In the Path of Destruction: Eyewitness Chronicles of Mount St. Helens

by Richard Waitt

“The air had no oxygen, like being trapped underwater…I was being cremated, the pain unbearable.”--Jim Scymanky “I was on my knees, my back to the hot wind. It blew me along, lifting my rear so I was up on my hands…It was hot but I didn't feel burned--until I felt my ears curl.”--Mike Hubbard A napping volcano blinked awake in March 1980. Two months later, the mountain roared. Author Richard Waitt was one of the first to arrive following the mountain's early rumblings. A geologist with intimate knowledge of Mount St. Helens, Waitt delivers a detailed and accurate chronicle of events. The eruption story unfolds through unforgettable, riveting narratives--the heart of a masterful chronology that also delivers engrossing science, history, and journalism.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science, Nature

413 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2015

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was prepared just to browse this book and see if there were any new pictures. Living near Mt. St. Helens, I've been there several times and looked at lots of books and articles through the years. But this one really caught me--the story of many people: some who were scientists, some reporters, some pilots and rescuers and many survivors. Even those who perished have their stories as far as known. I feel the strength of this book is the multiple viewpoints, and the strict chronology of events. Some will say this makes for awkward reading, but Waitt provides an ingenious solution that allows cross referencing if you're so motivated. I also appreciate the many maps of all the twisting, confusing forest roads that criss-cross the huge area and what the experiences were at each location. I found this level of detail addictive and the survivors' and searchers' stories are harrowing again even after so many years. Although some old stories are freshly told here, there is also much that's new, and this will be a classic disaster and survival book.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Waitt has clearly done his journalistic diligence. There is no lack of detail in this report, and I can appreciate that. The problem is that the book is a complete failure as a narrative, despite desperately trying to be one. Waitt will introduce a character (these are real people, but he treats them as characters and refers to them as such), talk about them for about a paragraph, drop them for thirty pages, and then bring them up without reintroducing them. The few characters who are present or important enough to be memorable (Mullineaux, Truman, Ray, and a few others) are characterized well enough, but generally Waitt's ambitions to tell a narrative and his ambitions to be as detailed as possible work against each other. He expects the audience to do a lot of work to get something out of this book, which would be fine if it was written like a reference book, but it's not. I gave up after a certain point because reading this was an exercise in tedium, and skimming through the rest it appears that the later sections are better as pure reference material, which is at least something this book has going for it. There is a lot of great information in this book; Waitt just communicates it poorly.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. I was six, a student at Briarglen Elementary in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Despite its significance, I don’t remember much hullabaloo about it at the time; certainly nothing like my memories of the Space Shuttle Columbia launch just 11 months later. The eruption was preceded by two months of earthquakes, and despite heavy monitoring by multiple agencies, the actual blast caught everyone by surprise — as did its force and the ensuing damage.

Richard Waitt, a geologist was the U.S. Geological Survey, was one of the first to arrive on the scene, taking samples, collecting data. Bridging history, science, and journalism, “In the Path of Destruction” is the result of painstaking research and dogged investigative work. In all regards, Waitt’s process is thoroughly methodical, taking absolute precaution to ensure utmost accuracy at every turn. He’s not merely interested in giving us a compelling narrative, an engrossing story. No, Waitt wants to make sure what’s told can withstand not just cross-examination, but unflinching scientific scrutiny. To illustrate this point, dozens of people involved with the event — scientists, journalists, victims, reporters, first responders, etc. — were interviewed and re-interviewed over a period of decades, their own stories cross-referenced against themselves, against all others, and against irrefutable date- and time-stamped data.

The book itself is what you might imagine. At times it’s absolutely compelling, more moving and more realistic than any movie could ever be. The rest of the time it’s clearly written by a scientist who, despite billing the book as “eyewitness accounts” which is technically accurate, has a different agenda. This isn’t a narrative, it’s a reference book, and one that, for better or worse, provides a 360-degree view of every facet of the event. Though the casual reader will appreciate many things about it, including, at times, that 360-degreeness, it’s not really meant for them. It’s meant for other scientists and researchers to use either in their work specifically about this volcano, or, more likely, in preparing for future ones.

I could have done without Waitt’s truncated style mangling much of the book and many of the testimonies (e.g. “In morning I drove to …” instead of “In the morning I drove to …”). I also could have done without the tedium of having four or five (or more) accounts of the same incident, especially when, as was particularly the case with first responders, they differed very little. Still, I’m glad I read it. The eruption of Mount St. Helens was one of the most significant events of my childhood (perhaps the most), and I really knew very little about it. Not only do I now know plenty, but the most compelling stories put me right in the middle of the event, drawing me inside the terror, violence, chaos, fear, and destruction as nothing else could.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tremendous amount of research, it brought me back to the time of the event.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is fascinating and thorough, thousands of hours of painstaking interviews and research to capture and reconstruct first-hand accounts of the Mt St Helens eruption in 1980. I am not at all sorry that I bought and read it-- and I will recommend it to others.

THAT SAID, this book could have used significant editing, especially the first third describing the lead-up to the eruption, before the witness accounts. For readers unfamiliar with the area around the mountain, the dizzyingly frequent references to places failed to provide any coherent picture of the landscape, and the maps were many and incompletely labeled. (For example, one of the more infamous locations, called "Coldwater II," is labelled on only one map in the first 150 pages).Timeline references switch from dates to days of the week randomly, leaving the reader to calculate how much time had passed between events. Throughout the first hand accounts, an effort is made to note when accounts overlap or intersect, but these notes were also inconsistently applied-- and page numbers referencing the specific points of overlap would have been appreciated.

The cast of characters numbers in the high hundreds, and the prose gave little assistance to the reader trying to keep track of all of them. Reminder phrases (e.g. "The Smith family, camping overnight from Vancouver," or "National Guard helicopter pilot Joe Johnson") were few. Most frustrating was the difficulty of keeping track across three hundred pages of which stories led to survival and which did not. The book does not even include a list of victims, though this information is widely available online.

One other small thing: not all the photos referenced and described were printed, which bothered me as I tried to follow the story.

[Steffanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel bad for the two star rating, but really even that is generous for this book. Richard Waitt is clearly not an author, he’s a geologist, and this book suffers greatly for it. He tries to write a narrative about the events of the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens, but he’s constantly jumping back and forth in the timeline, referencing people he hasn’t fully introduced, using technical jargon that is never explained, and switching from past to present tense. He also has an incredibly annoying habit of structuring sentences so that the singular verb is part of a contraction. For example: “we’ve a man on the ridge near Saint Helens,” or “you’ve no job today.” Once in a while this type of grammar wouldn’t bother me, but this type of sentence is the majority of his writing and it’s incredibly distracting. He also likes to leave out verbs and articles entirely. Another example: “Massive landslide could remove half, maybe trigger large eruption.” Why use lot word when few word do trick?

Except this book is also horrendously long and filled with meaningless detail (like the specific equipment loggers used to cut trees into very specific lengths, there is seriously a whole chapter of this worthless info) yet also leaves a lot of important information out, for the sake of the minor points.

I appreciate the Herculean effort that it would have taken to write this book, but I wish Waitt had simply gathered his information and passed it on to somebody who actually had mastery of the English language so they could compile the narrative.

[Jjfisherjr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book about the penultimate eruption of Mount St. Helens.

There are probably thousands of photos taken during the start of the eruption but I've only ever seen the same couple dozen recycled endlessly in books and media. It becomes hard to appreciate the dynamic and changing appearance of the ground hugging blast clouds. This book has many more photos from other sides and distances from the volcano as the eruption began. It is eye opening and surprising in some cases.

What made this book so much better was the inclusion of stories from the people who took the photos.

The book also tells the stories of people who didn't survive. It notes that Govenor Dixie Ray cruelly blamed the victims for their own deaths. She either didn't know, or willfully ignored the fact that all of the victims were legally in areas outside the red zone. In some cases, many miles beyond the boundary. Then other politicians followed suit and decades later the misconception of thrill seekers and dare devils being killed for their arrogance still persists, to the great pain of their friends and families.

The book is laid out in chapters that are geographical. The photos within are clearly labelled with cross referenced stories.

While the book was written with the casual reader in mind, students of vulcanology can find it useful to gain a human perspective from the stories of victims and survivors.

[slauderdale]

It's not a five star book, it has its flaws, but it blew me out of the water. It was like a monument. The library copy I read was the only one in our system, but - cool thing! - it has his autograph on the title page. Spare on photos, but you can find most everything he refers to with comparable ease. Which isn't entirely fortunate, because some of those pictures are very sad.

As I was getting into the home stretch I remarked to my wife that I probably wouldn't need another book on Mount St. Helens after this, but then that hold I had put on "Eruption" by Steve Olson came in and almost immediately I was sucked into the story of the childhood abduction of George Weyerhaeuser, who would be the president of the Weyerhaeuser Company at the time of the events in 1980. So no, "In the Path of Destruction"isn't the only book to be read on the subject, nor for most people would it be the most satisfying - one reader's polyphony is another reader's cacophony. The brutally linear multi-flank approach that Waitt takes does not make for easy reading. Also, although this book was 35 years in the making, it doesn't feel far removed from his field and interview notes, and that (to me, anyway) starts to color the many voices he is recording. Other reviews point out a spotty syntax and need for better editing; what I noticed is that the witnesses start to sound like Richard Waitt. But it is a remarkable, meticulous, invaluable record.

[RebL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. So, I ILL'd this book back in May for the 45th anniversary of the eruption, and it took a bit to show up, but never mind, because it's pretty good if Mount St Helens and/or volcanoes are one of your special interests.

I was eleven years old in May 1980, and had not really every grasped the idea that there were live, active volcanoes in the continental United States, so the eruption caught my interest. This book is not linear storytelling but a collection of eyewitness accounts and recollections from the people who were on the ground trying to figure out what was happening in March, April and the first 17 days of May in 1980; then from those involved in the search, rescue and recovery and the survivors of the volcano and the lahars to the west and the ash-fall to the east.

The book focuses on more folks than just Harry Truman, Reid Blackburn, Robert Landsburg and David Johnston. Honestly it kind of seems that may because they were covered so heavily in 1980, the book focuses on them least. It can be hard to read the accounts at time, especially when reading about body recovery. Some of the accounts repeat others, especially when talking to two separate people who were rescued together. But that's OK since it's not a storybook. It's fascinating reading. 3.98 stars.

[Tagcaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book. I remember when the mountain blew, but I was living in Nashville, TN at the time, so news coverage wasn't that impressive.

The stories by the geologists, media, survivors, and others are fascinating. The only things that I wish were different about the book is two things:

1) The author leaves out the word "the" fairly frequently in the first 1/4 or 1/3 of the book. Example: "we viewed mountain" instead of "we viewed the mountain". This was a bit distracting.

2) The book details lots of photos taken by various people of the mountain during the eruption, but only a small fraction are in the book. It could have used LOTS more photos. Also, captions on the photos (and maps) would have helped to better figure out what they were.

Other than that, quite a good book.

[Mwrogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I became interested in the eruption of Mt. St. Helens after visiting my son in the beautiful state of Washington. We were hiking near the mountain and, after seeing it and imagining the volcano, I wanted to know more. I was in high school when this occurred and I do remember the event, but I don’t recall much about it.

I did some research on which book to read about this subject. I didn’t want one that was purely scientific because I wanted to know about the people and the impact of the eruption on the area.

I chose the right book! I cannot imagine the work and research that went into this book. It covers everything. If anyone is interested in reading one book to learn about the eruption, this would be the book.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who lived in Seattle at the time and as a reporter at the Seattle Times who worked rewrite for the front page stories, I was excited to hear about this book that I hadn’t known of before. It was thorough, well-organized, and mostly well-written. It needed a copy editor badly—quite a few confusing or badly worded passages, confusing typos, etc. I would also have appreciated a list of those who died. But overall a terrific retelling of an amazing event. Working through it as a reporter was memorable, if not the highlight of my career. It was almost strange rereading place names, source names, the names of other reporters I had known at the time. I enjoyed it and recommend it especially to those born after the fact to learn of how cataclysmic an event it was.

[Linda Mullaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very informative book about the 1980 Mt Saint Helens eruption, but there's such a thing as too much detail and in my opinion, this is indicative of it. Every incident is covered multiple times from the points of view of every person involved, as gathered by the author in interviews. Normally I appreciate the extra details, but in this case I found it wearily repetitive rather than adding to the store of knowledge. I guess I'd rather have read it in the form of a story, and this was more in the form of a report or a written documentary. I also had a little difficulty remembering all of the people and what they were doing, but that's my failing and not the author's.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

It sounds cliche, but this book does put you right in the path of destruction. Most books peak in the final chapter. This collection of personal experiences starts right up and doesn’t let go. There were points in the book where I could only read a segment or two at a time before I needed to put it down. I was stressing out as if I was with these people running through hot ash on the edge of being cooked alive.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know why the audiobook is not on Goodreads as an edition, but that's the one I read. It's read by Andy Waits. I thought this was an incredible work by the author. He gathered so many stories I hadn't heard and more details on ones I had heard. For instance, a lot of people who knew him or met him in the days and hours before the eruption thought Harry Truman was actually scared and wanted to leave but had backed himself into a corner with his image with the media, etc. I also didn't know he had so many cats. 😢 The survival stories are so compelling, and the losses still just as devastating... in some cases even more so because he's filled in more of their stories. Well done and highly recommended.

[Jacob Ritter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book if you are into volcanic science or just interested in all history. In the Path of Destruction is about the events that occurred before, during, and after the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. st. Helens. I found this book vary interesting because I like the history and science of volcanoes and Mt. st. Helens is one of my favorite volcanoes.

[Joel Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of Primary Source information and first hand accounts of the eruption it excels in this department. This book is a great Primary Source book and reference! Don't expect falsehoods but the facts, the facts and nothing but the facts. This book is great and if you want to know exactly what happened on May 18th 1980, look no further.

[Stan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book that I read about the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Especially poignant since I personally know some of the people interviewed by Waitt for this book. A great read if you are interested in personal accounts of what happened on May 18, 1980.

[Jennifer]

Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980 - a few days after I was born. My grandmother gave me a small pendant full of ash from the eruption that I kept on a red ribbon. I've been fascinated ever since!

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Multiple eyewitness accounts of the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in Washington State on May 18, 1980, from people who witnessed this event from all sides of the mountain and surrounding areas.

[Nick Grier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and worthwhile read!! So many stories and accounts I had never heard. Highly recommended!

[Chuck Beal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed chronological summary of the MSH eruption in 1980 written by a geologist. If you want to know what happened, this is the book

[Alisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.
Fascinating! Eye witness accounts of an amazing and tragic event.
(This book badly needs editing to fix the narrative story.)

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we decided we wanted to move to the Seattle area, I became very enthusiastic because of three things: the Green River Killer (who was caught not long after we arrived), the Seattle Opera, and Mt. Saint Helens.

The pictures of the explosion and the devastation are so beautiful and so horrible. It's hard to believe nature can wreak so much havoc, but then, we weren't around to see what happened in the age of volcanoes thousands of years BCE. So this is the closest we get.

I visit the site as often as I can and still can't believe it. Now, it's building up again, slowly, with a small dome being created inside the blown off cone.

This book is the best description of the entire event mostly because it relies on first-hand witness reports. Waitt interviewed hundreds of people after the event and some of them again 25 years later. He comments that their stories after all that time are nearly dead on with what they told him all those years ago.

And they are frightening, fantastic, and quite detailed. One rescue pilot mentions that he picked up several people, several dogs and one boa constrictor on one of his runs. Some people mention seeing small animal tracks on top of the ash and some even mention insects wandering around the ash and mud. Almost all of them mention the lack of birdsong on that Sunday morning.

Waitt has organized the book well. He tells the story of the scientists who monitored Helens for months before the explosion and how they were limited at that time in understanding how expansive the explosion would be. The signs that scientists worldwide had determined would show a specific type of quake were present, but none of those signs forecast the specific type of explosion from Helens. You have to give them credit for doing what they could and using the science they had. Now they have much better information on the specific pyroclastic type of explosion Helens was, but at the cost of many lives and much damage. Could they have be better at warning people in the area? Partly but not entirely. This blast was unlike any other seen to that time. However, several area residents said that "pyroclastic" was not explained so they understood it; they expected lava.

After the scientific background, Waitt moves straight into survivor stories, all of which are frightening. He uses Weyerhauser employees, area residents, University of Washington seismologists, US Geological Society employees and even local army reserve and law enforcement personnel to tell the stories. Therefore, we get a well-rounded review of the different viewpoints.

Waitt also gives us stories of the fallout from the eruption. He has witnesses from as far east as Helena, Montana, describe what happened in the succeeding days as the day turned into night and ash fell like snow.

Finally, he moves the stories to the aftereffects: how rescue personnel worked and how they felt about what they were doing. What the politicians thought (one helicopter pilot ferried state governor Dixy Lee Ray and she was unknowingly patched to his headphones. All she talked about was how she had to handle this right so she wouldn't lose votes in the next election. President Jimmy Carter had a much more appropriate response and, being an engineer as well as a peanut farmer, understood the science behind the predictions and the results).

If you have ever had an interest in Mt. Saint Helens, don't settle for any of the books you've already read. You won't really understand the phenomenon until you read this one.

I think I'll have to schedule a trip down before they close for the winter.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a recent webinar on the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, geologist Carolyn Driedger referred to this book simply as "the eyewitness book" and it's the most succinct description of the contents. In the Path of Destruction: Eyewitness Chronicles of Mount St. Helens isn't a book one sits down with and "reads" from cover to cover. It's a catalog of eyewitness testimony, one after another after another. The book is often redundant but not in a bad way. Readers will get a view of the eruption and aftermath from every possible angle, every possible experience, literally from every cardinal direction. In that sense, it's fascinating. Still, it can be a bit of a slog at times, and the need to refer back to what's been read before to connect the accounts and bring some continuity to an individual's experience is sometimes necessary.

If you think the chronicle would be less interesting once the eruption is over, you'd be wrong. There are still the stories of subsequent mudflow, floods, and ash fall which, to me, were surprisingly interesting. There's the story of rescue and recovery attempts. There's a LOT of information in these pages. If you're interested at all in the 1980 eruption, this book digs down into the minutiae of that event, albeit it's not the easiest book to read.

[Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating first hand account of what folks survived on the day of the eruption. The stories have an immediacy to them which is riveting. I found the lead-up to the eruption slow, but contextualy interesting. Once the mountain blows it is a hard to put-down read. I highly reccomend for anyone who lived in the area at the time, or just as a true life adventure/thrilller read. Extremely comprehensive, and a wee bit confusing at times, the story is powerful enough for this not to matter so much. Should be made into an action film stat.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hauntingly terrifying at times, engrossing at others. Though some repetition occurs, my interest held throughout. The author does a fine job projecting, through personal accounts, the enormity of the entire sequence of events involving the eruption. Witness accounts of physical phenomena will fascinate and chill. This one will remain in my personal library.

[Qristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew next to nothing about the 1980 eruption, not having been alive at the time. I felt like I owed it to my home bioregion to learn about it. And wow, this was an intense read, but I'm so glad I did. My heart is completely broken over David Johnston. And I have new respect for helicopter pilots. And volcanoes. New, extremely healthy respect for volcanoes.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of great interest to those who live in Washington and are familiar with the volcano and these events. Presented in terms of a suspenseful chronology as the mountain slowly came awake, ending with eyewitness accounts of the blast. I enjoyed it.

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a book you can just pick up and read. It's not narrative. It's reference.
I tried to read it as narrative and it didn't work and took 8 months.