12 people and a dog were rescued from an observatory near Mt. St Helens .
The group was stranded at the Johnson Ridge Observatory. The mudslide wiped out the bridge and the only road to and the observatory. The
King County Sheriff’s Office (Air Support)
On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens volcano erupted, leaving 57 people dead.
Hundreds of square miles became wasteland, and thousands of animals perished. It’s reported to be the ‘most disastrous volcanic eruption in U.S. history.’
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LOOK: The most expensive weather and climate disasters in recent decades
Stacker ranked the most expensive climate disasters by the billions since 1980 by the total cost of all damages, adjusted for inflation, based on 2021 data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The list starts with Hurricane Sally, which caused $7.3 billion in damages in 2020, and ends with a devastating 2005 hurricane that caused $170 billion in damage and killed at least 1,833 people. Keep reading to discover the 50 of the most expensive climate disasters in recent decades in the U.S.