Surviving Disaster

Eruption at Mount St. Helens (1x2)

Air date: Jan 17, 2006

Drama-documentary recreating the eruption of Mount St Helens in 1980. The disaster was preceded by a series of earthquakes and a discharge of ash and steam, and scientists struggled to determine if anything could be done to avert the danger, while many locals refused to move in the face of imminent catastrophe. When the explosion finally occurred, the destructive force is estimated to have been 500 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb. Featuring eyewitness accounts from reporters, visitors and researchers.