“We got out and fast. We prided ourselves on being cool. It wasn’t for an hour or so that I remembered that I was still wearing my Park Service uniform coat over pajama pants.”
Every time there was a new tremor, the coyotes, abundant thereabouts, would let out a fresh howl. The phone lines to Old Faithful and West Yellowstone weren’t working. The quake had taken them out. The 18,000 people who were overnighting in the Park when the quakes began were on the edge of panic.
“What can we do?”
“How can we get word out?”
“Can we get out?”
At Golden Gate, south of Mammoth, in Yellowstone Park, the road was blocked by this deluge of rock loosened and shaken down by the quake.(National Park Service)
Everyone wanted answers to these questions at once.
At Old Faithful, 800 people were in the recreation hall enjoying a college talent program. In the best entertainment tradition, the MC played it cool, continuing his patter while the Park Rangers opened the doors. Everyone exited in good order.
But there was to be little comfort that night. Everyone who’d made it to bed got up after the first shock.