KGW Mount St. Helens Eruption (5/18/1980)

8:28 Mount st. Helens shook with its most violent eruption in 123 years now 10 and a half hours later the mountain is still shooting steam and ash nearly nine mile the eruption caused avalanches and mud flows a wall of water swept through the Toutle River Valley taking with it roads bridges logging gear at least five people have been killed hundreds of others are trapped in the aftermath of the mud flows and flooding no one knows what will happen next as the spectacular and deadly show continues this is a special report of the King Broadcasting Network live from KGW News 8 in Portland Oregon good evening I'm Robyn Chapman here with Ralph Wendy to report on the eruption of Mount st. Helens it was a day in which ash blocked out the Sun and brought darkness in the middle of the day to many cities east of the volcano from Trout Lake Washington to Butte Montana we're gonna be reporting on all of this first we take you live to Amboy Washington where reporter Boyd Leavitt is standing by in the shadow of Mount st. Helens Boyd Robyn and Ralph the volcanoes blasts have come with a vengeance today the spectacle of the massive plume is one that few will forget with a little bit of wind from the West late today we can get a little better view of it this afternoon than we had earlier in the day to see that the chronically shaped top of the mountain is now gone that in fact there's a rounded appearance to the top of the volcano that the steam and the ash are coming from a wide area on top obviously there is a very large crater there but the effects of the explosions have been felt and measured more severely downriver from the volcano down in the valleys that lead to the west and off the north side of the volcano where mud flows have triggered avalanches and others forms of walls of water and avalanches rushing down through the river valleys we can see here the North Fork of the Toutle River and the South Fork of the Toutle River as well both showing the effects of the severe mud flows through those valleys it has meant tragedy to homeowners residents along the banks of these rivers it's there that killer walls of mud and water have devastated miles of low land and in fact killed a few people unknown numbers have been stranded cut off from the outside world by these floodwaters and by bridges that have been torn from their moorings railroad tracks have also been torn away residents in some areas have lost all their possessions as their homes too were washed away we've seen highways wiped out along the sides of these rivers cliffs have fallen in and riverbanks have caved as the force of the water has pushed through and marked its way and its path through Southwest Washington logging camps like this one have particularly felt the effects of the water in the mud as camp machinery trucks equipment have been thrown askew by the wall of water estimated in some places to be at least 25 feet high the effects of the walls of mud and water on the west side of Mount st. Helens this along the South Fork of the Toutle River where a logging camp trucks machinery had been overturned buried big logs like matchsticks people stranded on the top of hillsides who had fled the rushing waters as they came into view early today coming down this South Fork of the Toutle River miles and miles of these rivers had been well cleaned out as you can see in these pictures with mud going a half a mile wide in some places that we've seen late this afternoon we've flown around the area and seen roadblocks like these where people have been evacuating others have been turned away and cars and cars of people lined up at these roadblocks on both sides some attempting to flee and some attempting just to get a view of what's going on here it's a dangerous place though mount st. Helens continuing to erupt later today as the ash is continuing to come out of the mountain at this hour at sunset here on the southwest side of mount st. Helens and from our position on the top of mount Amboy I'm Boyd Levitt reporting Boyd you have been flying around the area most of the day and you've seen a lot of devastation have you had a chance to see how much was wreaked upon Spirit Lake well of course that area is off-limits to aircraft like ours and people like us but we have heard report from some army helicopters that have been in there and these course are secondhand reports but for what they are worth the accounts tell of large walls of mud and water having come down the north slope of the mountain going through those vacation cabins there and literally wiping them out I have no first-hand knowledge of that I haven't seen it myself but some of the army personnel who have apparently flown into the area reports that some of the worst devastation has taken place there we've heard nothing from 84 year-old Harry Truman except one report from the Toutle River area ralph maybe you have something later than this but we have heard that a couple of days ago he mysteriously left the area and got out of there without telling any of us but maybe you had more about that well we don't have too much more on that other than in a story we have coming up and a little later that he said he was going to perhaps hibernate in a cave for a couple of days and we had not heard anything since well I hope your report is right Boyd since you've been on the ground have you been inundated with any of the ash fall and has it affected you have it how does it feel that you have trouble breathing at our position here Ralph on the southwest side of the mountain we have fresh air the wind is blowing from the west and as you can see the plume behind me it's trailing off to the east and a little bit to the north but we have flown up into the area around Camp Baker a logging camp along Highway 504 into that vicinity where some of the devastation took place along the North Fork of the Toutle River and there was ash flow that had come down those western and northern valleys we presume from down drafts that have come down the slopes of the mountain and in fact the dust is quite thick they're so thick that we could not land our helicopter in the area for fear that some of the dust would be ingested into our engines and cause a problem for us too but in fact the dust is difficult to breathe that makes you cough if you breathe it it's abrasive on your lungs and it ruins your eyes boy good report thank you for being with us we'll be back possibly to hear from Boyd a little bit later Robyn another one of our reporters Joe Rico was on the ground along the Toutle River today right now Joe is into the lake and he files this report no he doesn't file this report we are not going to have his report right now but we can't tell you that the ash was so today that in many places visibility was practically zero that meant roads had to be closed interstate 5 was closed for 8 miles that's where it crosses the Toutle River blocking hundreds of cars trucks and buses I believe now it's open only to emergency vehicles I 90 the major east-west route in Washington State was closed for more than 40 miles u.s. 12 which runs east-west around 20 miles north of the mountain was also closed for about 90 miles and on the question of Harry Truman we have been getting a lot of calls about his fate as you know he's the 84 year old man who refused to be evacuated from his home on Spirit Lake Skamania County Sheriff Bill Closer contrary to the report Boyd Levitt has Skamania County Sheriff Boyd bill close nur says he talked with Truman yesterday at his home in Spirit Lake and he fears the Truman and his 16 cats have probably been swept away by mudslides there have been continuous flows of extremely hot ash steam and pumice flowing straight down apparently into the Spirit Lake area about 30 feet of debris we have a report has covered the area if Truman stayed there is very little chance that he survived as ralph said he did say he planned to hole up in a secret mine shaft with two kegs of whiskey and wait for the worst to pass we can only hope so he was the only permanent resident living near the mountain who refused to be evacuated we now have reports from F heavy ash fallout from as far away as Butte Montana in northeastern Washington there was so much ash that it was like night in the middle of the day we have pictures of Yakima Washington for instance which seemed almost unbelievable there weren't many cars on the street but those on the street as you can see had to use headlights ash was falling like rain for several hours and planes at the Yakima Airport were covered with a thick layer of the stuff our photographer Tom senior also took some photos these photos about noon today in the Trout Lake area of Washington the plume of ash was clearly visible but it was getting darker there by the minute Tom spoke with several people who had been in the area fishing and who ran for their lives about an hour ago Tom called to say that the ranger station near Trout Lake is almost in complete darkness now and volcanic ash reached Spokane Washington by 2:30 this afternoon and that city apparently is in complete darkness the ash is falling down like snow they say making driving very hazardous highways are closed the airport is closed and hospitals are receiving people with respiratory problems who were caught outside Ralph Robin right now the ash is not seriously affected Oregon the winds are carrying the ash East however in case it does become a problem on this side of the river it does pose a threat to crops and animals and so senate president jason bows says he will immediately convene a special session of the legislature slative emergency board to provide any emergency funds that might be needed also at this point the ash poses no problem to the Portland water supply at Bull Run Portland State University has offered us some statistics on Ash fall from past eruptions around the world and they give us some interesting examples of what we might expect Krakatoa in the Pacific erupted for 90 days in the 1880s the mountain went off with a bang that was heard about 3,000 miles away but all the ash that fell from Krakatoa came down in the first two days Hekla in Iceland erupted nearly 200 days in 1947 almost 90% of the ash fell in the first day lamington and New Guinea erupted for 45 days but most of the ash came down on the first day same thing again with a 1955 eruption of a volcano in the come chat Kuragin of the Soviet Union a 150 day eruption and most of the ash fell in the first day Wow several years back cyanide geologists have predicted an eruption of st. Helens and they'd made some predictions on where the tephra was likely to fall Jon Tuttle has that report with eruptions of st. Helens considered a near certainty the big question was where the tephra would fall geologists were predicting that eruptions with small amounts of tempera could come every hundred years moderate eruptions about once every 500 to a thousand years and significantly larger eruptions only about once every two or three thousand years where that tephra would fall of course depended on the way the winds were blowing that day scientists were betting there was a 90% chance that tephra would be carried east to st. Helens making cities like Portland Vancouver Olympia and Seattle relatively low risk areas but it was all an educated guess based on statistics the winds for example that would carry the tephra straight into Portland are unusual they only come about 2% of the time and in addition the scientists cautioned that only a small part of any tephra hazard zone was likely to be affected by any single eruption that was as much as they could forecast for the rest they had to wait for the eruption this volcanoes have an effect on our weather too in the last century an exploding volcano actually eliminated a summer Jim yes Andy that can happen the ash naturally it cuts out the Sun and eliminates the sunlight from getting in and cools temperatures the temperature in eastern Washington fell as much as 9 degrees as the skies turned dark as you saw in those pictures from Yakima Washington it was just like nighttime we've had reports now of ash as far away as Butte Montana skies are getting dark in Darby Montana southwest of Missoula the wind flow is generally from the west to the east or slightly south west is slightly north east it is taking a little bit of a turn for the southeast as it passes and there is a possibility of some ash fall in extreme northeastern Oregon but basically the ash fall has been all in eastern Washington and looking ahead at our wind forecast we really anticipate no change in the winds now we've taken satellite pictures over the last several days and put them together air over the last several hours and this is what it looked like at 9:15 this morning a computer enhanced infrared satellite photo the dark area there in the center is the ash plume it's showing up as dark on this infrared photo now we're going to fade into 1015 one hour later about two and a half hours after the volcano erupted and you can see the ash plume has intensified and the moved downwind toward the east now by 11:15 it had extended past Yakima who was approaching Spokane and Walla Walla by 12:15 it was almost to the Idaho border by 1/15 it had moved almost across northern Idaho and was approaching the Montana border by 2:15 it was on that border there it is at 2:15 and our last picture in this sequence of infrared enhanced satellite pictures shows the activity as of 3:15 there it is just to the Montana border as I say we've had reports now of ash as far east as Butte Montana now one other interesting fact from this eruption today was the fact that the ash plume behaved almost like a thunderstorm very similar to a thunderstorm usually in a thunderstorm the particles are always in the thunderstorm the particles are made up of water or ice in this case our thunderstorm was also made up of ash particles and what happens in a thunderstorm there is a charge separation this is not well understood by scientists but the charge on the particles be they ash or water is separated and a negative charge forms oftentimes near the base of the cloud and if this charge is strong enough we get lightning so this was very similar to a typical thunderstorm and in fact we did get a number of lightning strikes and they were responsible for a number of forest fires so that's one additional problem and one interesting meteorological aspect of what's going on if you take a look at live pictures again of the I guess we won't see the live pictures there they are live pictures you can see it looks almost like a thunderstorm billowing up if you've ever been in the in the Midwest and seen a bad thunderstorm a tornado producing thunderstorms villain clouds very similar to this sort of thing so some interesting meteorological aspects volcanoes can have other effects on our weather as well as ralph mentioned in the last century an exploding volcano actually eliminated our summer in the early 1900's dr. William Humphreys of the u.s. weather bureau first documented the correlation between historic volcanic eruptions and decreases in the average worldwide temperature according to dr. Humphries volcanic dust spewed out into the atmosphere blocks the Sun reducing the amount of solar energy reaching the ground in 1815 Tambora a 13,000 foot peak in indonesia exploded blowing an estimated 37 to 100 cubic miles of dust ashes and cinders into the atmosphere generating a globe-girdling veil of volcanic dust the following year 1816 is legendary in the annals of weather often called the year without a summer in New England snow fell as late as June and average temperatures were as much as six degrees below normal crops were devastated cold weather was also recorded in England and 1816 was a famine year there as it was also in France and Germany it does of course require a major eruption to have a significant effect on worldwide weather patterns but volcanoes can and have in the past played a large role in shaping our climate question Jim about the Lightning which is coming down from the cloud now the USGS says that cloud is continuing to shoot up about 50,000 feet into the air something like a nine miles up into the stratosphere and as it blows east are we going to continue to see what appears to be like an electrical storm Yakima has been reporting thunder almost continuously since the cloud moved over that area so the weather station at Yakima has seen lightning off and on or heard thunder all day and very likely as long as the thing is emitting the steam and ash will get the charge separation will get the thunder and will get the lightning and the possibility of forest fires and the whole works would you say this eruption was big enough to have a change or an effect on our weather let's say through the summer of the fall that's that's the $64,000 question yes I mean I don't know the Tambora eruption was of course a very major eruption anywhere up to 35 cubic miles of debris shot into the atmosphere whether this will be that big or not we don't know certainly not that much material has been ejected so far and I see dr. B snow air shaking his head and perhaps perhaps it won't happen but it has had infect already on weather in eastern Washington as long as it continues it will drop the temperatures very dramatically in Eastern Washington what about the chance of a change in wind direction everybody in the Portland area I suppose down the Willamette Valley would be interested in knowing if that might have that's a very important question also and computer models so far indicate that through the foreseeable future which takes us out to about four days that wind patterns will remain about the same looking beyond that as you know in forecasting weather in the Pacific Northwest it's very tough to do but looking beyond that I don't see any indications that the wind will change to a northerly direction which would bring the ash down into into Oregon anytime soon what about what weather would that have any effect on on what's happening now well a lot of times now if you get the ash in the in the air rain would scavenge out or scour out the particles and depending on what's in the ash particles we may get a natural acid rain you've heard the stories of acid rain in the east where where industrial activity you missed sulfur dioxide and it combines with rain and you get acid rain many miles downstream from the industrial area we could get a very similar situation all caused by mother nature with with an acid rain which can kill kill plants and kill fish in the streams and so forth so really at this point there's no telling exactly what's going to happen these things are so rare you can't make any generalizations we're just going out to wait and see but those are all possibilities and things we have to at least consider okay thank you Jim that's very interesting information you've helped us out with this broadcast is being seen simultaneously live both in Seattle and at Kay REM TV in Spokane they're going to take a break now all our stations are going to take a break and we're going to be back with more both live and recorded material for you we hope you'll stay with us it's been happening all day is exactly what some geologists have predicted all along their studies showed the mountain was alive and likely to become active John Tuttle now describes what the geologists know about the history of this mountain well John Tuttle is going to describe that history in a few minutes he's not quite ready meanwhile we have a real live geologist with us dr. Marvin Beatson Portland State Earth Sciences Department and I think dr. peace and the question to ask you today is what have we seen geologically happen today well I've been trying to work it out in my mind exactly what's been going on underneath this volcano today I think what's happened first of all we had earthquake magnitude 5 earthquake and that probably represents the last breaking of ground that released pressure on the magma below the surface at that time the the volcano went into an eruptive stage and the first stage of eruption was gases escaping from magma which carried old material from the mountain high in the air the kind of maturely we've been seeing coming out all the time the dark really dark colored looking ash and then as that progresses it as it expanded the crater cleaned out the throat why we had new material rising to the surface and also expanding gases blowing it apart creating pyroclastic clothes and these pyroclastic flows I understand there was one emerged at about 12 17 came down a South Toutle River so can you say what is a pyroclastic flows we have we we understand that a couple of men's let's sample may have been burned to death it at Camp Baker we have a report that that's how they were burned - can you explain what's in a flow like that well pyroclastic simply means fire broken but pyroclastic flow is is usually used in a more specific sense to mean a hot cloud of ash and gas which rapidly comes down the side of the volcano during an eruption and like I say comes out a fairly hot temperature well right be the temperature well it varies it has buried the past me were from different historic eruptions from 200 degrees centigrade up to say 700 degrees Celsius so it can be very very hot or they can be relatively hot but they're hot and certainly too hot for a human existence so far there have been no reports of lava when we do see lava finally that would pretty much indicate that this is the end of mount st. Helens eruption right or at least you're not going to get any danger from the lava most of the dangers and and damage and devastation is already taking place right right in a fairly typical eruption the kind that have happened before from Mount st. Helens we've had explosive eruption first because the gases tend to concentrate at the upper part of the magma and so the first material that reaches the surface is very explosive and so we have that explosive eruption and then material as it comes on as it proceeds turns into a less volatile material and it sometimes emerges of lava flows or a lava dome did it appear to you dr. Beason that there were two areas of eruption as we watched on the wide shot we looked like we were seeing one from the North flank as well as from the top of the crater yes that's not uncommon during eruption that we have obstructions in the vent or something that diverts part of the eruption off to one side and maybe that's what happened maybe erupted from a separate vent it's hard to say we know now that the vent is about half a mile in diameter extends from the South Summit all the way to the top of the Bulge we just talked to the USGS a few minutes ago they gave us that information so the crater is quite substantially larger than it was earlier now they're saying we're in the magmatic phase of this eruption shall we should we expect to see some love in the next couple days well when they see magmatic phase that means the new magnetic material is being erupted and it can erupt either as liquid or it can be erupting erupted explosively as fragmental material thrown it there's tephra as long as that material is coming from the new magma okay so far we've seen they claim we have a magnetic eruption I think we do certainly all the the magnitude of it indicates a magmatic eruption the pyroclastic flows indicate a magmatic eruption but it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to have lava flows to have a my back Russian they may follow however how long could this kind of activity take place I think the kind of activity we're seeing right now will not last terribly long most of the historic eruptions have only lasted the the the really large explosions have lasted only a day or two and after that of course we have intermittent activity for maybe a long period of time you've had some very interesting thoughts earlier on Spirit Lake saying that they had already detected some ash at least on top and maybe within the lake itself though I was asking about the origin the water I asked the survey about the origin the water that's been coming down the Toutle rivers both the north and south flank apparently most of us coming from the top of volcano or near the top of volcano where the glaciers are melting but one possibility was that that material moving down towards Spirit Lake would essentially displace the water in the in the lake and produce a large wall of water coming down the Toutle River what you're saying then is that spirit lake as we now know it could be no more well apparently the pyroclastic flows are moving in that direction and they could well be essentially filling up spirit lake so the reports from the army helicopters have been over the area said that it looked as though it was either covered with a layer of ash or completely filled up with something it look very different that's right they could not tell it's probable that the lake is filling up with ash or it could just so far have a layer of ash on the mix of pure that's that with the case now this is the area around Mount st. Helens and the Toutle River in the South Fork and the North Fork are where the flood occurred today the water sweeping down from the mountain it swept towards i-5 which is on the left hand part of your screen i v was then closed not because the bridge was out there but because they were afraid the bridge would go out now we understand the Toutle River Bridge is now out right it was washed away now I might point out that there also has been mud flows down reportedly off of shoestring glacier on the southeastern side coming down actually have come down the I think Pine Creek and into two Swift reservoir temporarily disturbing things there so apparently all sides of the volcano will be affected here eventually interesting we have had many calls about the status of the water at the Bull Run watershed but we understand that the ash is headed east but none of the ash is heading towards the bowl when water so Portland's water supply at least is safe for now can you show us the ash that you got off a car okay today someone brought some ash from Mount st. Helens that erupted in dump a little more I want more Co came out that you're getting the people are getting okay Carl just feet from Yakima right okay now the appearance of this ash is very very similar to ash we've seen before so I think this probably represents the very earlier part of the eruptive stage today I expect as we see more and more magnetic material new material to see this changing color towards kind of a yellow yellowish white okay most of the historic or prehistoric eruptions of nursing-homes that proves ash have produced rather yellow during ash we had talked about this before in earlier conversations with you uh but just to update a little bit is there any danger from this kind of ash to people to things I think relatively minor if they're up from the volcano some distance and by the way most of this type of ash is associated the plume that goes high above the volcanoes blown off to the downwind direction I think relatively minor it's not terribly toxic to touch I if you have how much problems with a respiratory problem zone you wouldn't want to breathe it is it is very fine dust material you wouldn't want to breed any kind of material like that but actually it's not that it's not the motor spacer it's not you know it's it's just normal dirts got a little bit of a little bit of acid on the surface and that's the main hazard right there another thing people have been worried about are their pets that they I suppose are out in their yards we got a call from the Cowlitz County Humane Society in Longview they have shipped down a whole bunch of extra food from the Seattle area if you are worried about your pet and you want to leave it at the Calais County Humane Society in Longview they will give you free care so you don't have to worry if you have pets that have to be left outside you can take them down to the Cowlitz County Humane Society we did want to make that to make that note but you don't think that this is going to be a severe hazard to health hazard to most people no I don't think so most people cause it's fairly localized for one thing but in terms of immediate danger to the one's health I don't think so other people probably could answer that better than I however okay doctor reason if you would we would like you to say around we have other stories other reports coming up and could very well be that we might have some more questions for you as we go along thank you as we said what's what's happening on now you geologists fan John Tuttle has a report on the history of the mountain Mount st. Helens is a youngest volcano in the Cascade Range everything we see today originated within the last 2,500 years there was volcanic activity on the same site before that we have evidence of mostly ash eruptions which go back about 40,000 years but if there was a cone it eroded was destroyed or covered up is the Mount st. Helens you see today began to form and it began to form through a composite of volcanic activity some pumice and ash were forced out of a fissure in the earth and began to build the mountain some very fluid magma was forced up through the cone and cooled to become basalt which added to the mountain size even further and some less fluid lava pushed up through the cone and cooled become a kind of rock geologists called a site these de site domes added to the height of st. Helens even further in fact the last a side dome which forms the top of Mount st. Helens comes from an eruption just four or five hundred years ago and made the mountain high enough to be covered with snow year-round these past 2,000 years st. Helens has rarely been quiet for more than a few centuries three years ago a study suggested that st. Helens would likely become active again before the end of this century and it appears that Mount st. Helens is right on schedule well as the raging total rivers swollen with Robb's and debris near the i-5 freeway today traffic was stopped by the Washington State Patrol this of course meant thousands of cars and trucks traveling between Portland and Seattle were either stopped or turned around and told to go back the way they had come many of them stopped and accepted their momentary hardship as a way to take some time to look at Mount st. Helens after the surge of the River passed under the bridge the freeway was then reopened and things were nearly back to normal so far only five people have been confirmed dead in the mountain st. Helens area because of the eruption but others have been injured early this evening two men were rushed to the Immanuel hospital Burn Center in Portland they had been found in the Toutle River area this was taped just a few minutes ago early reports indicate they were two loggers just how they were burned is not known but according to dr. dicen it could have we've been that pyroclastic flow that comes down the mountain they had to walk some distance for help before they were picked up by a helicopter one of the men is reported to be in critical condition with burns over 30% of his body I think that makes it this all very clear that this is not a funny thing that has happened it's a deadly dangerous eruption with continuing threats to the population around the volcano there is an irony here to last week as we reported a Boy Scout camp was evacuated not of Boy Scouts but of a lot of the supplies and personal items that had been left at the camp last fall and apparently this gave a lot of people who have cabins and Mount st. Helens the idea well maybe we should win there too and maybe get out some of our personal belongings on Saturday they did so they had to sign papers saying it was their own responsibility what we don't know so far and they not know for another day or so is if some of these people may have been the unfortunate victims we also heard today that there were 31 climbers on Mount Adams when the eruption occurred on Mount st. Helens and and only 20 25 of them have not reported in the few that have reported back and got back down the mountain said that they were scared to death I'm also reminded of the many loggers and people who wanted to get back into the area Oh month ago six weeks ago and said that this all was a bunch of foolishness and they had to go in and do their business if only perhaps some of more of them had heeded the warnings of the US Geological Survey and the forestry Center right now 250 or 300 fires are burning out of control in the area on the warehouser property alone the US Forestry Service says it won't go in and fight them until it's sure that everybody is out of the area and is safe so you can see that there is a danger there for many things is far from over there is a lot to be reported on yet and we are going to continue doing that we have more stories coming up and more questions presumably with dr. Beason right after we and our other stations take this short break and I believe if we have a live report coming up for Boyd Levitt in Amboy Washington point.but yes Robin again here we are on the southwest face of the mountain and you can see as I can and the waning light of the day with the stronger wind from the West how the top of the mountain is cleared a bit and you can and C D can indeed see that the top conically shaped part of the mountain he's now gone that in fact the top of the mountain is rounded off and presumably up there somewhere is that large crater but we can see as well off to the north side of the peak that there's another plume of smoke and steam coming up into the air we are told by some others here who have watched the mountain all day and we've been able to see from the air that what that maybe is a plume of steam and ash rising from the ridge just north of the Spirit Lake area that in fact those pyroclastic flows that dr. Beason spoke of earlier we're in fact going down that north side of the mountain and then rising as it meets the ridge on the other side coming up and off the Spirit Lake area that's a feature we are now able to see with the clearing weather here on the southwest side of the mountain and something we thought we'd tell you about we understand you have some more pictures as well that we could talk about that you've put together from some of our earlier trips around the mountain this again some of the massive flooding that we saw just a little while ago within the last hour or so along the North Fork of the Toutle River where water has washed out roads and gone along the edge of Highways where there are railroad bridges and other you know man-made objects that have been literally washed away we've flown up stretches of this river and seen it in parts a half a mile wide like this region along the North Fork of the tule River mud from tree to tree on each side large trees themselves being ripped away from the riverbanks and washed down with the strong current that's going on right now it's been going on all day and there's no way to say when it will stop so long as the mountain erupts there's still the chance for more of those flows off the west side of the mountain and down the north side and indeed those two Forks the North and the South Fork of the Toutle River are dangerous areas and if anybody has any ideas about driving up those areas to try to get some pictures we would urge you not to dr. visa you had some questions for Boyd or you had some comments on what you just saw well just a comment pyroclastic flows generally have two parts to them really they have what they call a base flow or base surge sometimes they also have the lighter material that rises above the above the base flow so they could be very very probably be that pyroclastic flow is creating the appearance of another vent on that side as it goes down the mountain and the lighter materials and gases escape up higher into the air you likened it earlier when we were talking to like an atomic bomb going off well the the appearance of the entire course eruption looks like a Tomic bomb and as it column bills up high in the air there tends to be a falling back down to the ground the heavier material that then produces what we call base surge comes out from the base spreading out in all directions but I think probably this pyroclastic flow is actually just filling over the North Rim down towards Spirit Lake and in doing so it has both a basal kind of a more dense component hot component and then rising off of that a lot of gases that look almost as if they're emitted from that is it conceivable that we could see more violent reaction from the volcano the next day or so it's not it's not inconceivable because as the as the eruption continues we're cleaning out the top of the mountain essentially releasing the pressure it depends on the composition and the gas content of the material the magma that is rising up to the surface to replace this as being then could there be new openings there could be new openings but I really I really can't say about that okay dr. Beason Boyd Levitt is standing by live and wonders if you have any particular questions about what he's seen I know you were on a geological expedition yourself when all this occurred and you haven't had a chance to get up in the helicopters anything you'd like to know for boy well I that's what I was looking at some very similar deposits that took place 30 million years ago when you heard the explosion yes we were over at the fossil and we heard an explosion just a little bit before 9 o'clock wasn't much before 9 and dr. tom says there goes your volcano and I said well I hope not but it was yeah well I am course interested in how the how the appearance of the volcano is changing it looks like Boyd has answered that quite well I was wondering if he could tell whether that South Summit that has has collapsed anymore into the crater why could you well doctor B says dr. BC you and I of course have flown over the speak a lot together in the last few weeks and we did notice that that south cliff above the south part of the crater was a very steep one the highest point of the mountain in fact during the last few weeks we have noticed and you can see from the billows coming out of this this south part of the mountain that that has collapsed into the crater that's the steep part the part that was expected to fall in if anything cataclysmic happened it happened it appears as though it's fallen in but what's remarkable is around on the west face dr. Beason you can see that the crater has in fact enlarged you can see what looks like a couple of plumes coming out of there certainly it's all one now but if that's the size of the crater it certainly occupies all at the top of the mountain now Boyd the USGS told me a few minutes ago the crater was extended from the South Rim all the way to the top of the of the Bulge does that look like that to you yes from our flights around today I would I would certainly agree that that's what it looks like now the top of the Bulge was literally at the top of the North Face of the mountain and I would not be surprised at all if this crater has enlarged even further down from that knowing that at least I can understand why there have been these mud flows down that side of the mountain and you might be able to explain if that's the case then perhaps these pyroclastic flows have in fact chewed away more of the top of the north side of the mountain I don't think they're particularly a role seen as they come down the mountain they do pick up fragments from the mountain but not terribly rosy but of course the explosion itself creates a you know it may enlarge the crater white I have one last question for you like - do you see any constructional features do you see any evidence that the ash is building up around the summit of the volcano or is it almost entirely a destructive thing well we can see now dr. Beason that the ash is in fact quite deep on the slopes of the mountain what may look like snow behind me here on the southwest face is in fact ash Tony White has been to that area and has seen some of the ash even on the slopes down on the bottom in the flatter areas and it's quite deep there we can tell that it's a gray ash and it is accumulating on what used to be the snow fields of this southwest side of the mountain it is ash up there every time you get a gust of wind it blows it around and it gets quite dusty so we know it's ash alright thank you we're going to be talking with Tony white in a few minutes one of the things a lot of people have question is when we first some of us heard this great eruption people seemingly nearby for example in Portland or many areas of Portland were not able to hear anything no boom at all and yet people in Eugene and you dr. Pearson who were who was a you were in Bend I presume you heard this wild boom is it because of the height of the mountain that makes it travel in that way or at least the sound of it I really I really don't have a good answer for that of course it's very quiet out there where we were in Eastern Oregon very very still so we it was a fairly muffled sounding like large sonic boom and I suppose in the city there's a lot of other noises to compete with that maybe you just didn't hear it we got calls from as far away as Victoria BC people curious as to what was that big boom and of course everybody had heard about the mountain and most assume that that's what it was I think Tony White has also gotten his view of the mountain as Boyd Levitt told us and we are going to go to Tony White let out live in Washington and he has a report Tony thank you Robin we followed one of the ash flows and steam flows that move Northwest from the volcano earlier today it went up into Lewis County at one point it looked like a long silent caterpillar just moving across the countryside moving over farms over Timberland and I understand we have some film that was taken near Mayfield Lake it covered cars it covered just about everything with about a half an inch these were rhododendrons that took on a strange silvery hue the ash drove a lot of people out of the area people that had been there for the weekend got frightened and left the ash also fell into the lake itself and formed a pattern that looked almost like an oil spill in the water and on windshields it accumulated there seemed to be little resistance to it no wind picked up after the ash flow to blow it away it covers the trees it's it's everywhere there were no reports where we were of people contracting any sort of respiratory illness or or any respiratory problems with that it would appear that the ash wind is far north is randyll it was reported there were three inches of ash there we have a little problem getting into that area because his Boyd mentioned earlier the helicopters don't like to put down in the ash for fear that they won't be able to get out of it and we didn't we didn't encourage that kind of activity that's about all we have to report on the ash except that it continues to get deeper okay Tony thank you very much one thing that's incredible it's been so hazy here important we haven't been able to see too much we've got some excellent pictures of what it actually looks like when a huge nine mile high ash cloud comes out of a mountain can you have some additional well a couple of things one the weather forecast is for the next few hours things are clearing out a little bit more allah metropolitan area and you might get a much better view of it than we've had all day here from the portland area a couple other things the new wind forecasts are coming out of our computers now based on the afternoon wind soundings and the winds look like they're going to stay generally from the west to the east with the maximum winds at about 30,000 feet 50 knots or a little over 50 miles an hour now flash flood warnings remain in effect for all of the Toutle River now this is a change from earlier when they were flash flood watches they're now flash flood warnings for all of the Toutle River and travelers advisories remain in effect for all of Eastern Washington from the Cascade crest on eastward traction could be very bad and ash visibilities in many cases are down we've seen reports where they can't see 15 feet ahead of them so it makes no sense to travel in eastern Washington if you can at all avoid it right now in the metropolitan area we're out of the ash in it's a good place to be in a good place to stay we have a picture here that was taken from one of the polar orbiting satellites and this is very dramatic this was at 9:55 this morning from a satellite that orbits about 400 and a little over 450 miles above the surface of the earth mine 55 this was about an hour and a half after the initial eruption and this of course is the plume this white line we can see down here is the Sun glinting off the Columbia River the Portland area is right here Seattle is up here they were under some clouds at the time the picture was taken so right a dramatic picture satellite pictures have been dramatic all day this is probably the first eruption that we really had the good satellite coverage there have been other eruptions in other parts of the world but this one is in an area of interest and we have satellites flying over and the receiving sets on the ground and so we've got some great satellite pictures and I thought probably we ought to show that because it's so dramatic just a minute ago Jim thank you well they're pictures that gonna be in history books for forever oh yeah I think I think I'm gonna get some copies made and maybe we can sell lumber distributed Matt cost we'll have to work on that thank you thank you doesn't like measures a couple of weeks ago Tony and Tony White and I were talking over a couple of Milkshakes and he was saying Tony knows the state of Washington pretty well he said if anything happens to that mount and he said I hope nothing happens to Spirit Lake he said I think it's perhaps one of the most beautiful spots in the state of Washington well we had just received information that the u.s. Forest Service spotter planes just reported that Spirit Lake was in effect gone one of the spotters said there was no Lake no trees the hills have been completely changed by mud and rock slides so dr. basin I guess that pretty much answers her question of what happened we also had a report that a photographer writer for National Geographic was missing on the mountain area he or she had been taking us as she or he had been taking photos and doing an article up there that person turned up okay actually a lot of people were stuck in traffic of course trying to get out mechanical difficulties with the car is caused by ash and by some of the stuff in the air and many people are turning up missing but as are turning up after being missing but as we've said that there have been five people known dead and there are many people we just don't know the fate of their fate phone lines in almost all of Eastern Washington probably from mount st. helens East our Jam we tried to make a few calls out that direction today and it was very difficult to get through in case anybody is planning a flight for example from Portland to Seattle we checked with Portland International Airport late this afternoon by just before airtime and they said yes everything is fine Seattle Airport is open Portland Airport as operating as normal and there are no problems there but don't try flying into Spokane because Spokane Airport is closed right now we think we can point to perhaps some historical perspective to what's happening around us we know for example that they Klickitat Indians called Saint Helens Fire Mountain a name we may think about reviving pretty soon in 1845 Charles Wilkes interviewed a 60 year old Indian chief who recalled an eruption that apparently took place some 50 years before he told Wiltse was awakened by his mother who called out to him that the world was falling to pieces he then heard a great noise of thunder overhead and all the people crying out in great terror something was falling very thick which they at first took for snow but I'm going out they found it to be dirt it proved to be ashes of course which fell from the depth of six inches and increased their fears by causing them to suppose that the end of the world was actually at hand well now we actually can show you two pictures of volcanic activity from the early 1800s one is from Canadian artist Paul Kane a man who got out west too late to actually see an eruption all he saw was steam Kane however took some artistic license in this painting here and the Oregon Historical Society has found a sketch of an actual eruption in a letter from a pioneers settler the Columbia River Gorge is in the foreground in the letter Charles Stevens sent home to friends in Illinois and now of course we actually do have pictures of st. Helens erupting we think that the pictures you have seen today are probably photos that people are going to be referring to for many years to come the satellite photos and the tape as well big part of our history Robin it's hard for many of us and that includes a lot of geologists to realize just how quickly all of this has happened Robin in fact it was only seven weeks ago can you believe it that st. Helens was a quiet snow white mountain John Tuttle shows us that old familiar sight how it changed it was Monday March 24th when officials in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest started taking st. Helens seriously the earthquakes on the mountain had started four days earlier by that Monday they were coming at a rate of 40 an hour people were warned to stay off the mountain and the US Geological Survey moved in with monitoring devices to listen to the tremors at that time st. Helens had gone 123 years without erupting the most recent eruption of any volcano in the 48 states was California's Mount lassen in 1915 we're cautioning people about going up on the mountain itself spring vacation is coming on and you know the nice weather and a mountain climbers and cross-country skiers mainly because the avalanche hazard warning is at the high stage because of the earthquakes Tuesday March 25th the mountain shuddered with a quake that registered five on the Richter scale crevasses began to appear on the Forsyth glacier and the Forest Service began organizing emergency plans to evacuate lowland areas of Southwest Washington roadblocks went up on highway 504 and the Rangers were evacuated from Spirit Lake that was the day northwestern erse were introduced to Harry Truman the man who said he wouldn't leave his home at Spirit Lake just I'm not gonna leave here cuz I'm the only one up here there's nobody else lives up here in the wintertime so she's going after unproven off this lake and I'm not gonna go on Wednesday scientists were saying mud flows on st. Helens were possible and they described a lava eruption as a remote possibility Thursday March 27th shortly after 1:00 in the afternoon KGW use cameras flew over st. Helens and got the first pictures of steam rising from the summit and the big black hole in the top of the mountain through the day that hole widened and there were signs the North slopes of the mountain were actually shifting still the big concern was the potential of mud flows loosened by heat not lava but the scientists were beginning to admit that the mountain was in the classic early stages of a volcanic eruption Friday Pacific Power and Light drew down 90,000 acre feet of water from Swift reservoir anticipating as much as 100,000 acre feet of mud that could hit in the event of a mud flow the mountain that had been white on Tuesday morning was now blackened by ash residents of Cougar and total river 35 miles from the base of the volcano were warned to be ready to evacuate you folks considering out of town see any danger here on Saturday our helicopter found a break in the weather and could follow what appeared to be giant mud flows running down the slopes of the mountain in fact they weren't mud or lava but ice blackened by ash from the summit you hear the voice of geologist Marvin besom now we're turning around and moving right back down the ash flow here's the big channel right here then you see material deposit in the channel and here's where it accumulated down at the base very spectacular that same day in Vancouver geologists were now admitting publicly that the volcano was apt to do anything at any time when the skies cleared on Sunday March 30th we could see two large craters at the summit and there were reports of ash drifting as far as a hundred miles away over portions of northeast Oregon the following day the eruptions continued and the wind shifted bringing first hints of ash drifting in over Portland ash fell in the cougar area a gray dust made of fine pieces of rock and glass people were warned that the sulfur compounds clinging to the dust could cause skin and nasal irritations by Tuesday April first geologists were saying all evidence pointed to a big eruption and soon magma was believed to have worked its way to within a thousand feet of the summit the earthquakes were stronger and the plume of ash was rising to 16,000 feet and the winds were carrying it towards Portland there were reports the mountain itself was swelling and actually tilting the south shore of Spirit Lake and Wednesday geologists reported the volcano was shooting out desk sized blocks of metal watch to the lower right hand side of your screen see what scientific instruments were now recording harmonic tremors rhythmic vibrations that indicated molten rock was moving inside Mount st. Helens another indication of a possible eruption of lava Thursday the geologists who'd been conservative in their predictions at every stage had turned around we're not going to have a lot of warning if a final um big eruption starts I think probably a day is the outside and minutes on the inside yeah minutes or it might happen without really telling us it's going to happen by just Co that interview is more than a month old for a month we waited wondering what was next from st. Helens in fact the clues to what was actually happening inside the mountain may have been there in late March or early April but then the geologists didn't have the monitoring gear to find the clues inside the mountain molten rock was moving trying to force its way up and eventually out but the shifts on the north side of the mountain weren't detected until late April by then they were significant movements the north side of st. Helens was bulging growing expanding outward at a rate of four or five feet a day the scientists conceded it was only a matter of time until there was a massive avalanche that could trigger flooding in the lower valleys and they said maybe open the way for leva on Mount st. Helens now of course we know what has happened turns out the scientists were right we have been getting a number of calls about the fate of Harry Truman the 84 year old residents of Spirit Lake who refused to be evacuated we don't know his fate nobody's heard from him we do know that the Skamania County Sheriff talked with him yesterday he was still in the area he refused to leave he claimed he knew of a an old mineshaft secret mineshaft where he was going to hide away right now we do know that in effect Spirit Lake has disappeared it's been covered or wiped out with with mud flows or ash or lava or a combination of all those different things and and there's very little chance that he survived dr. Beason you say the next interesting thing will be to see what the belt looks like tomorrow yeah I've been watching it for some time now it's developed very rapidly but now this is the biggest change for sure by the way Rob I don't pick will see lava there yet but so far mud flows ash flows and while in a few days perhaps okay thank you dr. B said Jim little any final thoughts flood watches and warnings continue for the Toutle River travelers advisories east of the Cascades a good area to stay away from all right many people helped us to put this special together tonight we want to give them credit and thank you for listening to us good night you you

Channel: YorkVid

Views: 80,746

Keywords: KGW (TV Station), Mount St. Helens (Mountain), May 18 1980, Volcanoes, Volcanology, Geology, Spirit Lake, Harry Truman, Channel 8, Portland, Volcano, Mt. St. Helens, Eruption of Mt. St. Helens, Eruption of Mount St. Helens, Television, Vintage, 1980, News, 5/18/1980, May 1980, Toutle River, Mudflow, USGS, May 18 (Day Of Year), 1980 Eruption Of Mount St. Helens (Disaster)

Id: kqkrl4hZ-7Y

Length: 55min 18sec (3318 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 26 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I remember this very, very well. Horrible day.

[u/MrWigggles]

My mom had to evacuate because of that.

[u/fissionchips]

The real disaster is that reporters combover.

I'm sorry, ill show myself out

[u/Facky]

Can't believe this wasn't mentioned in "We Didn't Start the Fire".

[u/dethb0y]

the station's youtube channel has a bunch of recent and historic coverage of the eruption

[u/bitetheasp]

Fascinating!

[u/grab_bag_2776]

The male anchor, Ralph Wenge, went on to a career with the early CNN as a news reader fwiw.