People who were living in the Basin will not be able to easily forget May 18, 1980, when Mount St. Helens erupted. On that day, the eruption took place around 8.30 am in which more than 200 square miles of land was devastated.

The eruption is considered to be the deadliest and most devastating volcanic eruption in the history of America. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this eruption that took place 35 years back will never be erased from their memory.

In the eruption, many people lost their lives and total cost estimates were more than $1 billion. There are a number of books, television shows, movie, newspaper articles, research papers and magazine articles on this event.

The effects of the eruption were long-reaching and had spread all the way to the heart of the Basin. A May 22, 1980 Columbia Basin Daily Herald Article, read, “City of Moses Lake employees had worked 12 hours or more in choking dust attempting to clear city streets Wednesday. Their eyes glazed from fatigue, filter masks hanging from their necks, the men stared outside at the blowing dust”.

Volunteers have been making efforts, but they all can go waste with a single dust storm. Seeing the condition of workers, acting City Manager Joe Gavinski gave the order at 5 pm that people should now go and take rest. They will start tomorrow at 11 am from where they have left.

Owing to the incident, school remained closed for so many days, mail delivery was put on hold, the Grant County International Airport was closed and in the meanwhile, runways were getting cleaned and CBH staff were asked to use bicycles than car in order to the cover the disaster. Local farmers faced lot of loss. But the event made people stronger.