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In 1980 when St Helens blew, I was in college at WSU in Eastern Washington. It's about a 4 hour drive from St Helens. I was at work that morning and all the sudden it looked like twilight, but it was 10 or 11 in the morning. We had heard the volcano had blown (before CNN existed) on local TV and radio. I drove my car home from work in falling ash that was so thick I could hardly see. The dash from my car to my apartment had me covered in this fine gritty ash. I think I showered 3 or 4 times a day for the next 2 weeks. You always felt grimey from the ash.
As far as Mt Rainier goes... my dad worked for the local county emergency services before he retired. One of his jobs was to coordinate disaster plans for all possible scenerios of Rainier blowing. For Western Washington, most scenerios were more about the resulting flooding and rush of melted snowpack into the existing rivers. The predictions have shown that flooding would effect a large portion of the lowlands and river valleys near Olympia, Tacoma, and east of Seattle. They have what's called Lahar drills here ever so often. Lahar is an debris flow from volcanic activity.
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