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

Yes, there's an echo in this video. Yes, it can be annoying. No, I don't know why.

I was at our lake cabin at Spirit Lake, Idaho (for a dramatic connection to St. Helens) on the back deck on a very quiet morning that Sunday and heard the reverberating, low boom of this eruption (it traveled in sound waves 60 miles long, and we were about 240 miles away). My mother said, "Did you hear that?" and I said, "Yeah, I heard something." It was like thunder, but it was clear skies, so we knew it couldn't be. We switched on the radio a couple of hours later and the EBS was on, broadcasting news reports of the eruption, shortly after which we headed back to Spokane, where we got particle masks and we kids spent the next 2 weeks out of school (I was in 2nd grade) as the ash piled up to about 4-6 inches in Eastern WA, and you can still see some of it out on I-90 east around Ritzville.

I recall this massive eruption from then in 1980. It was big news in Australia for days after the event. RIP to all the victims.

excellent old school coverage like watching history in the making .

I was living in Lake Oswego OR the day this happened and my father was the news director at this station. I remember all of these people (Paul Magers went to LA and became a lead anchor on Ch. 2...my dad hired him!!!) and most of this video...that was the one of the scariest experiences I EVER had.

R.I.P old Harry Truman

I just found a photo from that day of the eruption. We're about 2 hours south of the mountain and I can remember (I was 5) cleaning ash off the cars for days.

Essex Porter still reporting 37 years later up in Seattle

I was at Fairchild AFB on that day. It was a real trip man! The ash cloud looked like a really bad storm front as it approached from the west, only much stranger. I lived in Coeur d' Alene Idaho at the time, there were still B-52's stationed there and one of the SR-71's was there for the open house/air show, it was mother's day and the base went on lockdown because the volcanic ash would absolutely wreck jet engines and car engines too. I beat feet back home to CdA. Fortunately I had an old VW Beetle with an oil bath air cleaner so I was OK to drive it with no engine damage. The ash fall lasted for about 2-3 days it was an eerie pinkish grey and the street lights stayed on for about that long but you couldn't see them unless you were right under them because the volcanic ash just reflected the light back.

Sharing Thank you for this video I remeber the news when I was ten ,but we didnt record it ,but you did thanks so much!

I'll never forget this broadcast. So glad it's here. We lived on the Cowlitz river, so these reports were vital for us. It was never the same after this day. More Mt. St. Helens stuff if you have it, please!!

You can just barely make out the blueness of the sky at 11:01 at top of screen. Amazing :)

I always remember this footage when crossing the rusty bridge over the Tootle River.

My Uncles were in the rescue teams and had to mark bodies and cars with bodies. It was insane the power that thing spewed, they used to tell me about the ash rain it would blind you in a car because it wouldnt wipe off the windshield and if you walked in it you had no way to breathe. I was only a toddler at the time on the other side of the country.

I recall they were selling vials of ash, where we in PDX were choking on ash in the air and house gutters clogged with it.

Thanks for sharing this! My parent's TV was on continuously for days after May 18. Our local TV stations were running almost around the clock coverage of the mountain. I can still hear the whine of helicopter over a pilot's mic on the air - as they'd just fly over continuously and news anchors and pilots would just be commenting sporadically. I wonder if anyone's got ripped VHS footage online. There would be days of footage, if so. This was many years before 24 hour cable news channels. Just local TV flying by the seat of their pants.

Was 20 years old at the time, living in Denver and working at Lowry AFS in Colorado. This was such an extreme and sad event. I remember ash being all over the cars in our apartment complex.

What blows me away is that geologists were so surprised it blew out sideways. There are several volcanoes in the area and more all over the world, that have their sides blown out. Yet even though the entire north side of this volcano was swelled up like the blister on a tire, they were still surprised it blew out sideways. Hell I could have told them that even then, and I was only 10 years old.

Volcanoes: natures's way of flipping the bird to the human race and most of the planet.

Ash fell in Phoenix. Had some in freezer for a long time.

It sounds like they're live from inside the crater with all the echo... :)

RIP Harry Truman the man that wouldn't leave.

News was so much better back then. Real news!

still have some the gray ash in my curio cabinet.

There was a certain degree of honesty and trustworthiness by reporters back in those days. They reported on the event as it was, not the outcome and what they thought it should have been. In and around 1984 this all changed it what seemed an instant, everything had gotten continually worse since.

40 years ago boys

The fact that it blew out the side instead of straight up like most volcanoes is why so many people died, many of them were in areas that were considered safe otherwise, including the scientist who took the famous still shots of the side's collapse.

Mother Nature doesn't fuck around.

Brian Williams was there.

10:48 Lightning bolt in the ash.

i was born in vancouver WA and when ever i go on a highway i see mount saint helens

I have cousins that died there trying to get off the mountain. All that was found was the bumper off their car with the license plate still intact.

The degree of echo they used is extreme by today's standards

This is really interesting to watch I wasn't alive when this happened but that echo is really freaking aggravating.

3:26 - 2nd vent four miles West of Spirit Lake? I had not heard of this (?) - but then again, I didn't know to research such a thing [over the event.]

Wow Kiro's Essex Porter was reporting on this!

poor crusty old Harry, shoulda listened to Larry.

and though we were trying, we just couldn't see any dead bodies in the debris pile. And also, the shoestring glacier fed into the lewis river valley and had nothing to do with the Toutle river flooding. Back to you.

Like mt. Vesuvious folks didn't think the mount st. Helen's would blow as it did pompeii Naples hadn't thought vesuvio hill was a volcano

I was 9 days old.

Nature is unbelievable.

Lol that old man at the end "thank you David" looks like he seen a ghost..that look on his face.

i was six months old when she exploded and now i am 38 years old

Rip harry Truman wish I could of met you

Yellowstone may do something close to this in the near future : [

Harry truman? Dave crockett? Crazy names involved in this. Btw, I live in Washington..I remember this well.

Echo echo echo

yup i was there for that....geez i have survived floods, earthquakes, forest fires, hurricanes, what have i missed?

Why why is is there there an an echo echo??

7:17 - her hair looks like an erupting ash cloud. :P

Wow, geez

Did they gather the trees they needed so badly, all they need do is pick them up now👍

Favorite volcano ever.

Reverb!!!!!

some of the scenes were used in the movie

looks like palm reading went wrong he died anyways

so this is an ABC owned network I can tell by the ABC News theme song in the beginning

HELLO..HELo..HEllo..Hello ...hello

come on..as soon as i saw the bulge i knew it would pop sideways..its common sense

How terrible

Praise be our Lord and Savior Chris Roberts!

Your making no sense! !!!

Damn this reverb is annoying af.

Mt. St.Helen's was not a volcano!

Was 20 years old at the time, living in Denver and working at Lowry AFS in Colorado. This was such an extreme and sad event. I remember ash being all over the cars in our apartment complex.