40 Years Ago on May 18

Posted May 14, 2020 at 2:50 pm by

Eruption of Mount St. Helens, May 18, 1980 – WSDOT photo

It is one of those events that – if you were alive – you likely remember.

Where were you at 8:32 a.m. on Sunday, May 18, 1980?

Monday marks 40 years since Mount St. Helens erupted. Fifty-seven people died, and the way we look at the power of nature was altered forever. This week WSDOT dug into the archives and shared some powerful images from the eruption, and the response, on their @WSDOT Instagram account.

You can support the San Juan Update by doing business with our loyal advertisers, and by making a one-time contribution or a recurring donation.


Categories: Nature
2 comments:

2 comments...

  1. A barracks at USCG Tracen Alameda, CA – We hadn’t officially started our prior service Coast Guard Boot Camp yet. We arrived on Friday and were confined to barracks over the weekend until Monday morning. One member, last name Sinclair was from Spokane and was very concerned about some people he knew living in the area.

    Comment by Miles Crossen on May 15, 2020 at 8:58 am
  2. I was asleep (like most 17 yr olds that early in the morning) upstairs in our house on Grover Street right where the elementary school is now. It rattled our old turn of the century home enough to wake me up and bring me downstairs to find my mom in the living room wondering if there was an earthquake or explosion or something. We looked around outside for columns of black, billowing smoke and finding nothing went back to bed. But not before I said jokingly “maybe it was Mount St. Helens”, but really not believing it could have been.

    Comment by Tim Dustrude on May 15, 2020 at 10:05 am

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting a comment you grant the San Juan Update a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate, irrelevant and contentious comments may not be published at an admin's discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.

Receive new post updates: Entries (RSS)
Receive followup comments updates: RSS 2.0