Well, actually a good fair bit has recovered There are still dead trees floating in Spirit Lake (though fish and plant life are thriving once again) and the mountain may take at least several centuries to regain it's former height, but apart from that it's improving. Trouble is, it has still hurt Randall for all kinds of reasons.

I remember of this volcan, David A. Johnston is dead by this eruption in 18th May 1980 Mark

Yes, sad :(

awwws so sad :c

The scars are still there

Poor Randall... :(

I was also interested in this natural disaster for some reason or another?

This overall is a very good strip.

Thank you :) I enjoyed High School Geography back then ^^.

Oh I know you do, otherwise you wouldn't have drawn any of those cool world maps.

Nature is so powerful, just shows how much we have to enjoy life while we have it.

Nature is a cruel and unpredictable mistress that we must all respect...

That is a very emotional piece indeed, very much ads dimension to a character.

It's amazing what a single strip can do :)

Hell, it's amazing what one pane from a strip can do, that last one by itself is pretty damn strong.

I guess this is certainly a bittersweet moment for Randall here...

Very much so.

Very touching. Top marks.

Yeah, there are still areas that show the scars, but a lot of the area has regrown, decades before they thought it would.

http://i1.wp.com/justinjwright.com/.....4/sthelens.jpg

The rapid regrowth of the area was the inspiration for the Firebird portion of Fantasia 2000.

It actually looks beautiful again :) Spirit Lake still has a LOT of dead trees floating about in it, and the mountain is still bearing that massive scar, but otherwise it's not too shabby :)

My family was travelling through the Northwest in '79, and yes, we stopped by St. Helen's and Spirit Lake.

I came back through in 1990, and, yeah. Wow. Things had STARTED to recover, but it was still pretty much a Blasted Heath, and ... last time I was there, THERE WAS A WHOLE MOUNTAIN.

Yes, the blast took 400m off the top! It is expected to take at least several centuries for it to regain it's former height.

I'm guessing the jacket is from his old-man who'd done his part in 'The Nam'?

Yes it is the same jacket :) I thought that subtle touch would add to some of the emotions in this strip.

Randall DID serve in the national guard though, but probably didn't reach the same ranks as his dad did. He is full of tall tales after all ^^.

I'd always been awed by the eruption and images of it and its effects, but I never really felt the tragic aspects that keenly (aside from "What a pity that people and animals perished!) until reading this comic.

I always was intrigued by the scale of destruction, not to mention the entire top of the mountain suddenly gone!

I lived a few hundred miles from it when it went boom...


The Ring of Fire volcanoes tend to explode rather than erupt.

-Badger-

Yes, Plinian eruptions! I'm aware that Mount Rainier could be an even bigger one.

Rainier is the one that has geologists worried.

Out of control development has built houses right up to the base of the mountain.
Theres literally not enough road surface for a major evacuation if the mountain decides to go bang and gives any warning at all.

And most of the houses are built in the pyroclastic flow pathways from previous eruptions. So if Rainier finally goes off again...And its overdue...There will be much death and suffering.

I grew up within sight of Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen.
Volcanoes were never far from our thoughts after St. Helens.

Oh, Lassen always did a few hiccups, here and there.
And Shasta is so dormant that hikers explore the lava tubes a good mile underground fairly regularly.

But theres always that little thought.
What if Mama Pele decides to come visit again?

-Badger-

Deep stuff...

Oh wow. I guess a lot was lost when that mountain blew.

The entire summit for a start ^^;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eG_O1wEJ40

Life endures.

-Badger-

Oh, wow! ^^