Looking back at the Mount St. Helens eruption 

I was 10 years old in Spokane, Washington when it happened. I still have a container of ash from my front yard from when it happened. A day I will never forget.

40 years... Seems like yesterday. man, I'm getting old.

I remember it well. It’s something I will never forget.

Today's my birthday and I remember this well. I was 14 at the time, living in Spokane. Day looked like night with all the soot in the air, and when it settled there was 8 inches of build up. Schools and businesses were closed for weeks. Scary times. All I can say is respect Mother Nature.

2:26 "what do they expect us to survive on?" Lady, what do you expect when you live near an active volcano. That's like living in Antartica and complaining that its cold.

People still don't believe that they are truly at risk... Until it's too late.

I was 12 when it erupted. I lived in Albuquerque so I watched it all unfold on television. Anyone else remember the ads on TV for jars of Mt. St. Helens ash? Act now and own a piece of history!

My dad was logging up there then, but on May 18 my Aunt got married in Spokane so he was gone for the weekend, my mom was pregnant with me at the time.

I was born in 83 and spent a lot of my childhood at my grandma's farm house in the Palouse outside of Spokane. Anywhere around her house you could dig into the soil and find the layer of ash. A lot of ash deposits were still on the surface and sides of the highway and local roads even in the late 80s/early 90s. The local town cafe still had pictures on the wall of ash feet deep in town, being plowed by local folks with pickup trucks and makeshift plows.

My 17th birthday 🎂 I’m 57 today 💖

I was 7 and lived in Colorado at the time and I remember when this happened. I remember ash and dust covering cars parked outside and my swingset in the backyard.

As a geologist I was fascinated and oddly one of my favorite memories of this event was on "CBS Sunday Morning" in March when Charles Kuralt, as only he could say it, started the broadcast with something like, "For the first time in two hundred years there is an active volcano within the mainland of the United States." Then video show the smallest whiff of steam coming from the summit. It was certainly no precursor for what was to come eight weeks or so later. Wish the 2020 producers would have had Jane Pauley start off with that clip.

I remember the news reports - I was days away from graduating from HS - RIP to the souls who were lost.

I remember very well, RIP Mr. David Johnston (USGS) & thank you for your service. Thanks also to Mr. Harry Glicken (died 1991 Unzen Japan) for your work with Mr. Johnston. Together you saved thousands of lives. Finally, RIP Mr. Gerry Martin, a amateur radio operator who witnessed & reported the blast overwhelming of David Johnston's post, and then reported his own final moments. There were people then who ridiculed these men who died, people who live today because of their sacrifices. No mo talk!

I was five at the time. We spent the sunny Sunday morning at the Colville Indian Reservation salmon feed where I sat next to my great grandmother. After we dropped her off, there were nothing but clouds. We spent sometime in the backyard then my parents told us to come inside. The next morning the entire neighborhood was covered in ash. No one could drive or walk outside without a mask. We were about 300 miles northeast of the blast. I'll never forget that day

I remember being at Mt Rainer when St. Helens went off. It really just looked like another rain front was coming in from the South, NPS closed the park so I drove back to Seattle. When I got home I went to Safeway and all of the shelves were barren. It was worse than Covid-19. Horrifying to see no meat, bread, dairy, can goods all gone. Seattle freaked-out, but Spokane took the brunt of it with 20" of ash and no sun for a couple of days.

I was 7 1/2 and lived in salem. I remember this well. Pretty life changing.

..glad it was a Sunday..many workers in those woods. We were lucky

"I think the whole thing is just ridiculous" 2:20

I remember well too it was the week I graduated from HS. All news coverage was about the eruption. Unforgettable

And now USGS is watching Rainier like a hawk, because there are more lives expected to be lost from Rainier than was lost from St Helens. I can remember my aunt and uncle telling me they were able to see the eruption from their place, here it is little over 40 years later and the mountain looks like she's repairing herself faster than volcanologists expected, then again the area that was the blast zone is also repairing itself faster than they expected. What helped was that a lot of plant life was in hibernation mode, so it survived what normally would of killed it. Wildlife has been slowly returning for years, last time I was there it was reported that more deer was spotted, and that bears were also returning as well. A cool feature of the area is also Ape Caves, if you travel along ot far enough you get close to the magma chamber of St Helens, the hike to get to it is well worth it. I'm surprised they did not mention Harry Truman in this video, but many now don't remember him as anything more than a crazy old man, when in reality he was simply saying that since his wife was buried there, he wouldn't leave her, he couldn't leave behind his work. He would of been perhaps the second death that day, if I'm recalling correctly Spirit Lake and where his lodge was weren't too far from the ridge where Johnston had set up his camp to watch the volcano. Both of their spirits are probably to this day wandering around the area, in awe of the power held in from that once beautiful coned shaped mountain.

I was 11 when she popped her top. I remember all the news footage from the moment she started to awaken until she popped her top..it was the most intriguing thing I have ever witnessed. It was and still is unusual for an 11 yr old to be glued every night to the nightly news but i was.

I was turning 5 and was up in Bellingham which about 300 miles away from Mt St Helens. It could be heard all the way from there. It even greyed out the skies. What I can remember is it sounding like the old TVs with the white noise. You could hardly hear anything else around you as it drowned any sound near you. I was playing outside and was wondering what in the world is going on?

2:22 Half a mountain literally blew up and this lady is crying about the situation being blown out of proportion. Some people man....

I lived in the Kent valley and worked a few miles away at Boeing's Kent Space Center at the time. I had a clear view of the mountain in both locations, so I watched the 1st eruption with my neighbors and the 2nd eruption in August with my coworkers. Knowing some of my coworkers had climbed the mountain a year earlier made watching the eruptions even more bizarre....

Remember that time well. Have a daughter who will turn 40 next year!

2:24 people like this still exist today. Same psycho Karen different circumstance lol.

The artwork of the sun at the end is beautiful.

I remember this Crystal clearly because that's when people still hung their clothes outside to dry and we have Ash in Illinois from this.

My dad was actually just born when it erupted and his mom (my grandmother) was named Helen

I was 32 years old and lived across the Columbia River in Gresham Oregon. I had gone to the Fred Meyer store that morning and on the way back, I think about 8:45 AM, I saw this huge plume of smoke and ashes shooting straight up in the sky. I, of course, new what happened, as it was featured on the news for months leading up to this event. No one person predicted it was going to be that big and destructive.

Dude that's awesome! I'd love to get a pic of that giant volcano

I was only 5 years old when this happened and I can still remember it like it was yesterday. Ash coming down like snow and the smell was horrible. We ended up collecting a couple of Mason jars full of the ash. What a memory

Wow. Breathtaking

I CANNOT BELIEVE that it has been FORTY YEARS since the Mt. St. Helens eruption!! I remember it like it was YESTERDAY!!!

I was 3 years old, and living near Tacoma, when It blew up.

I was just over 2 months old when the eruption occurred, but grew up hearing my mother talk about finding a dusting of volcanic ash on her roses all the way down in Newport Oregon.

Interesting to stop the video at :20 then again at 4:30 - You can see how the mountain changed.

I was 11 years old in Salem, Oregon and was playing in my backyard when we seen the plume of ash in the sky. Let my parents know what I saw and we watched the news all day long that day, then we got the light layer of ash on our cars, house everywhere. I remember it like yesterday.

Beautiful job. Symbolism: A+

I lived in Longview/Kelso when the mountain erupted. We could see the eruptions from our back yard. Grew up going to the museum they built and Spirit Lake.

I’ve been there since and it’s one of my favorite sites. Very quiet and peaceful.

I was in Pasco Washington a 145 due East of Mount Saint Helens when it blew, and I remember what I was doing. It is etched in my mind.

It was my 1st birthday. I'd never heard of it it until yesterday. Watched a documentary on it last night.

Humans: we are the cause of the most CO2 emissions. Earth: Hold my beer.....

43 years later and that land still has very heavy scars from that one eruption that have not been grown or covered over in the time since.

A day later and my fiancé’s dad would have been up in the area logging

I was 10 when Mt Saint Helens, blew we were in Tacoma, visiting my great aunt.

Me- scared of volcanoes Also me- I'll watch a st. Helens video

My husband and I got engaged that day - so I always remember when it happened.

My Social Studies teacher wanted us to watch this, and it's really interesting! :)

I was a student at WSU at that time. I was asleep, woke up in the afteroon to darkness outside. I heard excited voices out in the hall and went out to investigate. When they told me it was ash from Mount St. Helens, I said, "Are you crazy? That's more than 300 miles away!" Obviously, my major was NOT volcanology! Because we were near the end of the semester, WSU students were given the option of accepting the grades they currently had and skipping finals or hanging in there and finishing the semester. I hung in. For years I kept a little plastic tube of volcanic ash, which eventually disappeared after several moves

I can't believe 40 years have passed since that 17th May 1980. I was an exchange DIS undergraduate student studying/living then with Danish family in Copenhagen. Back then we only had limited immediate info from AP wire and calls back home. Seems so primitive now. My Missouri family filled me via telephone (not cell either then!) as other classmates from Calf & Washington states got more details, all incredible. I remember watching the Danish TV news on it as well, all incrediable force of mother nature demanding our respect, even now!

I was camping with a group of friends, up on the south side of My Hood. This was before cell phones, so When we woke up the that morning and saw the plume cloud, we thought a bomb had been drop on Portland! Well there might have been some drinking going on...ha. Still, it was Unbelievable! We were assured this could never happen.

My father in law and I drove to within five miles south of the mountain and watched. It sounded like the mouth of a blast furnace.

Well done, what an amazing event, I always get the feels when I see how chill that young Geologist looked it's good to remember.

Nice piece on St. Helens. I remember it well that morning. I was a Junior in HS in Pullman, Wa. Just curious, love the artwork at the end. Looks to be a topographical vector type art of St. Helens possibly? Wonder where one could get a copy or the name of the artwork.

Pyroclast is the real killer that comes from volcanos

I saw Mount St. Helens up close for the first time in Oregon from a highway. It’s easily identifiable because it has no top. The landslide that triggered the eruption tore off 1,300 feet off the summit.

We had vacation scheduled that day. We had to go through SEATAC to get to Portland. When we flew over the area, they had to turn off the air intake. There was ash in the air all week in Portland. Some gave us a film canister with ash it from a siding of the Burlinton Northern railroad. A few months ago I gave the ash to my son to use in his tag class to teach about volcanoes. He was 9 mos old when the mountain blew.

"I just think this whole thing is ridiculous" as a volcano just launched half a mountain at them like wtf

0:45 not as disappointed as I am with the Mic guy holding the mic in the shot!

I remember it well. It was a fine swell day.

Hard to believe it’s been 40 Years!!!

Whenever I hear Mount St. Helens, I think of the Bill Wurtz song

I remember my grandmother rushing us inside, thinking that there was a storm brewing, and the ash falling for days.

Growing up in Ephrata in central Washington, we lied directly in the path of the ash cloud that would eventually, two weeks later, encircle the entire earth. Central Washington got DUMPED ON. It was scary for a 5 year-old, and it was scary for my parents, too. Nobody knew the effects the ash would have on our cars, homes, our lives, especially when you lived out in the country like we did. I just remember walking into church that morning to a bright, sunny Sunday morning, and then walking out of the church a couple hours later to an ominous wall of a cloud bearing down on us from the west.

BTW the book mentioned in this video is great. I read it a few years ago.

May 18,1980,dawned as the beautiful day I had ever.That day we were getting the ranger station clean up. I wàs stationed at the Cle Elum Ranger District. At 8:30 a.m. the call out.Mt.St.Helens has erupted, All park and forest ranger evacuate the park. We rush in the direction of the event.What I saw is still with my to this day. Death never looked so beautiful! We were hit by flow.I always thank God for looking out for my.

I haven't had TV for quite some time, so the jaw-drop factor on this for me is that Jane Pauley is the host of CBS Sunday Morning. I was born in 1970 and spent my formative childhood watching her co-host the Today Show with Tom Brokaw. Now, I don't remember Pauley being *old* then, per se, but I also don't remember her being a kid fresh into the business. In 1975 I'd have put her at ... oh, about 35. Which would make her EIGHTY YEARS OLD. Which she clearly cannot be, but still.

Wow, the good ol' days. Be nice to go back in time where it was safe. Sit at some nice coffee shop and watch it go up. Now, I'm stuck at home.

And a Yellowstone major eruption would make the 1980 Mt St.Hellens eruption look like a Boyscout campfire.

We just did Loowit Loop and it definitely was beautiful and same time scary.

I can't believe I just turned 40. But I was born on the day Mt. Saint Helen's first woke up, in nearby Vancouver Washington. So yes, this did happen four decades ago.

"When Mount St. Helens erupted, it was a disaster." ~ St. Claudia (🇺🇲🇺🇸)

2:48 and she would go on to own Sabre Printers.

Poor David Johnson!

I was in 10th grade when it happened and remember it well.

Love me some Jane Pauly !

2:33 "I think the whole thing is ridiculous" Legend has it she said the same thing about Microsoft a few years later.

I was 4 years old when this happened. I don't remember anything of this. I was living in NYC so it didn't really effect my family. Thankfully.

That was very sad

40 years ago!

41 years ago we lost more than 57+ lives.. may they rest in peace

wow thats just insane

I'm 47, I barely remember it. We lived in south dakota but its all everyone was talking about, my little sister was born June 11th.

I remember...we had ash falling in Fontana, California....I wish now I would have saved some....

My birthday is the day after ( I'm older lol) but I have visited the spot very interesting

I was on an airplane with my new wife going on our honeymoon and we were able to see the plume out the right side of the plane. Unfortunately, the volcano was a precursor for other things erupting and collapsing.

Wow! 😱

I love the volcanoes.

I remember that day.

I lived in Boise, Idaho... we were getting ashes on our cars, daily...

I learned that if there is a volcano about to erupt you go as far away as you can not just ten miles or outside the danger zone.

Well I heard this in boss baby ( don’t judge me ) and in one of the episodes Tim’s grandmother said mount st Helen is about to blow.

What I’m learning from history is if you hear a woman say “I don’t see why everyone is so worried” You should immediately be very worried and hastily exit to at least triple the minimum safe distance.

Instagram Woman: Whee ... an exploding volcano hee hee hee lol

I remember!

We went to Disneyland and ash was coming down on us. I don't remember if it was the same day or the next day...

Kinda feels like today’s situation with covid. The people don’t see their own repercussions so they don’t believe there is any danger before it’s too late.