Thirty years ago today, Mount St. Helen blew her top

And 57 people died.

http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2010/05/mount-st-helens-30-years.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011892909_apwamountsthelens.html

 

There is a really good story in this month's National Geographic that looks at what has happened to the area around Mount St. Helens over the last 30 years.

 

When we first got HBO, they constantly played the movie with Art Carney about Mount St. Helen's. It terrified me as a kid, especially the narration at the end which is something like, "Scientists say Mount St. Helen's could explode again at anytime."

 

I was 5 and we lived in Eastern Washington when it blew. Being that dark at 3 in the afternoon was pretty odd. I do remember everyone having to clean up tons of wheelbarrows full of ash. We dumped tons of that stuff, and I still have a little souvenir container of it.

 

Sirs, Madames,

I hitchhiked through the state that summer. Standing on the side of the road I was up to my ankles in ashes ... and I'm guessing it was at least an hour's drive away. It was like God decided to put out his cigar.

o-<

 

I could've sworn I saw coverage of this on CNN as a kid, but I'm told CNN didn't go on the air until two weeks later.

 

If you ever have the chance to see it, go see it. I went about 10 years ago, and it was amazing the destruction that still exists.