'It Seemed Apocalyptic' 40 Years Ago When Mount St. Helens Erupted
Howard Berkes covered the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens for NPR, and has returned to the volcano for multiple stories over the years. He recalls the massive blast and its aftermath.
I was 150 miles away on May 18, 1980, when Mount St. Helens blew, but my bed shook and the windows on my Oregon A-frame rattled.
I rushed to my radio station and its clacking Associated Press wire machine, and pulled up a pile of wire copy from the floor. The reports coming in from southwest Washington state were hard to believe:
- A boiling plume of ash rising 15 miles high.
- The top 1,300 feet of the mountain gone.
- The north slope blown out with an avalanche of mud, rock and ice burying valleys and racing downstream.
- A pyrochlastic flow of searing hot ash and gas.
- Mile after mile of Douglas Fir forest mowed down like toothpicks.
- Trees, boulders, logging trucks and houses floating down rivers and smashing into bridges.
- Ashfall so thick day turned to night across eastern Washington and into Idaho and Montana.
- Desperate rescue efforts underway for dozens of missing people.
It seemed apocalyptic.
A closer look
And it looked that way
