I had no idea there was a lahar that recently, and that the historical geology was that close to the surface.
I always assumed Mount Rainier was explosive since it's so close to Mount St. Helens, but that's based on no factual knowledge at all.
They are monitoring Mt. Rainier more and more, but still pretty limited. The towns and schools nearby it have lahar drills every so often, where the alarm goes off and they literally “run to the hills”. The closest school has 15 minutes IIRC to get to safety!
And the thing about these lahars, massive earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. - they WILL happen. And when they do, it will be a huge mess. A large quake on the Seattle fault (discovered 30 years ago?) would devastate Seattle (including a tsunami in Puget Sound and/or Lake Washington!), and would turn it into an island full of rubble. (With the lakes and rivers - it is only accessible by bridge, which most would be knocked down if a huge one occurred).
I was talking with one emergency responder, and he said that for a large Cascadia quake (subduction zone fault out in the ocean), the plan is to fly supplies into Moses Lake (large runway for airplane testing), truck two hours to Cle Elum (just east of the mountains), then chopper it into Seattle and suburbs. (The bridges on the west side of the mountains would be destroyed.)
The 3-day emergency plan is a joke, but they are stressing a 7-day plan. I’m guessing that it will be weeks and weeks of REAL hardship WHEN “the big one” happens.
The large Cascadia fault off the coast of Washington last went in 1700 AD, the huge tsunami hit the coast in 15-20 minutes, and has ruptured at 200 to 1000 year intervals, with an average period of events of about 500 years.