Of course, that kind of thinking is what got people in trouble in 1980....

Of the 57 deaths, only 2 were in the Red Zone, and many were even outside of the Blue Zone (where limited activity was allowed, but no overnights).

Actually, we got really lucky with the timing of the May 18th eruption.

Had it happened on a weekday, there would have been hundreds, maybe a thousand loggers in the "Blue Zone" and vicinity.

On the other hand, if it happened later in the day that sunny Sunday, there would have been a convoy of a hundred property owners at Spirit Lake, there would have been a bunch of USGS geologists in the area (several were on their way up to the post where Dave Johnston died, for example), and given the weather, the first warm and sunny weekend of the season, lots of sightseers would have made their way up into the area. Ideed, some recreation areas that didn't even have good views of the mountain were affected.

Likewise, the fact that it happened early morning on a day with great weather was idea for search-and-rescue operations. Try doing those helicopter rescues on a rainy windy night. Also, if it had been middle of the night, I bet there would have been people in the Toutle River valley who didn't get the warning and were hit by the lahar.

Pretty easy to imagine the eruption killing 570 instead of 57, but of course it also could have come in the middle of January and killed virtually no one.