U.S. Raises Alert for Mount St. Helens [LIVE THREAD]

AP ^ | By PEGGY ANDERSEN, Associated Press Writer

[nwctwx]

By PEGGY ANDERSEN, Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE - Government seismologists raised the alert level for Mount St. Helens on Saturday after its second steam eruption in two days, saying the next blast could threaten life and property in the remote area near the volcano.

The hundreds of visitors at the Johnston Ridge Observatory just five miles from Mount St. Helens were asked to leave. They went quickly to their cars and drove from the scene.

Wash. Locals Keep Eye on Mount St. Helens

2 hours, 28 minutes ago

U.S. National - AP

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer

PULLMAN, Wash. - Glenn Johnson remembers running outside with canisters to catch some of the volcanic ash that began falling on Pullman after Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. He wanted a souvenir.

"Little did I know I would be shoveling ash for a week and a half," recalled Johnson, now mayor of this town near the Idaho state line.

Across the Northwest, veterans of the 1980 eruption were keeping a wary eye on the volcano as it ominously rocked with earthquakes, then belched a plume of steam and ash into the sky around noon on Friday. Experts said the small eruption may not be the last.

"The history of the volcano suggests it could be an opening salvo and we'll see more events like this," said Jeff Wynn, the chief scientist for volcano hazards at the federal Cascade Volcano Observatory. He called Friday's brief eruption a "throat-clearing."

The 1980 eruption killed 57 people, mostly clustered near the mountain, and volcanic activity continued until 1986.

Much of the cement-like ash fell on eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana as thousands of travelers became stranded. Schools and businesses closed. Mountains of ash had to be moved and dumped.

In an effort to be better prepared this time, local governments across the region have been reviewing their disaster plans. The state Emergency Management Division, much maligned for poor performance in 1980, activated its Emergency Operations Center Wednesday and will keep it staffed round-the-clock, spokesman Rob Harper said.

Officials hope to avoid a repeat of the events that started at 8:32 a.m. on Sunday, May 18, 1980.

Shaken by an earthquake, the north face of the mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. A mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, dumping more than 520 million tons of dark, gray ash from Yakima to Bozeman, Mont.

The eruption lasted 9 hours.

The ash turned day into night. Grocery stores ran out of food. Surgical masks to cover the nose and mouth were in short supply. There were 2,500 people stranded in the town of Ritzville by 5 to 7 inches of ash.

Ash weighed heavily on roofs, forcing residents to shovel it off. Communities struggled to find places to dump it all.

Patty Phillips was riding a motorcycle from Spokane west to Moses Lake, and was forced by the ash to hunker down for two days in the small town of Davenport.

Now she lives in Lind, a tiny town about 75 miles southwest of Spokane that has a wry highway sign proclaiming "Drop in, Mount St. Helens did."

Phillips is not too worried about the new rumblings from the volcano, but she isn't taking any chances.

"I asked my husband to stock up with milk," she said Thursday, remembering that commodity was in short supply in grocery stores after the last eruption.

Susan Cuff still has a small jar of ash she collected as a souvenir when she was a college student at the University of Montana in Missoula.

"I stayed home and watched it fall like snow," said Cuff, now the spokeswoman for the health department in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

After the eruption, there were persistent rumors the ash might become acid when mixed with water. People worried about breathing it into their lungs. They weren't sure if they should use water to wash off the ash, or push it off roofs and vehicles with brooms.

The fine ash was hard on motor vehicles, clogging air filters, scratching windshields, and mucking up bearings. Six Spokane city buses burned up their engines within two days.

Cuff said officials are better prepared this time to warn people with respiratory problems to stay inside, and not to operate motor vehicles because the ash can damage the engine.

State officials insist that modern communication systems and emergency plans will make them better prepared if Mount St. Helens erupts again.

Still, Johnson's enduring memory of the 1980 eruption was that emergency management news was very slow coming out of the state capital, leaving communities to fend for themselves.

"There's a lot of silent hope that it all blows on Olympia because we got no help from them last time," Johnson said.

___

On the Net:

Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network: http://www.pnsn.org/HELENS/welcome.html

[Cuttnhorse]

I was wondering if maybe you were living in WA in 1980...were you anywhere near St. Helens?

[BurbankKarl]

How is Rainier doing?

[rwfromkansas]

Disgusting.

This is why I am going to a liberal arts school that while I get a history degree, also forces me to take other classes.

I am probably going to end up teaching history (what else can you do with a history degree unless you want to become a politician or scum-sucking lawyer?) I love kids and want to help them see how history is important and interesting.

At the same time, I also love journalism....there is something very noble about it when it is done right because it is concerned with truth and being a watchdog over the govt. But, when done wrong, which, with the exception of some non-tabloid FNC shows (Brit) and the Wall Street Journal, is almost always the case these days due to low-IQ journalists who GET INTO THE FIELD TO TRY TO 'CHANGE THE WORLD'....i.e. make it liberal rather than trying to get at the truth and report both sides for the sake of informing rather than trying to "change the world."

A major cause of this is very low academic entrance requirements to undergrad J-schools, which is where most people entering the field get their training. Also, the academic requirements of the schools are very low and students do not have to take demanding courses in other disciplines. This leads to reporters who don't have a clue about anything but journalism.....just awful.

This is why, if I end up going into journalism into teaching, I am glad I will have majored in history/minored in political science.....and taken demanding courses in virtually every major liberal arts discipline (math, art, literature, English, psychology etc.) except theater (would rather shoot my eyes out) in a traditional, Christian yet academically demanding environment. This way, if I do go into journalism, I won't be a moron who only knows about journalism.

I believe reporters would be much better if there was no journalism major offered at the undergrad level.

But, since there is, no wonder reporters get such a bad name. They deserve it since they are all idiots who know nothing else about the world.

[tubebender]

Please make it good enough and soon enough to displace the bobbing talking heads tomorrow...

[Gucho]

MT. ST. HELEN (red star)

[rwfromkansas]

journalism instead of teaching, not "journalism into teaching"

[Cuttnhorse]

Good points RW,

Unlike many people, I happen to believe that teaching is a nobel profession, and history is a fascinating subject. It didn't seem so in my early days, but I'm hooked on it now.

One of my best pals was a Captain in the Marines and saw plenty of action in Viet Nam. When he got out of the Corps, he got his masters in history majoring in ancient history and taught at the grammar school and Jr. High level until he recently retired. I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for him and his genuine contribution.

It's always easy to paint large with a wide brush, but there are many exceptions.

Best of luck to you, it would seem your students to be are fortunate.

Cheers

[aBootes]

Hey Rustbucket,

Can you give a quick explanation for the different colors on that map? And perhaps for the significance of larger earthquakes at shallower levels?

Thanks...

[rwfromkansas]

Is ashfall expected or just liquid magma?

Are they still sticking with the "don't worry...just 5 miles away is how far the magma will travel" expectation?

[Not A Snowbird]

How is Rainier doing?

Rainier is beautiful today. It's out and just sitting there looking pretty.

[not_apathetic_anymore]

Yeah, they just mentioned that if it did erupt that yesterday there were thinking it would be level 1 now maybe level 2 or very small chance of 3 or 4.

But I'm wondering for comparisons sake, what level was teh 1980 explosion.

Did he say? Does anyone else know?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Upon further review, volcanos are MORE scary:

Krakatoa, Indonesia, August 27, 1883 (VEI-6)

"The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa has been assigned a Volcanic Explosivity Index or VEI of 6 which rates as "colossal". To be assigned a VEI rating of 6, a volcanic eruption must have a plume height over 25 km and a displacement volume ranging between 10 and 100 km3 (cubic kilometers). Eruptions of this size occur only once every few hundred years on earth.

The total energy released by the four main events of the 1883 eruption was equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT. Most of this energy was released by the third paroxysmal explosion which has been estimated to be equivalent to an explosion of 150 megatons of TNT. To understand the magnitude of the Krakatoa explosion, it will suffice to say that the Hiroshima atomic bomb was only about 20 kilotons)." -- www.drgeorgepc.com/Vocano1883Krakatoa.html

Tambora, Indonesia, 1815 (VEI-7):

"Created a year without a summer in 1816."

Toba, Indonesia, 75,000 years ago (VEI-8?):

"The last time Earth suffered a really BIG eruption was an eruption at Toba in Indonesia 70,000 years ago. It triggered an ice age." -- www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/volcanoes.htm

[ValerieUSA]

I was living in Olympia and we could see the ash/smoke plume from there. Later I moved much closer and my husband was a sheriff's deputy commissioned in 3 counties to patrol the red and yellow zones on St Helens and keep people out of danger, even though many tempted fate.

My dog Boomer in front of the big boomer on my husband's patrol Blazer.

[radiohead]

Where do they get these people??

These are the same people who complain about taking the science and math general distribution requirements in college. The truly educated journalism or communications major is a rare bird.

[BlazingArizona]

Just thought I'd pop in to say that Mt. St. Helens is in WASHINGTON. Lots of folks think it's in Oregon, and many more think it's near Seattle,

Very soon now, Washington will be in Oregon.

[ValerieUSA]

I lived in Mossyrock for 16 years.

[Gucho]

"How is Rainier doing?"

Mt. Rainer cam......http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/webcams/parks/moracam/moracam.htm

[TomGuy]

Are they still sticking with the "don't worry...just 5 miles away is how far the magma will travel" expectation?

That seems to be what the 'officials' are saying. One reporter on NWCN.com said people were lining the highway --- in lawn chairs, etc., getting prime seats to see it, if it does erupt.

Some ash spewed yesterday. Today's seemed to be just steam, but rumblings deep in the ground, which led to raising the alert to Level 3, Imminent Eruption.

[not_apathetic_anymore]

Thanks...that looks like it provides some relative scale for the eruption intensity

[NittanyLion]

I knew Yellowstone has the potential to be a big one...just didn't know how big until I saw that graphic.