May 18, 1980

It is said that a "moment lasts a second, but the memory lives on forever."  If you lived in the Pacific Northwest, 30 years ago today, you probably have your own memory of this fateful day in disaster history.

Thanks to our friends at the U.S. Geological Service, CRESA would like the honor the memory of the Mt. St. Helens Eruption, which began on May 18th, 1980 after a 5.1 magnitude earthquake, in the following collection of pictures:

This is a picture of Mt. St. Helens at 8:35 a.m. 

The plume cloud reached 12-16 miles above sea level.

This is the blow-down of trees at Fawn Lake. 

It is estimated that 4 billion board feet of usable timber was damaged around Mt. St. Helens.

17 pyroclastic flows occurred on May 18th at rates of 60 miles per hour and reaching 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

47 bridged were destroyed along with 185 miles of highway and 15 miles of rail lines.

250 homes were destroyed and 57 people lost their lives. 

Remember the picture of Spirit Lake that we posted yesterday, here is it again 2 years after the eruption.

In memory of this significant natural disaster, please do something today to make yourself better prepared to respond to emergencies for those who depend on you.