Eyewitness' final words as he watches Mount St. Helens erupt

At 8:32 a.m. PDT on May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens, in southwestern Washington, suffers a massive eruption, killing 57 people and devastating some 210 square miles of wilderness.

Called Louwala-Clough, or “the Smoking Mountain,” by Native Americans, Mount St. Helens is located in the Cascade Range and stood 9,680 feet before its eruption. The volcano has erupted periodically during the last 4,500 years, and the last active period was between 1831 and 1857. On March 20, 1980, noticeable volcanic activity began with a series of earth tremors centered on the ground just beneath the north flank of the mountain. These earthquakes escalated, and on March 27 a minor eruption occurred, and Mount St. Helens began emitting steam and ash through its crater and vents.

Gerry Martin was there that day. He reported what he saw as the eruption ultimately took his life. #RIP

#MountStHelens, #Volcano

[Gabriel-nvib]

" we cant get out of here." He assessed the situation and started coming to peace with himself. That hits hard

[scot]

I was 19 when this happened and I remember an old man named Harry Truman (yep that was his real name). He had a lodge near the mountain. He refused to leave because he was stubborn and wanted to stay with his lodge and his animals. He, his lodge, and his animals are buried under the ash to this day.

[robmangeri]

So calm and collected for a man who knew he was going to die.

[jamesphlames]

What an absolute boss of a man! No fear in his voice, just merely explaining perfectly what is happening. He knew his time was up and didn't bat an eyelid.
I hope that when my time comes I can go out with this much class.

[FreedominaKilt]

He was a ham radio operator giving a report on his observations that morning. This is a recording of his last transmission before the eruption claimed his life.

[slyguythreeonetwonine]

"It's gonna get me too."

I endeavor to die with such grace.

[ellenbryn]

Gerry Martin doing his job to the last. He was a ham radio operator for the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, a vital realtime monitoring system like storm spotters in the days before webcams.

He and geologist David Johnson in the camper he mentioned were both on duty monitoring the volcano within the red zone which Johnson himself had helped establish*. i'm glad we now have remote sensors and video cameras so that we don't have to put human souls in danger to monitor threats like this.

* (although the geologists had recommended a wider zone — no deaths occurred within the evacuation area they recommended, but it clashed with logging and hunting/fishing licensing interests, so the governor had moved the red zone borders closer then blamed the dead claiming they were inside the evacuation zone, debunked years layer for everyone except these two heroes on duty, a couple other geologists, and a local lodge owner who became a celebrity for refusing to evacuate himself and all his pets.)

[DJBillionator]

Sir, thank you for keeping us informed! Lots of people that day were saved by his transmissions. A true hero.

[Diskoboy]

The camper and car to the south of him he was referring to was the Coldwater 2 camp. David Johnson was on watch when St. Helens erupted. He transmitted the now famous last words, "Vancouver, Vancouver, This is it!" as the flow came down the hill towards him.

[CapAnson]

He was seven miles away and the recording isn't chopped up.. that's literally how quick it took for the flows to reach him after the eruption.

[VincentFlores-nm]

He’s also describing the Geological processes taking place for further research. He mentions which sides the volcano has collapsed and what not. Doing all of that while knowing he was soon about to die.

[animalmother]

This is the only live footage of the lateral eruption that I've ever seen.
It's incredible to me that with so many cameras pointed at that mountain, not one caught the actual explosion. Well, none that weren't destroyed.
God bless them all.

[abominusrex]

Yeah. I would endeavour to quit this world like this man. Calm, no swearing and total acceptance.

[richardbeckenbaugh]

My friends and I climbed St. Helens in early February, just before they closed the mountain. I saw a crevasse open up on the mountain where we had hiked just a week before. Chilling. The trailhead was pretty well maintained even in winter and it was a three mile snowshoe trek to the summit. Now the road ends many miles away, to keep people from going into the danger zone. I’ve been back twice, the landscape looks very different from before the eruption and very different from immediately after as well.

[RagingMoon]

How hellish that must've been. He had enuff time to report what he was seeing, but he couldn't escape.

[thexsoar]

I stood on my porch as a child in Kelso and watched it grow into the sky, and then become the sky. There are no words to describe it.

[bakkerem]

Knowing he was out of luck he decided to just enjoy the show. Respect !

[Grandizer]

1980 was the first year that I can remember watching the news. It started with Miracle on Ice, then St Helen’s, and then John Lennon’s death.

[stuartlent]

Actually, there was a guy named Johnson who was seconds from death, and he had to call Vancouver by radio. All he got out was "Vancouver this is it."

[lilmike]

May 1980 i was 4 months shy of my 11th birthday. Our family stayed home from Church that day to watch the news and I can still remember it like it was yesterday. How time flies 😲