Too bad this isn't just a few seconds longer!

My guess is whoever filmed it grabbed his camera and ran...

There is a few more videos out there,like this one that have a bit more footage from different angles and lots of photos.

Cameraphones just weren´t around back then...

Whoa. I'd never seen that before. Amazing.

I remember a misty haze of dust covered most of the U.S. after that. I can remember seeing it clear over in Colorado, kind of a reddish haze that lasted for a few days.

That is really cool! never saw that film, in all those years since it happened. The gritty ash was everywhere for months...

I believe the shots from this camera are from the USGS person, David Johnston, who said a lateral eruption was most likely going to occur and no one believed him. He was right, but it cost him his life as he was on the hill monitoring the dome that day.

http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/how_volcanoes_work/Sthelens.html


The gas cloud was traveling at over 600 miles an hour, but he was able to radio the USGS operational center exclaiming "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!" before the cloud overtook his position, killing him instantly. As amazing the footage is, let us not reduce the event to mere voyeurism and forgot those that died on this day.

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The duration of this video has been updated from unknown to 18 secs - length declared by oritteropo.