The 1980 Eruption of Mt St Helens – In Terms of Armageddon – By Scott Brundage and KOZI

May 18, 1980 started as a delightful spring day in the Lake Chelan Valley.  A sunny Sunday morning with many people heading off to church, and others out in their yards, beginning a day of clean-up, after a long winter. Two “Sonic Booms “( or so they sounded) startled most who heard them, and yet there was something different about their sound. Initially it was a fleeting thought.

In the passing minutes that Sunday morning, it began to become very clear, there had been an explosion somewhere. And we began to
to see a cloud rising above the South West horizon.

For KOZI’s veteran newsman Scott Brundage, he knew what it was instantly. He had been interviewing scientists about Mt St Helens potential as a massive volcano for over a year. He had talked to the local people in the area of Toutle Lake, and had reported on Harry Truman, the fellow who lived on the mountain. And he had interviewed geological experts at the University of Washington.
Brundage  had assembled a massive contact list, should the mountaiin blow. And when he heard the boom-boom (two distinct booms … just seconds apart), newsman Brundage splashed some water on his face, grabbed some smokes,  and headed to KOZI’s News Room, and took to the air almost immediatly. He was glued to that chair for the next 12 hours.

The story that unfolded that morning, and his articulate and well researched reporting of that day, earned Brundage and KOZI Radio
special honors and recognition by the Associated Press at their annual dinner a year later. The Award was presented by
Washington State Governor, John Spellman.

In this audio summary which Brundage put togther months after the eruption you hear a spell-binding documentary reflecting  how the eruption of Mt St Helens impacted the region. Anyone who was in the Pacific Northwest on May 18, 1980 will have a story to tell of where they were and how they felt that traumatic Sunday morning.  That’s what you hear in this award winning report. ~ Jerry Isenhart  (Owner & General Manager of KOZI from 1969-1999)