Minute by Minute: The Eruption of Mount St. Helens

may 18th 1980 mount st. Helens erupts ground moved a little bit and then oh my god the whole mountain took off spewing scalding rock and ash it was coming to ward us like it was being shot out of a shotgun unleashing deadly torrents a debris and mud I felt him grabbed me pulled me up on top of a log and he just kept screaming to hang on and leaving behind a landscape of devastation and death watch tonight on minute-by-minute the Mount st. Helens eruption March 27 1980 southwestern Washington State 602 am the Sun rises over the Cascades range a chain of volcanoes situated above the Pacific fault line towering over the landscape is the nine thousand six hundred and seventy seven foot mount st. helens known because of its beauty as the Mount Fuji of the United States the volcano has been dormant for 123 years hundreds of campers hikers and photographers are converging on the mountain for the weekend it's also a workday for over 300 forestry workers near Spirit Lake less than five miles from the summit u.s. Forest Service supervisor Kathy Anderson and her tree planting crew hear what sounds like a small explosion what was common around there because of the private timberlands in that area were Road building and other activities so we kind of assumed that that had been just stomp blasting or something but in fact Mount st. Helens has awakened from its long slumber with a small eruption of steam and ash opening a 250 foot wide crater in the summit within minutes word reaches the Menlo Park California office of the US Geological Survey or USGS on-hand that afternoon is geologist Don Swanson we quickly packed our bags and jumped on the first flight up to up to Portland despite the eruption blogging companies in the area keep working the warehouser corporation grows and harvests trees for building materials and paper on over 68,000 acres of land on Mount st. Helens the day after the initial eruption the company dispatches helicopter pilot Jes Hagerman to fly over the volcano right on the very top the whole top there was a little bitty crater and there were these big cracks running horizontal around the mountain USGS scientists install more monitoring equipment at their main observation post known as Coldwater one the eruption has been a minor one but they see it as a precursor of a larger and potentially deadly event one of them a 30 year old volcanologist named David Johnston voices his fears to a network news crew the u.s. Forest Service puts up roadblocks closing the top of the mountain 40 residents who live nearest the summit are evacuated underground tremors make the eruption of Mount st. Helens seem imminent the governor of Washington declares a state of emergency because rapid evacuation might be necessary tourists and sightseers are urged to stay out of the area but the warnings have the opposite effect and tourists pour in from around the country souvenir vendors haul t-shirts and bottles of genuine volcanic ash some volcano enthusiasts try to get as close to the summit as possible one of them is Robert Rogers a 29 year old radio technician with a passion for mountain climbing he makes a game out of outwitting the Sheriff's Department I would drive up and go oh is it really dangerous up there oh yes and it's very dangerous like all the people try to sneak in yes we we saw a guy up there two morning's ago in a blue sleeping bag oh really tell me why did you do it in and they'd explain what they did to try to catch me because I was the guy in the blue sleeping bag for geologists however watching the mountain is no sport you didn't have time to do anything but but eat and sleep and work clear weather brings out a record-breaking number of tourists and television crews News choppers airlift reporters to the summit ignoring the danger warnings they are rewarded with 18 small bursts of steam and ash throughout the day for weeks after the initial eruption signed his discover an alarming bulge on the north side of the mountain magma rising within Mount st. Helens has encountered a blockage in the mouth of the volcano and is being forced out around it scientists like volcano hazard specialist Dan Miller explain the danger to emergency agencies but little is done as the weeks passed and nothing serious happened at Mount st. Helens it became more and more difficult for us to convince the various agencies both state federal and local that something ugly was about to happen over the next two weeks the bulge on the north side of Mount st. Helens grows larger every day the mountain was moving in such a rapid rate about 5 feet a day or so horizontally this day after day after day after day officials finally heed the scientists warnings and establish a so-called red zone a safety perimeter that extends from three to eight miles around the summit they begin evacuating residents on the banks of Spirit Lake less than five miles from the summit an 84 year old resident named Harry R Truman no relation to harry s truman tells reporters he has no plans to leave that's my life Spirit Lake and Mount st. Helens my life folks I've lived there 50 years it's a part of me that mountain on that lake is a part of Truman and I'm a part of it Truman's defiance of authority makes him a folk hero overnight May 1st 1980 a month has passed since the first eruption without another major event public excitement dies down but the ominous bowls on the mountain continues to grow the US Geological Survey sets up a new observation post cold water to five miles northeast of the summit this one is three miles closer to the volcano than the existing sited Coldwater one at Coldwater one row Finley an assistant editor with National Geographic magazine is interviewing 27 year old photographer Reed Blackburn when the ground begins to tremble I look to read without saying anything but with concern and he said earthquake I think it's about a 4.5 the earthquake is just one of many that occur each day on the volcano but any one of them could trigger an eruption Blackburn on assignment with the Vancouver Columbia newspaper is ready if the mountain erupts he is positioned where he can trigger to remote-control cameras placed one mile from the summit a graduate student man in Coldwater - must leave for the weekend geologist Don Swanson and his colleague David Johnston agree to take turns filling in for him Dave said okay I'll do it for four Saturday night if you can come up on Sunday and then replace me May 17 1988 a.m. it's been more than a month and a half since the first eruption despite the fears of USGS scientists many of the residents evacuated from the red zone are convinced that the crisis has passed they gather at the roadblock near a Spirit Lake tempers flare as they try to return to their homes we're paying taxes and we would we'd like to use our property I'm not afraid governor Dixie Lee Ray relents and gives them permission to visit their homes today and again on Sunday everyone had to sign waivers releasing the county from any blame for what might happen to them while they were inside the redzone checking out their property the beautiful day brings a number of campers out into the Washington woods at Jericho hole on the Toutle River 25 miles west of Mount st. Helens high school sweethearts of eNOS Durgin enrolled readin parked their car by a favorite fishing spot there were no other people around us and also we just listened to the radio and sat up rolled has hid in a bottle of champagne deep in their cooler a surprise treat for Sunday night six miles west of the summit tyke Ernie a ham radio operator volunteering to monitor the mountain for the state of Washington receives the transmission from a fellow volunteer Jerry Martin of concrete Washington Martin has stationed his radio van at a perfect viewpoint just seven miles away from the bulging north side of the mountain backpacking with his wife Lou and their two young daughters three-month-old Tara and four year-old Bonnie Mike Moore passes up to campsites this was Bonnie's first backpacking trip we wanted to be something memorable for her they find an ideal spot near the Green River thirteen miles north of Mount st. Helens in Bear meadows 14 miles northeast of the summit amateur photographer Gary Rosenquist and a group of friends set up camp after dark made a real big fire because of all the wood that was around there and just had a good time telling stories it was just a beautiful night may 18th 1980 Swift Creek 5:30 a.m. tree planting crew chief Kathy Anderson informs her crew they will abandon their site near Clearwater Creek and relocate to Swift Creek six miles south of the summit I'm still not certain what caused me to have that thought it was out of the norm for us to stop working in one area and go to another when we weren't finished one member of her crew Crane Kilpatrick is surprised by her decision we were actually going to some place much closer to the mountain than where we were on Saturday and potentially a lot more danger as the Sun rises over Mount st. Helens Jim's Comanche and a three-man thinning crew begin cutting saplings 13 miles from the summit 100 miles away at the airport in Yakima Washington a Cessna 182 takes off on a reconnaissance flight over the volcano on board is geologist Dorothy Stoffel it was my first time to fly in a small plane and I I was a little anxious about it kind of unsettled and really not knowing what to expect at the USGS office in Vancouver 40 miles from Mount st. Helens summit geologist Don Swanson is waiting for colleagues to arrive people were going to bring me supplies that I could take up to live from well not when I was up a cold water to volcano hazard specialist Dan Miller starts out on the two-hour drive to Coldwater - he's bringing supplies and parts for the to time-lapse cameras I drove over to the battery shed and picked up all of the batteries that I had had on the charger overnight nearly eight miles west of the summit Robert Rogers and his friend Francisco Valenzuela arrived at the Sheep Creek overlook they have just finished another illegal climb they parked near ham radio operator ty Kearny he looks up and says well where were you boys this morning we made up some story of driving around we didn't want to tell him we had gone into the red zone 8:30 a.m. just above the summit geologist Dorothy Stoffel is taking photos of the volcano we were flying directly over the South crater wall about 500 feet and as we went over the mountain I took pictures of Harry Truman's Lodge bloom or is making breakfast at her family's Green River campsite Tara have been brought out of the tent and sat next to where Lulu is working bonnie was wandering around I was wandering around I was hanging out down in the room with a seismographs we dropped John off at his unit and his crew and they started to plant their trees I was heading up Interstate five we made a decision we'll make one last pass one mile beneath mount st. helens an earthquake measuring five point one on the Richter scale shakes the mountain setting in motion a terrifying chain reaction Mount st. Helens erupts with an explosive fury next on minute by minute and now back to the minute-by-minute may 18th 1980 mount st. Helens Washington 8:32 a.m. an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale rips through the core of Mount st. Helens we began to see this enormous fracture open up it was as though you were slicing the mountain in half the whole north side of the mountain began to shake seconds later like a zipper from east to west these little brown detonations poof poof poof zipped right across the top of the mountain suddenly I just looked up crimson sound and looked up and here was this tremendous signal the ground moved a little bit and then oh my god the whole mountain took off 25 seconds after the earthquake hits a huge explosion bursts out from the North Face of Mount st. Helens superheated gas shoots rock and ash more than 12 miles into the air Dorothy Stoffels plane is dodging deadly Jets of hot gas and ash her pilot thinks fast he's diving the plane to try to gain speed to outrun the blast and watching the ground coming up from below and picking he's gonna nose this plane right into the ground on a ridge less than eight miles from the explosion Robert Rogers runs to grab his camera and get back to the car quip open the door drop a roll of unexposed film and start shooting really fast click-click jam I got six shots and my camera jammed in Bear Meadows 14 miles to the northeast amateur photographer Gary Rosenquist grabs his camera and snaps 23 photos in just 30 seconds I couldn't concentrate on a viewfinder so I started taking photographs again and a scuffle fit taking photographs till the I ran out of film David Johnston who is at observation based Coldwater - less than six miles from the blast radios into the USGS office in Vancouver Washington he gets out one short statement Vancouver Vancouver this is it before the radio goes dead all the while ham radio operator Jerry Martin is broadcasting from a Ridge two miles farther north Martin watches in horror as the USGS observation posted cold water to is swept up in the enormous slide Jerry Martin signs off he has never heard from again 8:33 am two more huge blasts of gas and rock shootout as the northwest side of the mountain crumbles the eruption covers a 230 square mile area and dumps two hundred feet of rubble into Spirit Lake and onto Harry R Truman killing him above the mountain dorothy Stoffels plane banked south and pulls away from the blast dorothy looks back to see the top of the mountain torn open by a horse five hundred times greater than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima we saw this huge blast cloud lift up and as it lifted up there was lightning tremendous lightning bolts going tens of thousands of feet high at the cold water one camp 8 miles from the summit photographer Reid Blackburn jumps into his car and guns it desperately trying to outrun the cloud of ash it's too late in seconds his car is engulfed Blackburn is suffocated in four feet of scalding ash the wind is so powerful that it uproots hundred foot trees as far as 19 miles away eight miles from the summit Francisco Valenzuela and Robert Rogers jump into their vehicles and screech away our clothing was like in a gale just blowing it was like a freight train with 10,000 square wheels just going by as a whole how does noise I'd ever heard six miles south of the summit near Swift Creek crane Kilpatrick's Forest Service crew is running for their lives Kilpatrick and Kathy Anderson are waiting in their truck at the top of the ridge ready to lead the evacuation they can only hope to get their team out before the cloud of burning ash and steam envelops them you could see these things periodically shoot down the south slope they were coming straight at us if we had been a half a mile closer we would have been torch what killed Patrick and his colleagues don't yet realize is that if they had stuck with their original plans to work on the north side of the mountain they would all be dead still the crew is far from safe laden with tools they are slow to climb the steep slope to their vehicles Kathy calls on a radio dump all the equipment let's get out of here minutes later everyone reaches their trucks and drives to a rendezvous site where they wait for word on the safe evacuation route from a spotter plane you could just see the debris gone overhead and we had lightning around us USGS geologist Dan Miller is on Interstate five 15 miles southwest of the mountain he's on his way to meet David Johnston at Coldwater - when he sees the eruption column I realized immediately that this was really a huge and very serious eruption I quickly crossed over the median on interstate 5 and I went racing back into Vancouver 13 miles north of the summit Mike and Lou Moore and their daughters three-month-old Tara and four-year-old Bonnie look up to see a tremendous cloud towering over the trees Mike grabs his camera the more pictures I took the more apprehensive I got because the glass was not going up it was coming to warn us like it was being shot out of the shotgun the ash hot enough to burn skin on contact is surging down the mountain at a rate of up to 300 miles an hour eleven miles southwest of the summit Robert Rogers is in his car following tyke Ernie's van down a winding Mountain Road the group is trying to outrun the cloud but in the ever thickening haze Rogers loses sight of the van Kearny goes on to safety but Rogers in Valenzuela are stuck in the swirling ash the second time we passed this gigantic caterpillar Tractor in the dark we knew we were lost high above them Dorothy stafa is in a small airplane hoping to put some distance between herself and the mountain we begin to see this huge grouping of aircraft rushing towards the mountain and we are thought you know just like the media you know they're going to get there as fast as they can while we're trying to leave Stoffel lands 40 miles away in Portland 13 miles north of the summit the Moore family is hit by a shockwave we felt a squeezing of our bodies very tight squeezing who said that this didn't happen to her but my ears pop repeatedly just pop up up up up up up up up 40 miles away in Vancouver the phone rings in national geographic editor row Finley's hotel room it was Ralph Perry one of our ton track photographers he said grow if you'll step out the door of your hotel and look to the northeast you can see Mount st. Helens filling the sky at his home in Kelso Washington gray Pleasant a helicopter base manager for the warehouser corporation is still in bed when he hears a knock at the door our neighbor she used to monitor the CVR the scanner and she found out that they're not interrupted although his logging crews are outside the red zone Pleasant needs every available chopper in the air for possible rescues he immediately heads out to the nearest base on a small farm 37 miles from the summit jess Hagerman a captain in the National Guard is getting ready for church they called me to to call and find out how many people we had were able to fly Hagerman immediately heads to the Air National Guard base at Fort Lewis 20 miles away the vertical column of ash and steam continues to expand upward and outward thirteen miles away at the Green River campsite ash begins to rain onto the Moore family they take cover in a dilapidated hunter's Shack but it affords little protection mike and lou mores primary concern keeping their daughters alive we gave bonnie a handkerchief that had been wetted down with water from the canteen well I wasn't gonna work for Tara she's three months old so what we did is we wrap her up in blankets at one point Lou went over and pinched her because she was so quiet she thought she was dead and she wanted her to cry to prove that she wasn't dead we were all very relieved to hear that cry the intense heat from the volcano melts the mountains ice cap sending 46 billion gallons of water into the Toutle valley below mudslides heated to 91 degrees and moving in ninety miles per hour rushed down the mountain 25 miles from the summit along the South Fork of the Toutle River high school sweethearts rolled retn and Venus Durgan hear the sound of warning sirens we just pulled the tent right out of the stake and ran up to the car rolled guns the engine of his Oldsmobile but it's too late the engorged total river is now raging toward them carrying logs and debris from nearby lumber yards surrounded the car and picked up the car and at that point the first instinct was to get out of the car but there was no place to run their car is engulfed by the flood they jump from the vehicle into the swirling mass I was lucky enough to land on a large log Venus went right in between the one I landed on and another one and this dog is instantly gone it's like I thought she was dead the couple and hundreds of others on the mountain fight to survive next on any and now back to minute by minute may 18th 1980 mount st. Helens Washington 901 am mount st. helens has erupted with the force of 10 megatons of TNT a cloud of scorching ash mushrooms 15 miles into the air 25 miles away along the South Fork of the Toutle River campers rolled readin and Venus Durgan have been swept away by a deluge of mud and logs Venus loses sight of rolled as she has sucked down into the morass I could hear him screaming in terror I kept my hands and head above water and at one point two logs started pinching my wrist I thought I was going to lose my arm in my hand the pain was excruciating and at that point I thought it was over rolled clinging desperately to a log sees Venus his hand reaching out between two massive Timbers he lunges for her as the logs close in around her they were moving up and down in sideways and it would just like peel the skin off her chin I felt him pull me up on top of a log and he just kept screaming to hang on finally after a terrifying mile long ride rolled maneuvers Venus across the logs and onto the banks of the river Venus's wrist is smashed and a right forearm is stripped down to the muscle she is going into shock and rold knows that their only chance of survival is to keep moving they make their way through the thick forest hoping to find a way out walking back through that was was hell I heard a number of helicopters overhead so at that point I wanted to get out of that heavy stand the trees were at and be found nine miles from the summit tree planters crane Kilpatrick and Kathy Anderson have been waiting for 30 minutes with a convoy of Forest Service trucks they're hoping a spotter plane will arrive soon to scout a safe route off the mountain they are in constant danger of being engulfed by burning ash as the crew waits tension builds to the breaking point there's one guy started to run we actually literally had to grab him and throw him back into the van he got hit mostly just gonna knock some sense back into him finally word comes over the radio that the ash is still too thick to allow a spotter plane to fly into their area they'll have to find their own way out driving across the bridge of the already swollen Swift Creek I ran out onto the bridge what I wanted to do is see if a mud flow was coming down the Swift Creek there wasn't one coming so I signaled everybody across the bridge ashes raining down heavily as Kilpatrick jumps into the last vehicle on the convoy just on the other side of the bridge his truck stalls this truck in front of us just disappears into the cloud we didn't see anybody it was like oh my god we're alone here Kilpatrick radios Anderson and she hurries back to pick him up the convoy slowly makes its way down the mountain to safety two miles from the summit geologist Don Swanson is flying in a Forest Service plane searching for his colleague David Johnston there was not much chance that Dave or anybody else in the area was was gonna live through it heading toward the mountain in a Cessna row Finley hopes to reach photographer Reed Blackburn at Coldwater one and flown over cities bombed and burning during the war but this was so much more awesome the wind shifts and the ash cloud heads east a welcome sight to the Moore family who are hiding out in an old shack 13 miles to the north of the volcano I decided it was time to go out and see what I could see outside unfortunately the door was blocked with six inches of ash and took quite a bit of kicking day to get it open I could make out the outline of a tree and that's when I started eating pretty good Lu more carries three-month-old Terra while Mike more gathers up four-year-old Bonnie he shoulders the backpack containing their tenth food and survival equipment on a logging road eight miles from the summit Robert Rogers and Francisco Valenzuela are lost in the haze of ash then way behind us out on the West a pinpoint of light that little spot of light got bigger and bigger and bigger as the air slowly clears Rogers in Valenzuela are able to navigate their way out the ash cloud reaches Yakima Washington 97 miles to the northeast though no longer hot the ash makes it difficult to breathe this is of course the source of the big problem the volcanic ash buildup I'd say the to build up now is at least 3/4 of an inch residents must shovel off their roofs to keep them from collapsing a weather satellite captures photos of the ash cloud as it stretches across Washington State and reaches Spokane 200 miles to the northeast of mount st. Helens it has taken nearly three hours for badly injured campers rolled readin and Venus Durgan to struggle through the dense forest I knew we had to go upstream because we floated underneath the bridge I figured if anybody was gonna be anywhere they'd be there and there was a sheriff's car on that bridge the sheriff's deputy radios for a helicopter evacuation nearly four hours after the first explosion the eruption is still going strong fresh magma was rising and was escaping from the volcano jets of burning gas sweep down the flanks of Mount st. Helens at up to 80 miles an hour eleven miles from the summit Mike Moore and his wife Lou try to get their young daughters to safety weighed down with survival equipment Mike comes to an area of blown-down trees six to twelve feet in diameter I couldn't carry Bonnie Lou couldn't carry her because she had Tara and her backpack and bonnie was basically on her own in between us she's pretty tough kid but four 4 years old you're asking an awful lot the more struggled to keep their children alive as rescuers searched frantically for stranded victims next on minute-by-minute I'll back to minute-by-minute may 18th 1980 mount st. Helens Washington 12:00 p.m. the mountain has now been erupting for three and a half hours sending a total of 490 tons of ash hurtling over an area nearly the size of West Virginia emergency services estimate at least three people are missing and seven are confirmed dead area hospitals filled with injured suffering from ash inhalation and burns rescue teams searching for survivors find they can't recognize a single landmark first early and over there the rescue operation is a dangerous one chopper pilot ray pleasant and his crew respond to an emergency call near the Toutle River when they arrive they find rolled retn and his badly injured girlfriend Venus Durgin the crew jumps out and loads Venus in pilot ray Pleasant pulls back on the controls and heads out of danger I was able to look back I just saw this brown body tiny little brother's body in the back with a big big eyes looking at me and then just scared a second helicopter airlifts rita now the choppers fly across the river to the town of toodle where a medevac unit has been set up at a school 14 miles from the summit the ash is so thick it is almost impossible to see the ground National Guard chopper pilot Jess Hagerman flies his OAH 58 back and forth over the terrain searching for Jim's Comanche and his forestry crew all of a sudden we look down and we see some kind of a car or a truck down there and so we swung around one thing that you could see were footprints in the ash so then you know that you've probably got some survivors the footprints diverged indicating the four men split into two parties Hagerman banks his cocker and follows one set until he locates two of the missing men one of the people would stand up and wave his arms and then you know he'd kind of fall back down and the other fellow never really did get up off the ground Hagerman x' crew chief randy fonts volunteers to go down after the two men even though he has no idea what awaits him this stuff could have been 150 degrees fahrenheit we hadn't didn't have a clue but so anyway he gets out of the helicopter gets on the skid and jumps into this stuff the ash has cooled considerably but it was scalding when it blasted over the stranded men one of the Foresters Jim's Comanche is burned over nearly half his body his coworker is sprawled on the ground near him barely able to breathe Hagerman lands the helicopter and hurries through eight inches of talcum powder fine ash to help his crew chief evacuate the badly burned man when you touch their clothes it was it was like if you scorch your clothes with an iron and you just pull it like that and it just shreds apart the two men are taken to nearby Longview hospital where they are treated for second and third degree burns and ash inhalation an Air National Guard helicopter finds the third member of the crew sitting atop a tree in the middle of a mud flow he is rushed to the hospital but the leader of the crew is still missing Venis Durgan is at Longview hospital receiving medical attention her wounds are filled with ash the nurses were crying because they had to immerse me in a tub of water and take sponges and scrape out my wounds and when the doctor came in he said he didn't do a good enough job they had to take me back in a second time and they had to put me on morphine at that point because I was in such pain Robert Rogers makes it out of the woods and stops on the i-5 freeway to look back at the volcano 25 miles away everybody was stopped on the freeway looking at the volcano saying look at him he's covered with ash man drove back to Portland and that was that was it now that the pressure within the volcano is relieved the eruption gradually begins to subside 200 square miles of forest had been destroyed heavy equipment lays tossed about like toys nine and a half hours after the eruption Venus Durkins boyfriend rolled readin is released from Longview hospital into his parents care they find a hotel for the night and Roald's father tries to scrub more ash from his sons wounds oh it hurt so bad it was like I had passed out I mean god bless him you know he did a pretty good job but you know he didn't get it all out so you know I'm tattooed and spots on my legs you know from where the ash got rubbed into my skin in her hospital room Venus Durgin watches coverage of the eruption there laid in the hospital room that night watching all the events on TV my IV bottle and the hospital was shaking every time the mountain rest but not everyone is out of danger as night falls on mount st. Helens Mike Moore his wife and two young daughters have not been able to find their way out of the forest they pitched camp for the night but Mike cannot sleep we could hear the volcano exploding and crackling and like a witch's cauldron they will have to wait for sunrise and hope for rescue that's next on A&E where were you when Mount st. Helens erupted tell us at a na komm and now back to minute by minute may 19th 1987 on the morning after the eruption of Mount st. Helens National Guard helicopter pilot Jess Hagerman takes to the sky to continue the rescue effort I really didn't have a clue where I was you couldn't see more than 1/8 of a mile sometimes less when the ash does part it reveals fallen trees stretching as far as the eye can see despite the devastation rescuers still hope to find survivors but as time goes by they find themselves placing more and more red flags to mark the dead one family on the mountain has survived the eruption Mike Moore his wife Lou and their two children have spent 26 hours in the forest near Mount st. Helens unable to make their way to safety suddenly here comes a helicopter fly in our direction there's a 304 squadron out of Portland they put two paramedics on the ground the air force team tries to airlift the family out every time the cable came down the helicopter kicked up so much ash nobody could see the cable a cable rescue was impossible the chopper will have to find a place to touch down the Moore family and the paramedics hiked to the Green River but find no room for a landing there either at that moment Air National Guard chopper pilot Jes Hagerman flies over he radios the rescue team and offers to use his smaller craft to evacuate the Moors there was no place to set the helicopter all the way down so I had to kind of hold it on one skin the Mohr's who had their three-month-old daughter Tara in their backpack climb into the helicopter they start sticking this great big huge Kelty backpack I said we don't have room for that they said there's a baby in there I said well stuff for her board Hagerman takes off and brings the Moore family to nearby Longview hospital where they are treated for minor scratches and sent home hundreds of volunteers rescue more than 150 people in just 36 hours but three are still missing and eight are confirmed dead 31 hours after the eruption Venus Durgin is released from the hospital she faces two years of physical therapy to regain the use our flayed on two days after the eruption a group of geologists lands near the observation base cold water one there they find photographer Reid Blackburn's car we kneeled down to look inside the car and there was marine and his hair was burned and so forth looking in the car it was pretty gruesome three days after the eruption President Jimmy Carter flies over the area surveying the destruction Federal Emergency Relief is on its way for the four counties hardest hit by the blast the absolute and total devastation of a region that encompasses about 150 miles it's the worst thing I have ever seen the force of the eruption has spewed measurable amounts of ash as far east as Minnesota and as far south as Oklahoma may 25th 1980 one week after the big blast the mountain erupts again sending a column of ash eight miles high compared to the may 18th eruption it's a minor event and does minimal damage the death toll now stands at 21 and 72 people are missing 230 square miles have been devastated roadways have been swept away and railroads buried 68,000 acres of commercial timber worth 400 million dollars have been damaged or destroyed Forester Jim's Comanche is an Emmanuel hospital burned Center in Portland Oregon where he indoors for skin graft operations for the burns that cover nearly half his body he is the only survivor of his four-man crew along the devastated Toutle River world Wheaton's brother locates the Buried car and retrieves rolled things from the trunk so he brings in all this stuff and then he pulls out and shows us rolls parents Hey look what I found in the back of rolls cars big bottle of champagne we're both underage and roll's parents just look at rolled now and we just got I just kind of sat there and slithered I might see it we laugh the champagne it was the best I ever tasted in my life it was like double sweet you know because we lived through that and that that bottle lived through it no more survivors have found and bodies are recovered four months after the blast there is no trace of 30 year old geologist David Johnston who was last heard from at the cold water to observation site the body of the last member of Jim's Comanches forestry crew was finally found in the branches of a tree about two feet above a high-water mark made by the Toutle River dead from ash inhalation in the end the death toll will reach 57 less than a year after the eruption the first tree is planted in the blast zone five million more are planted over the next three years the Mount st. Helens national volcanic monument is established and tourism increases dramatically boosting the area's economy thousands flocked to the mountain and a new spirit lake highway is built to carry visitors to the spot but cold water to once stood 20 years after the disaster the National Forest Service organizes a reunion for rescuers and survivors for those who attend it is a time to remember and reflect I was one of the lucky ones and through that luck of not going back to where we were on Saturday I'm here today I don't take life for granted nor do I take our children for granted it's not lost on me what a gift it is to have them Venis Durgin enrolled reiden have remained friends the eruption forged a bond that has stood the test of time the ultimate act of love and friendship that anybody can do is risk their life to save yours and I don't think you and I asked for anyone to do anything more for you and for that you know I'll always be grateful to role you know there'll always be a place in my heart the May 18 1980 eruption of Mount st. Helens remains the most devastating volcanic event in the history of the continental United States some of its impact has been positive the US Geological Survey used the data from the eruption to create technological advances including a satellite warning system for possible eruptions their work has saved thousands and honors the 57 men women and children who lost their lives at Mount st. Helens when you see an erupting volcano the power and the impact the energy that's being released is truly stunning and it makes you realize that we are pretty insignificant creatures next to an erupting volcano what if the fate of all men was decided by the faith of one richard harris stars in abraham tonight at 9:00 8:00 central now law and order is next on a na

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Keywords: Mount St. Helens, Eruption, 1980, Volcano, A&E, Mt. St. Helens, Washington State, Spirit Lake, USGS, May 18 1980, Mountain, Natural Disasters

Id: fArB5Jz2wos

Length: 45min 42sec (2742 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 16 2014

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