May 18, 2015 marks the 35th anniversary of the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Here are some of the striking images. VPC
Fifty-seven people died when Mount St. Helens erupted in Washington on May 18, 1980 at 8:32 a.m.
Autopsies showed that most of the people killed in the eruption likely died from asphyxiation after inhaling hot ash, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Here's a look at three people who stayed near the volcano — either because of work or defiance — and died in the disaster.
Harry Randall Truman
Harry Randall Truman, 83, became somewhat of a folk hero in the weeks leading up to the eruption after he refused to vacate his home near Mount St. Helens despite being urged to leave by officials.
Truman, who owned a lodge on Spirit Lake for more than 50 years, gave colorful interviews to the press.
"I'm going to stay right here because, I'll tell you why, my home and my (expletive) life's here," he told National Geographic in an interview before the disaster. "My wife and I, we both vowed years and years ago that we'd never leave Spirit Lake. We loved it. It's part of me, and I'm part of that (expletive) mountain," he said.
Edna, Truman's wife, had died a few years before the eruption, National Geographicreported.
Numerous news organizations interviewed Truman, who lived alone at the lodge with 16 cats. But after the eruption May 18, his home was hit by a mud and snow avalanche and completely covered. His remains were never found.
A fireman named Fred Johns watched the eruption through a telescope.
"When I saw that big slide hit, I said to myself, 'If Harry Truman and his 16 cats were alive in that lodge, they aren't now,'" Johns told Oregon's The Bulletin in a 1980interview.
Truman's story inspired several songs, including this one from the musician R.W. Stone:
David A. Johnston
David A. Johnston, 30, was a volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. He was monitoring Mount St. Helens from an observation post called Coldwater II on the day it erupted, according to the USGS. The post was thought to be relatively safe but was destroyed in the disaster.
The last transmission heard from Johnston occurred as the eruption happened, according to the Scientific American. Johnston said: "Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!" before his radio signal went dark. His remains were never recovered.
Johnston is credited with saving many lives because he was outspoken about how dangerous the volcano was before the eruption.
"(Johnston) helped persuade the authorities first to limit access to the area around the volcano, and then to resist heavy pressure to reopen it, thereby holding the May 18 death toll to a few tens instead of hundreds or thousands," the USGS said in a statement on its website.
An observatory built at Coldwater II was named the Johnston Ridge Observatory in his honor.
Reid Blackburn
Photojournalist Reid Blackburn, 27, had documented events leading up to the eruption for National Geographic, the USGS and a local paper called The Columbian.
On the morning of May 18, 1980, Blackburn was camped out at a site called Coldwater Creek, eight miles from the north side of the volcano, when it erupted, according to The Columbian.
"Reid Blackburn had only enough time to get in his car before he was caught in the superheated cloud of ash, pumice and gas," The Columbian reported. His remains and his car were found four days after the disaster. The film in his camera was damaged and could not be developed.
However, in 2013 a photo editor at The Columbian found an undeveloped roll of Blackburn's film. When it was processed, it revealed never-before-seen images Blackburn took of the volcano in 1980 during an airplane flyover before the eruption.
The National Press Photographer's Foundation has an annual $2,000 scholarship program for young photographers in Blackburn's name. According to the NPPF, Blackburn kept the following quote in his darkroom on a small scrap of paper: "Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes — just sometimes — one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses in awareness." — Photographer W. Eugene Smith.
See NASA images of Mount St. Helens from 1979 to 2013
NASA images of Mount St. Helens from 1979 to 2013. Earlier satellite images display vegetation as red. NASA's Earth Observatory
end quote from:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/05/17/mount-st-helens-people-stayed/27311467/
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