August 12, 2005

Natural Disasters

Mt St Helens in August 2005. Photo by Stacy Munn

Even before Hurricane Katrina, I took a trip to this area's seemingly biggest natural disaster threat. Mt. St. Helens is still in recovery mode after the 1980 erruption. While at the Johnston Observation Center, named after the volcanologist who lost his life in the big blast, I learned that the volcano is errupting even now, but these are not explosive erruptions. Lava is oozing out into the crater, creating lava domes.

Mom, Geraldine and I headed south to the mountain that I had never before seen in person. We stayed at the Blue Heron Inn on Spirit Lake Hwy in Castle Rock, WA. It's a big house with a spectacular view of the mountain and the proprietor made us breakfast in the morning. There were several other guests staying there, including some folks from the East Coast to attend Seattle's production of The Ring.