1 Happy St

I recently read a magazine article about current volcanic activity at Mount St. Helens in Washington and how geologists are fascinated with resulting new lava domes from magma that has pushed its way to the surface. Pretty nerdy stuff I know. The article of course referenced the eruption of 1980 in which 57 people died and the destruction caused nearly $1 billion in damages. What I found interesting about the article though was a throw-in comment that stated something along the lines of if Mount St. Helens were to erupt today with the same force that it did 27 years ago, the death toll and damages would be considerably higher today than it was back then. At first I thought 'well that makes sense, things are more expensive nowadays'. But then I got to thinking a little bit more. What the hell is out there that could be destroyed? Did people really rebuild their homes on that sonofabitch?