What kind of rescue operations were conducted at Mount St. Helens?
Most rescue operations were conducted by rotorcraft, and choppers were the only vehicles capable of getting to where there was any chance of finding someone alive to pull out. The destruction was so complete in most areas affected directly by the blast that there really wasn’t much to save. The roads, bridges and just about everything else was just hammered into nothing. That pretty much locks out all land-based operations. And boats can’t launch into a river that is carrying houses and trees in it. The edges of the blast area could be searched by vehicle or by mounted rescue personnel. Farther downstream it is possible to work the edges of the spillways from the banks. There is little to do but recover bodies after helicopters get into the areas blown down and work the places swept by the flood.
