Chilling Mount St. Helens survival stories

With some of the most heart-stopping video footage on record as the backdrop, Douglas H. McGillicuddy (of VCR Datin' fame) recounts his own harrowing experience surviving the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980.

Thirty years later, the footage and the memories are no less vivid than they were that fateful day.

Music Credits: "Oh, Harry Truman" by RW Stone (Ron Allen & Steve Asplund)

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 30 year
• eruption
• harry truman
• spirit lodge
• david johnston
• crater lake
• volcano
• destruction
• VCR Datin'
• death
• mayhem
• lahar
• mudslide
• ash
• fire
• mount saint helens
• record
• news
• washington state
• devastation
• anniversary
• May 18
• 1980
• gary rosenquist
• world record
• loss of life
• catastrophe
• cowlitz river
• livestock death

[thenepotists]

There may have been several, but it's a good chance you're thinking of Harry Truman (owner of the Spirit Lodge on the mountain). The song in this video was written as his tribute.

Despite what we're told about Climate Change, I guess when it's nature vs. man, nature still (sometimes) wins.

[theblackpixieJTHM]

Can't find my dog... Better drink my own piss.

[Emsworker68]

I remember a car driving alone try to escape the fire. I think it was an older couple. They did not want to break the speed limit so they obeyed the law. Another car driving extremely fast overtook them and kept going. That car survived, just barely and the olther car was swallowed up and they died. Sometimes it is ok to break the law. Bothers me even to this day.

[thebest2900]

where you got the first picture

[RStarga]

I remember one guy who lived near the mountain, talking on TV with such false pride that no one was going to tell HIM he should leave his home because the mountain was ready to blow.

Needless to say, pride always comes before the fall...he was found under about 8 feet of ash.