Mt. St. Helens: A Memory

A random notice about the fortieth anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens brought back this memory:

In the early days of the eruption, I got a call from my husband-to-be, a newspaper reporter, that he was going on a tour of the US Geological Service (USGS) station on Mt. St. Helens. Of course I insisted on going along, so we headed up the mountain together. The young USGS volcanologist conducting the tour looked at the mountain and said, "This is the last place I'd want to be when it blows."

His name was David Johnston.