Make It Out Alive

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted with a force equivalent to 1,500 Hiroshima atom bombs, shooting gas and ash 15 miles high and obliterating virtually everything within an eight-mile radius. Trapped in the disaster were six people, including scientists studying the volcano, an elderly resident who refused to be evacuated, and campers who thought they were outside the danger zone. These are their stories, relived and retold by the lucky survivors and the friends and family of the fallen.