Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Mount St. Helens Effect on Local Theatres

This is topic Mount St. Helens Effect on Local Theatres in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=001270

Posted by Thomas Dieter (Member # 2507) on 09-30-2004, 09:43 PM:

I have one question for the local theatres in the area of Mount St. Helens. How are you preparing for the posibility of an eruption? I know the theatre in Castlerock Wa. is about 50 miles or less from the volcano. Are there any other theatres with that 50 mile radius that will and might be effected? Hope to hear from you all soon.

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 09-30-2004, 10:57 PM:

The "G" Theater in Mossyrock and the Roxy Theater in Morton are within that distance.

Posted by Aaron Mehocic (Member # 15) on 10-01-2004, 04:56 PM:

Ken,
What did you guys do back in 1980 when it really exploded. Did the ash fallout in places like Yakima and other towns where day-turned-to-night destroy very many prints or equipment?

I was at St. Helens in June. It was a sureal experience being so close and remembering what happened so many years ago. My uncle lives in Lynwood, WA, so our family was monitoring the situation a lot back then. Amazing, however, that this is an active volcano with an alpine glacier actually forming inside the shield cone.

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 10-01-2004, 05:55 PM:

St. Helens erupts again! Today at 12:03 pm the mountain spewed steam and ash live and almost on cue during the noon news. Flights to Portland, Oregon are being diverted to Seattle temporarily because the plume is affecting Portland's airport. The plume is headed south. There's a ton of national and international news vans up at the viewpoint for St. Helens. Watching the national evening news tonight. Local CBS station KIRO-tv7 had some excellent coverage. In fact the mountain blew today while reporter Richard Thompson was just about to wrap up a live update. He was saying nothing much happening when his cameraman said, "Richard, turn around it's blowing!"

Here in Olympia, Washington we are about 75 miles northwest of the mountain. I drove around in the big explosion back in 1980. Here in Olympia it was a light dusting sort of like a light dusting of snow. Then I drove down to Centralia and Chehalis and it was bad down there. I'm talking about street lights on in the middle of the day and 2 to 3 inches of heavy ashfall. People had to put extra air filters on their cars to prevent the engine from sucking in all that crap. I have some pictures around here somewhere.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-01-2004, 06:07 PM:

quote:
St. Helens erupts again!

Compared to what it did in 1980 all you could say about today was that it just passed a small fart! They did say that something a bit more exciting than todays small fart could happen soon....

Mark @ CLACO
Live On Vacation!! (Via Tape Delay)

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 10-01-2004, 06:12 PM:

The earthquake activity had stopped for a while today, but it has started up again an hour later. The scientists are now saying there will be another eruption very soon.

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 10-02-2004, 10:59 PM:

from cnn.com

quote:
Scientists warn Saturday that Mount St. Helens could erupt within 24 hours, and with more force than previously expected. "There is a 50 percent chance or greater that there is going to be an eruption and a good chance that it will involve magma," said the U.S. Geological Survey's Tom Pierson.

For some reason, this quote reminds me of a bad Austin Powers segment.

Posted by Jeffry L. Johnson (Member # 453) on 10-05-2004, 11:35 AM:

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-05-2004, 12:32 PM:

Here's the hypothetical VAFTAD plot currently posted at the NWS Aviation Weather Center. The chart on the left shows where the visible ash cloud is expected to be at 12 hours after the expected eruption. The chart on the right is for 24 hours after. The charts are broken down by altitude (e.g. FL200 means Flight Level 200 or 20,000' MSL (Mean Sea Level)).

Posted just for planning purposes. If you're flying a jet you don't want to penetrate an ash cloud, not unless you want to add a type rating to your glider certificate. [Big Grin]

This'll be a topic of discussion tomorrow morning in my aviation weather class, right after I soften up the stoonts with their first test. [evil]

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 10-05-2004, 08:01 PM:

What's the test? Fill in the annunciator blanks?

You're all going to _____!!!

We're going ______.

Imminent premature __________ detected.

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 10-07-2004, 10:07 AM:

pardon my ignorance...but why avoid an ash cloud? What does it do to the engines? The only thing I can guess is stall it out?

Posted by Joshua Tefay (Member # 1722) on 10-07-2004, 11:18 AM:

Im guessing flying through an ash cloud would starve a jet engine of oxygen which is needed to ignite the fuel that runs the engine!

Posted by Adam Wilbert (Member # 1184) on 10-07-2004, 11:48 AM:

plus you'll have to wash the plane when you land. Ugh.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-07-2004, 12:37 PM:

The ash is both corrosive and abrasive. At jet speeds it sands and/or pits things like the rotor and stator blades in the compressor stage. In the hot section and turbine wheel it melts and forms a ceramic coating on everything, altering the shapes of the burner cans and turbine blades. All of these deformations cause power loss due to the resulting disruptions to smooth air flow through the engine. In extreme cases it causes the engine to flameout.

The ash doesn't do anything nice to the windshield, radome, or paint job either. It smells like burning electrical insulation, and can also lead to great displays of St. Elmo's Fire. Harmless yes, but the PAX tend to get upset over things like this.

Years ago a British Airways B-747 had all four engines flameout when it flew into an ash cloud at night (they couldn't see it). They were able to relight enough power to get down safely, but since then these VAFTAD charts have been published whenever a volcanic event occurs.

Looks like we're off the hook for the moment with Mount Saint Helens. I figured we downwind'ers would all be hosing off the neon and sweeping the sidewalks by now.

[ 10-07-2004, 02:07 PM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 10-07-2004, 07:30 PM:

Not only did they have four engines flameout, causing a descent due to power loss below the ash cloud, they got them all restarted and flew back up into the ash cloud and lost power again!

Posted by Thomas Dieter (Member # 2507) on 03-08-2005, 08:47 PM:

Well, at 5:20 PST on March 8th, 2005, MT. St. Helens shows her awesome power once again. The Local Yakima NBC Station, KNDO, had the best information, with a spectacular photo.

MT. St. Helens Article

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-08-2005, 08:54 PM:

I drove through Yakima in 1980, spent a night in a motel there. This was many months after the eruption, and Yakima was still a mess. Ash everywhere.

Not to trivialize that event, but I wonder how all that ash affected movie theaters in the area. Must have been a horrendous problem for them to deal with. (Hmm, maybe I should review this thread...)