Over 28,500 people died from eruptions in the 1980s , most in Colombia 's 1986 Valle del Ruiz eruption , prompting the US Geological Survey to improve predictions . They predicted the eruptions of Alaska 's Redoubt Volcano in 1989 and the Philippines ' Pinatubo in 1991 . In Hawaii , resorts asked the USGS for best viewing times for Kilauea , which has erupted continuously since 1983 and become a tourist attraction . The identification of fresh volcanic glass in the erupted ash - which seemed to indicate that the volcano was about to erupt violently - was a mistake,' wrote Richard Fiske, a volcanologist at the Smithsonian Institution, about the incident. After Washington 's Mount St. Helens wiped out timberland , Weyerhaueuser consulted experts on where to replant . But after California 's Long Valley and Guadeloupe 's tourist economies suffered from false alarms , Long Valley residents refuse to heed land use warnings .
Over 28,500 people died from eruptions in the 1980s , most in Colombia 's 1986 Valle del Ruiz eruption , prompting the US Geological Survey to improve predictions . They predicted the eruptions of Alaska 's Redoubt Volcano in 1989 and the Philippines ' Pinatubo in 1991 . In Hawaii , resorts asked the USGS for best viewing times for Kilauea , which has erupted continuously since 1983 and become a tourist attraction . After Washington 's Mount St. Helens wiped out timberland , Weyerhaueuser consulted experts on where to replant . But after California 's Long Valley and Guadeloupe 's tourist economies suffered from false alarms , Long Valley residents refuse to heed land use warnings .