Mount St. Helens | Hell on Earth | 2
Against The Odds
Wondery
4.7 • 7.2K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Mount St. Helens erupts, Sue Ruff and her boyfriend Bruce Nelson are camping with four friends about 14 miles north of the volcano. They were told this was well out of range of any eruption, but soon they find themselves caught in a searing-hot cloud of ash and debris, fighting for their lives.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Against the Odds early and ad-free right now. |
| 0:05.6 | Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:09.7 | A listener note, Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events. |
| 0:14.6 | Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research. |
| 0:27.4 | Yeah. but everything is based on research. Logger Jim Shimonke pushes his chainsaw blade |
| 0:30.7 | through a trunk of a young Douglas fir. |
| 0:34.1 | The small tree falls with a thwack |
| 0:36.2 | and Shimonke moves on to the next one. |
| 0:39.6 | He's in a groove, cutting down one tree after another, and from the sound of the steady thunks |
| 0:44.8 | on either side of him, so are his two co-workers. It's just past 8.30 in the morning, on Sunday, |
| 0:51.9 | May 18th, 1980, about 13 miles north of Mount St. Helens. |
| 0:56.7 | Shyamanki and the other two members of his four-man crew have been working since 7 a.m. |
| 1:01.7 | They were supposed to finish this clear-cutting job yesterday, but it's taking longer than expected. |
| 1:07.6 | Shymankey is eager to wrap things up. He's been in Washington on contract for a month, and he misses his wife and four kids who are |
| 1:14.6 | back home in Oregon. |
| 1:16.6 | The work would go even faster today if Jose Diaz, the fourth member of the crew, was helping. |
| 1:21.6 | But Diaz is a devout Catholic who won't work on a Sunday, which Shimonki respects. |
| 1:26.6 | Still, he's a little jealous, |
| 1:29.4 | picturing Diaz napping in their pickup truck, which is parked on a logging road a mile or so just |
| 1:34.1 | up the hill. Suddenly, Shimonke hears screaming over the buzz of the chainsaw. He kills his saw |
| 1:41.9 | and whips off his protective earmuffs. He looks up to where his co-worker, |
| 1:46.5 | Evlante Sharapov, is working 50 yards away. Hey, you okay? Sharipov nods. Yeah, I'm fine. It must |
... |
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