2 hours, 28 minutes ago
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U.S. National - AP |
Posted on 10/02/2004 1:36:54 PM PDT by nwctwx
Edited on 10/02/2004 1:43:12 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
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.
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2 hours, 28 minutes ago
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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
Well, here's Mother Nature's "October Surprise.."
Karl Rove's one crafty dude.
Evacuating the closest viewpoint.
It's an amazing place. When you get there and look out, it doesnt even look like planet Earth.
/liberal
Bush knew!
Hurricanes were getting old anyway... ;)
My gosh, I have never heard a more retarded group of reporters than the ones at that press conference. They don't listen to what it being said and ask questions to the very thing that the guy had just explained.
Where do they get these people??
I'll take a hurricane over a volcano any day.
USGS : Quakes have stopped, gone to continuous tremmor. Eruption may be in early stages.
Ping!
More intense than they thought it would be.
Look for the malignant leftists to blame this on Bush, too.
No kidding. Water and wind versus suffocating gas, lava, ash, mud, boiling water, and earthquakes.
Interesting..... Maybe this year's list of disasters is a Reminder that we're getting a bit big for our britches....
Level 3 - Potential hazard to life and property.
Evacuating some areas.
I thought the people giving the press conference were very nervous - even distracted. They seemed almost frightened. Did I get that wrong?
Live on Fox News
The johnson observation station has just been evacuated of all reporters and staff. they are insisting on a new, five mile radius because they are seeing new magma starting to move into the event...
In related news, the Bush Campaign issued an orange alert about Sen. Kerry. Up from Yellow.
I think you are right, the siesmologists also seemed a bit anxious. I have only studied this stuff as an amateur who was born in CA, but I think it's pretty unpredictable.
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