"C J Campbell" wrote in message
Hardly a blade of grass grows there almost 25 years after the
blast. Yet they think they are far enough away to be safe. They don't seem
to get a clue from the total devastation that surrounds them.

I know scientists don't expect another eruption like 1980. Well, they
didn't
expect it in 1980, either.

It's just that there's a few hundred million tons less of mountain to erupt
now. You could put the entire population of the world in the 1980 crater
and not fill it up.

You wanna see something sad? Go to the visitor's observatory (when it
opens) They've got a great demo of how the mountain erupts, buries the
countryside in hundreds of feet of molten ash, and then how the forest
rebuilds itself and life goes on in a miraculously short time; then they
tell you not to walk off the trail or pick up rocks because the ecosystem is
fragile. Another sign says 'If Mt.St Helens would have wanted you to
take souvenirs, she would have given them to you.' OK...I remember wearing
a dusk mask for a week while my parents put pantyhose over the car's air
filter. I'll take that as permission, thanks.

-c