It's amazing how calm(ish) and clear-headed a person can be in a situation like that. I think it's actually a survival mechanism. The shaking doesn't start until a bit later.

Another thing to consider when a natural (or unnatural) disaster occurs:

In 1980 I was working as a telephone operator ("One ringy-dingy. Two ringy-dingies. . . ."). Nice working conditions, good pay, gawdawful lousy job, but that's another story.

Anyhoo, I went to work as usual on Sunday, May 18, 1980 and plugged into the switchboard console at 8:30 a.m. At 8:32 and 17 seconds, Mount Saint Helens erupted. ka-BOOM!!!

The mountain had been rumbling and venting steam for some weeks. It was obvious that something was afoot, and geologists and volcanologists were keeping a sharp eye on the activity, so it wasn't totally without warning. In fact, people who lived near Mount St. Helens (such as Harry Truman—no, not that Harry Truman—who ran a lodge at Spirit Lake on the mountain) were warned that it might be a good idea to vacate the area.

Anyway, by a quarter to nine that Sunday morning, the telephone lines were completely jammed. Whether from one's home phone (there were exceedingly few cell phones around yet) or from the phone company's switchboards, whenever you dialed a number, the only response you got was a busy circuits signal. Sounds like a regular busy signal, but faster.

This indicates that the entire system is jammed up. Nothing can get through because everybody and his brother's pet chicken is ON THE PHONE, calling somebody!

Now—some of these were undoubtedly emergency calls. But the vast majority of them were people who were not in any danger calling other people who were also not in any danger to ask, "How is it out your way, Aunt Martha?"

The result was that genuine emergency calls could not get through!!

People would dial an operator because they kept getting the busy circuits signal. But the operators were equally powerless.

So—whenever something like this happens, stay off the telephone unless you're sure that it's absolutely necessary, and be aware that, even then, you might not—will probably not—be able to get through.

Don Firth