Mackay recalls Mount St. Helens explosion

Marj Mackay of Lihu‘e wondered what happened the morning of Sunday, May 18, 1980, when Mount St. Helens exploded 100 miles from her home in Port Orchard, Wash.

“When it went off,” with “a loud boom, we lived 100 miles from the mountain,” said Mackay, 79, who at the time was working for an aerial photographer and later developed pictures of the eruption her employer, the late James “Jim” Wilson, had taken.

Wilson’s company produced over 20,000 prints of images of the mountain he shot during and after the eruption, and Mackay has a bound volume of black-and-white shots her former employer had taken in the days and weeks after the initial eruption.

The images of over 24 years ago look eerily similar, she said, especially the steam clouds rising from the summit, to what Mount St. Helens looks like today, when scientists predict another eruption is imminent.

Nearly 60 people died, several hundred thousand were evacuated, but what she remembers most vividly were the rivers and lakes near the mountain. “It was a mess,” with the Toutle River filled with debris and “crapola. It wasn’t a river anymore,” running thick with downed trees, mud, ash and muck.

Spirit Lake was likewise unrecognizable, almost totally covered in ash, mud, downed trees and other debris.

“Everything went down like matchsticks, just like an atomic explosion. Everybody got some” ash, but there wasn’t too much at her place 100 miles from the mountain, she said.

She recalled that back in 1980 there was not much advance warning before the blast, but she didn’t really pay too much attention because she was so far from the mountain.

It must have been a similar experience for those living through Hurricane ‘Iwa in 1982 and Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992, said Mackay, who arrived on Kaua‘i to retire in December of 1992, then promptly worked for 10 years at the Kauai Products Store before again retiring.

Paul C. Curtis, associate editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@pulitzer.net.