In an extraordinarily unself-critical book called Surviving Galeras, Williams said he could "only shake my head in wonder" when he learned afterward that his colleagues in the world of volcanology had suggested that he had overlooked or disregarded important seismic signals and behaved recklessly. "How easy it is to snipe after the fact, to apply the knowledge we have now to the events of 1993," he wrote. He was guilty of nothing worse, he believed, than unlucky timing when Galeras "behaved capriciously, as natural forces are wont to do. I was fooled, and for that I will take responsibility. But I do not feel guilty about the deaths of my colleagues. There is no guilt. There was only an eruption."
火山学界的同事们认为威廉斯鲁莽行事，无视或不顾火山爆发前的重要信号。但威廉斯毫不自责，在一本名叫《加莱拉斯火山幸存记》的书里说，当他后来听到那个消息的时候，他“简直惊讶得直摇头”。“事后诽谤别人，用现在掌握的知识去看待1993年发生的事，这是多么容易啊。”他写道。他认为，他最感到不安的是挑了个倒霉日子，因为加莱拉斯火山“变化无常，自然力量往往就是这个样子。我上了当。对于这一点，我要承担责任。但是，我对于同事们的死亡并不觉得内疚。没有什么可值得内疚的。火山就这样爆发了”。

But to return to Washington. Mount St. Helens lost thirteen hundred feet of peak, and 230 square miles of forest were devastated. Enough trees to build 150,000 homes (or 300,000 in some reports) were blown away. The damage was placed at $2.7 billion. A giant column of smoke and ash rose to a height of sixty thousand feet in less than ten minutes. An airliner some thirty miles away reported being pelted with rocks.
我们再回过头来说说华盛顿州。圣海伦斯火山的顶峰矮了400米，600平方公里森林被焚毁。足以建造15万栋（有的报道说是30万栋）住宅的树木被刮倒。损失高达27亿美元。巨大的一道烟灰柱在不到10分钟的时间里升到了18000米高空。一架在48公里以外飞行的客机报告挨了岩石的袭击。