On May 18, 1980, a major volcanic eruption occurred at Mount St. Helens, a volcano located in Skamania County, in the U.S. state of Washington. The eruption (a VEI 5 event) was the most significant volcanic eruption to occur in the contiguous 48 U.S. states since the much smaller 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California. It has often been declared as the most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history. The eruption was preceded by a two-month series of earthquakes and steam-venting episodes, caused by an injection of magma at shallow depth below the volcano that created a large bulge and a fracture system on the mountain's north slope.
The May 18, 1980, event was the most deadly and economically destructive volcanic eruption in the history of the contiguous United States.[5] Approximately fifty-seven people were killed directly from the blast and 200 houses, 47 bridges, 15 miles (24 km) of railways and 185 miles (298 km) of highway were destroyed; two people were killed indirectly in accidents that resulted from poor visibility, and two more suffered fatal heart attacks from shoveling ash.[37] U.S. President Jimmy Carter surveyed the damage and said it looked more desolate than a moonscape.[38][39]
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A film crew was dropped by helicopter on Mount St. Helens on May 23 to document the destruction. However, their compasses spun in circles and they quickly became lost.[40] A second eruption occurred the next day, but the crew survived and were rescued two days after that.
Per here, Michael S. Keys posted this image on Facebook and shared a string of messages he received from a man named Steve Firth, which provide some good insight into how the photograph came to be. The messages are in the photo comments, and retyped as one here:
“Hi Michael, you don’t know me but my daughter saw your post of Mt. St. Helens blowing and showed it to me because she recognized it. That Pinto and dirt bike belonged to a good friend of mine and when he stopped to turn around, he took this picture. He told me that there was lightning bolts shooting out of the smoke but he didn’t have the right filter on his camera to capture them at that moment. The picture could have been even more amazing. It was used on the TV news and used to be on the cover of Mt. St. Helens brochure at the Johnston Observatory / visitor center. He gave me an original 8×10 copy of it although it looked like he was a good distance away from the blast, he barely made it out of there alive. Had the blast came more in his direction he would have died in seconds. Sometime later he returned and photographed a burned-out pickup with a horse trailer attached to it. He told me he had talked to them that day and said they never made it out. He is a freelance photographer so he took some amazing pictures of the aftermath as well. Anyhow, I thought I’d let you know a bit more about that fabulous picture. Take care, Steve.”
Lived in Tacoma Washington at the time .walked outside and saw the ash plume. Friends on motorcycles were caught in eastern Washington at thetime of the blast. They thought the world had ended. Pulled their bikeinto a strip motel and partied at a bar there.
syd430 on March 18th, 2019 at 11:35 UTC »
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Lucky fuckers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens
Spartan2470 on March 18th, 2019 at 12:42 UTC »
Per here, Michael S. Keys posted this image on Facebook and shared a string of messages he received from a man named Steve Firth, which provide some good insight into how the photograph came to be. The messages are in the photo comments, and retyped as one here:
Edit: For clarity. Thanks /u/UnluckyPenguins.
dauntless_red on March 18th, 2019 at 13:32 UTC »
Lived in Tacoma Washington at the time .walked outside and saw the ash plume. Friends on motorcycles were caught in eastern Washington at thetime of the blast. They thought the world had ended. Pulled their bikeinto a strip motel and partied at a bar there.