Editing Harry R. Truman (section)

==Death==
As the likelihood of a major eruption increased, state officials ordered an evacuation of the area with the exception of a few scientists and security officials. On Saturday, May 17, local law enforcement made one final attempt to persuade Truman to leave his home, to no avail. On Sunday, May 18, at 8:32 a.m., Mount St. Helens erupted, collapsing the entire northern flank of the mountain.<ref name=ETEV/> Truman and his 16 cats<ref name=usatoday/> were all presumed to have died in the eruption.<ref name=sis>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M9MvAAAAIBAJ&pg=5277,988696&dq=|title=Sister, friend say Harry probably dead|agency=Associated Press|date=May 20, 1980|work=[[Spokane Daily Chronicle]]|page=6}}</ref> All likely died of [[heat shock]] in less than a second, too quickly to register pain.<ref name="Distillations">{{cite journal |first1=Sam |last1=Kean  |title= Harry versus the Volcano   |date= December 12, 2018  |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/harry-versus-the-volcano |journal=Distillations |publisher= [[Science History Institute]] |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=4–5 |access-date=February 10, 2020 }}</ref> 

The largest [[landslide]] in recorded history and a [[pyroclastic flow]] traveling atop the landslide engulfed the Spirit Lake area almost simultaneously, destroying the lake and burying the site of Truman's lodge under {{convert|150|ft|m|abbr=on}} of [[volcanic landslide]] debris.<ref name=ETEV/> Authorities never searched for Truman's remains.<ref name=usatoday/> Truman considered his cats family and mentioned them in almost all public statements.<ref name=usatoday/><ref name=ETEV>{{cite web |url=http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes/vtruman.html |title=Harry Truman and His 16 Cats |access-date=June 26, 2011 |publisher=[[Wheeling Jesuit University]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121211084252/http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes/vtruman.html |archive-date=11 December 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Initially, Truman's friends hoped that he possibly survived, as he had claimed to have provisioned a nearby abandoned mine shaft with food and liquor in case of an eruption, but the lack of any immediate warning of the eruption would almost certainly have prevented him from escaping to the shaft before the pyroclastic flow reached his lodge,{{sfn|Findley|1981|p=2}} less than a minute after the eruption began. Even if Truman had made it there, the landslide would have made any rescue impossible. Truman's sister, Geraldine, said that she found it hard to accept the reality of his death. "I don't think he made it, but I thought if they would let me fly over and see for myself that Harry's lodge is gone, then maybe I'd believe it for sure."<ref name=Bull/> 

Truman's niece, Shirley Rosen, added that her uncle thought he could escape the volcano, but was not expecting the lateral eruption. She stated that her sister took him a bottle of [[bourbon whiskey]] to persuade him to evacuate, but he was too afraid to drink alcohol at the time because he was unsure whether the shaking was coming from his body or the earthquakes.<ref name=cbs/> Truman owned a second home located between [[Washougal]] and [[Stevenson, Washington]], and his possessions were auctioned off there as keepsakes to admirers in September, 1980.<ref>{{cite news |date=September 14, 1980  |title=Harry Truman's possessions: an auction of memories |page=A24 |work=The Seattle Times |agency=Associated Press}}</ref>