The Elmer Ost family were special guests at the Madison County Fair at Twin Bridges, five days after their earthquake ordeal.(Christopherson)
They set up camp, ate together, socialized, and made plans to get up at 6 o’clock next morning, breakfast on dry cereal, and get an early start for Yellowstone. They swapped stories about their vacations, joked about the bear that was supposed to be scavenging around the campground, and decided to walk down to the highway where they’d be away from the trees and able to see the moon, which lit the mountain behind them. But the mountain that looked high on the south side of the canyon kept them from seeing the moon directly.
They turned in early—at 9 o’clock. The two younger Ost girls, mildly concerned about the bear, decided to sleep in the car, a 1950 Buick. Larry and Geraldine and their parents all slept in their tent. Mrs. Fredericks and Melva slept in their station wagon, while the men stretched out in a tent.
Everyone was nicely settled by 11:37, when a thunder-like commotion outside awakened them. Ruth and Gerry Ost shouted something about bears as they jumped out of the tent.
“It’s a cyclone!” Mrs. Ost was screaming in half-wakened terror as Rev. Ost emerged from the tent.
The sky was clear, the moon bright, as Rev. Ost looked up and to the west. There were no clouds or wind.
But terror ran through the whole party as they saw tents swaying, trees shaking as though torn in a violent wind. Then the Osts’ 1950 Buick began to rock from front to rear as if men were jumping energetically on the bumpers. The brake lights went on as one of the gals jumped on the brake.
Then came a tremendous roar, like several express trains passing right through the camp. The trees shut off their view of the huge, 7,600 ft. mountain falling, of the huge boulders, big as houses, hurtling down one side of the canyon and up the other side, a mile away, throwing sparks and dust as they fell. Rev. Ost sensed the rushing of the wind and water trapped by the avalanching mountain, and thrown back at the dazed campers—at tornado speeds—from under the slide. “Hang onto a tree!” he shouted. Mrs. Ost ran for the car as she saw the wave of water coming. Larry was caught in the tent when the wall of water, mud, and trees hit them with such violence that it crumpled trailers and hurled the Osts’ 4,000 pound car thirty feet and smashed it against a row of trees. Although Mrs. Ost was holding onto the steering wheel, the violence of the surging water threw her against the side of the car so violently that it made a pulp out of the right side of her face. In the midst of the mud, water, and floating and flying debris, Larry managed to tear his way out of the tent.
Dust from the slide obscured the moon and heightened the sense of tragedy and terror.
The tent was gone. The deluge of water had jammed cars and trailers together. The rocks had covered the site of a trailer where a family had been playing earlier in the day.