reid blackburn was northwest of the volcano. fay blackburn: reid was born on the east coast but, when he was about 10, moved to oregon. he was funny. he had a very dry wit. if you got to know him, yeah, he would become your best friend. reid was quite an outdoorsman. he bicycled. he climbed mountains. he backpacked. we both worked for the columbian newspaper in vancouver. steve olson: he was doing a time-lapse series of photographs of the volcano. fay blackburn: and so he was camped up there, 7 or 8 miles away from the mountain. they considered it safe. don swanson: but when it erupted, the scale was far bigger than we anticipated. [music playing] on the morning of may 18, i was in vancouver. and suddenly, the traces on the seismograph started just moving back and forth, back and forth. george kourounis: the side of the mountain gave way. and what was once a beautiful, serene forest turned into hell on earth. that big bulge on the side of the volcano actually slid away. avalanche is the largest landslide in recorded history. mic