46 years later, Mount St. Helens eruption still shapes Pacific Northwest

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]But today marks 46 years since the devastating eruption of Mount St. Helens that killed 57 people.

[00:00:06]>> This morning we're breaking open in the KJW vault to take a look back at that historic day.

[00:00:13][music] >> This is a special report of the King Broadcasting Network live from KGW News8 in Portland, [music] Oregon.

[00:00:20]>> First we take you live to Amboy, Washington where reporter Boyd Levit is standing by in the shadow of Mount St. Helens. Boy, >> for [snorts] Robin and Ralph, the volcano's blasts have come with a vengeance [music] today. The spectacle of the massive plume is one that few will forget. With a little bit of wind from the [music] west late today, we can get a little better view of it this afternoon than we had earlier in the day to see that the conically shaped top of the mountain is now gone. That [music] in fact, there's a rounded appearance to the top of the volcano. That the steam and the ash are coming from a wide area on top. Obviously, there is a very large crater there.

[00:00:56]Well, certainly a historic day, but uh you know those [music] memories sear themselves into your uh into your mind.

[00:01:04]And so it was the first day somewhere around [music] mid-March well March 20 if I remember right when there was an earthquake and it was a 5.0 sort of thing. And uh [music] my assignment was simply on day one to go up and do something uh with the story about an earthquake.

[00:01:23]A few moments ago, we felt one of those strong earthquakes. We were sitting in our news car at about 9:05 in the morning. First, a slow rocking motion and then [music] a few fast jolts and then several aftershocks. But when the bulge started on [music] the north side of the mountain and there was this pressure pushing up and and the whole edge of the mountain was sort of creeping [music] up like that, then the geologists said to themselves and then to the public, this is something potentially very very dangerous. I I will admit that at one point [music] I stood on the top of the mountain as the bulge was bulging and uh you could look at it horizontally and it was growing at the rate of 5 ft a [music] day and that was worrisome to everybody.

[00:02:07]>> We've got an eruption down here. Now we got a big slide coming off. the slide is coming off of the west slope >> and uh the station called and [music] said uh it's changed big time and it took me about 30 seconds to get my hiking boots on and all [music] my gear and uh that iconic KGW blue jacket out [music] the door uh into town um up to the tool curves and there it was.

[00:02:35]We weren't quite prepared for what we saw today. And what we smelled today inside the aircraft here, a sickening stench of hydrogen sulfide.

[00:02:46]57 [music] families lost loved ones in this and several of my friends as well.

[00:02:52]So, um that [music] it was a story of drama that didn't end on May 18th. It was just beginning as the [music] ash is continuing to come out of the mountain at this hour at sunset here on the southwest side of Mount St. Helens and from our position [music] on the top of Mount Amboy, I'm Boyd Levit reporting.

[00:03:10]>> I mean, it's not often that we see huge stories like that and go in depth of the storytelling of it. Obviously, for us, it's extremely, you know, interesting, but just to know that that story, the the aftermath, weeks, months, years of telling what happened on that day is incredible. It was um I mean I I still remember that was the May that I graduated from high school.

[00:03:34]So I still have some memory of that being it was obviously the big national story in the country >> and the fact that it had just obliterated I don't know how many acres and miles of acres of everything around it. And it was it was um I think you had to get close to the year 2000 before the forest really started to show signs of rec coming to life which it has largely now up there. I just checked uh and we did the story earlier. The road to the Johnson Ridge Observatory was washed out a couple years back. They're hoping to have that road and the observatory fully open spring of 2027. Okay.

[00:04:09]>> And if you've never been up there, it's a definite bucket list. I'm sure they'll have all new films and everything else.

[00:04:14]They constantly update the story up there.