleaning up and providing for each others security.

NO is quite different. These people are not in a position to be able to take care of themselves. They can't pitch a tent outside their homes, nor are the able to begin the clean up process. If they had food stored away its probably destroyed. They probably don't have trash bags to crap in. Its difficult to move around even on foot. All the criminals who were in jail were let out so the there is a much greater security threat. I feel sorry for them.

Stu

[microbet]

I was in SoCal during Northridge and it wasn't so bad unless you happened to be in one of the buildings or bridges that fell and there weren't too many of those. Lotta property damage, but not enough to cause chaos or anything.

I was also in NorCal during Loma Prieta and again not so bad unless you or family or friends were on the bridge or freeway, but that was in the Bay Area. Santa Cruz was pretty devastated.

[Stu Pidasso]

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I was in SoCal during Northridge and it wasn't so bad unless you happened to be in one of the buildings or bridges that fell and there weren't too many of those. Lotta property damage, but not enough to cause chaos or anything

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I think as long as people are still able to meet their basic needs on their own, society doesn't degenerate into chaos. I agree the Northridge quake was a cakewalk compared to New Orleans. Up until New Orleans, Northridge(at 25 billion) was the most costly natural disaster in US history. It makes me shudder to think what this is going to cost.

Stu

[touchfaith]

If you've never Google Earth'd Mount Saint Helens, do it. It's a sight that must be seen to be appreciated.

Oh, and it blew on my birthday (12th), so that's cool.





(and it pales in comparison to what we are seeing today)

[Broken Glass Can]

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Only thing I would compare to this in my brief history is 9/11 - lots of lives getting lost - and this time, there was a shitload that could have been done to prevent it, but we sent the money and resources to war, so now we're [censored] it up ourselves

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Funny how you blame the screw ups of the Governor and Mayor on the federal government. The local officials failed to properly handle the coming of the storm, and now the feds have to clean up their mess.