Cascades Volcanoes: When Sleeping Giants Wake

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Journey around the pacific rim and you experience a multitude of sensations each helping define a culture uniquely its own. Yet there is a common thread that weaves this intricate tapestry of life together and it is one of old as time itself. like sentinels they watch over our daily lives, as we revel in their beauty but when they wake their fury transcends all cultures. Forcing us to face an age old question, what do we do when sleeping giants wake? ♪ ♪ To live along America's West Coast is to live among Giants these massive mountains of the Cascades reign supreme over a domain that spans three states for millions their silhouettes are a welcomed backdrop against the horizon of their daily lives. Other than the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 this volcanic range has remained relatively silent for hundreds of years a fact that causes many to view them nearly as beautiful mountains. >>It's the first thing we look at in the morning and the last thing we look at at night we love it. >>The truth is these mountains are part of the infamous Ring of Fire a chain of volcanoes that encircle the Pacific Ocean and include 70% of the Earth's active volcanoes. As the population of the west coast continues to grow more and more people are choosing to live in the shadow of these volcanoes the question that needs to be answered is are Americans prepared to face the potential hazards of this choice. >>Hazards that volcanoes don't change the hazards in the Cascades are the same as they were a thousand years ago what changes is the risk, we create risk by putting ourselves in the areas where the hazards are. For many the likelihood of an eruption seems so far removed they don't even know what the risks are yet this attitude could prove disastrous. >>The Cascade Range is a particular concern to the US Geological Survey because many of the volcanoes in the Cascade Range have erupted frequently over the geologic past they are still considered active and they will erupt again it's only a question of when. >>While we wait for the inevitable eruption in the Cascade Range there is much we can learn from those who have first-hand experience. Since the entire country is made up of volcanic islands the people of Japan take a very proactive approach to dealing with volcanic hazards. Located on the Unzen Peninsula is the City of Shimabara. Surrounded by farmland this community of 42,000 represents the epitome of rural Japanese living. Across their country this area is known for its involvement with the Christian uprising. It's clear spring water. For being the birthplace of the famous sculpture Seibo Kitamura and for being the home of the country's newest mountain. The center of the peninsula is made up of a complex of volcanoes often collectively referred to as Mt. Unzen. The peak called Fugen-Dake used to be lower in elevation than its Siamese twin Unseen but that changed in the mid-90s when the volcano recreated itself building a massive dome in doing so Fugue-Dake unleashed one destructive event after another on the peaceful tenants that inhabit its flanks. >>I know (translator) we received a great amount of damage to the area so people were asked to evacuate to the designated areas the evacuation took place in auditoriums and hotels as well as passenger boats children were kept from going to school and their summer vacation had to start earlier than scheduled children also had to wear helmets and masks people moved into temporary housing and then upon its completion into public housing. Pyroclastic flows comprised of superheated gas ash and stone seared the mountain's flanks homes and farms centuries-old were wiped away. (translator) During the volcanic activities it began with a pyroclastic flow which led to a fire that burned down the houses there were 50 houses in the area but all the houses were destroyed I did not actually see the fire damage when it started but it is kind of like an atomic bomb explosion which leaves nothing >>Many families were evacuated several different times before being forced permanently from their houses for some the repeated evacuations instilled a false sense of security and added to the shock when their homes generations in the making were finally devoured. (Translator) >>The first pyroclastic flow we were very afraid because it was so sudden and we had to evacuate so quickly and then during the month of June it didn't seem so bad because the flow had already kind of carved a path it started in May and ended on June 24th. Although I did not actually see it with my own eyes when it happened my house was blown up by the force of fire and did not leave any debris. >>Another side effect of volcanic activity is mud flows or lahars channeled by River Valleys volcanic debris combines with water to form a fast-moving wall of hot sludge as lahar sweep downstream they leave nothing but a wake of unbelievable destruction. In Shimabara entire neighborhoods once nestled among trees and rice fields were completely buried. (translator) >>The north part over there was actually the first to go because if it's physical geography being the lowest and then little by little it's spread over to this area. It took roughly two and a half years for it to come to this condition. This area was covered with houses all around here all the way down to the highway down by the ocean there were also scattered rice fields. >>Though the loss of property was great prior planning did save countless lives. (SFX emergency horn) Shimabara's warning system is state-of-the-art numerous cameras keep a constant vigil on the mountain there are 73 speakers set up at strategic locations throughout the city whenever there is an emergency live broadcasts inform the people what is happening and what they should do. (Loudspeaker in Japanese) All seems routine that's because for them it is, from 1993 to 1996 there were 34 separate evacuations of up to 7,000 people at one time some of the evacuee's lived in temporary housing for up to two and a half years. Fugen Daki again fell silent in 1996 but the threat of mud flows remained as a result the warning systems are still activated whenever there is heavy rainfall which here is common for three months out of every year. Besides the police and fire departments there are close to 400 townspeople designated to help with evacuation procedures in a culture that thrives on conformity it may seem strange to find that the people have been taught to take individual responsibility for their lives and not to rely on the government. (translator) >>The City of Shimabara has organized evacuation training sessions once a year people are instructed by their district personnel for evacuation to the designated areas. From a training session I per finally learned that I have to protect my own life they tell people to think about their own lives and take care of themselves especially when danger seems clear and present they tell people to help each other too - especially the sick and elderly. >>Despite the hardships the people who live here have no plans of leaving this is their home and most say there is nowhere else they would rather be. (translator) >>Japan as a country is prone to having such volcanic activities so where can you go that's going to be 100% safe and in addition to that people here in Shimabara have a deep-rooted love for their home. Despite the fact that the damage was severe the people have rebounded. >>While living on the flanks of volcanoes is a necessity in Japan along America's west coast people still have a choice in the matter. >>in the United States we have enough land that if it's used wisely and if land use land use practices Planning and Zoning and so forth are used properly we could avoid development of hospitals and communities and towns and villages in areas that will be destroyed by future volcanic eruptions. >>There are a few places in the Cascades however where communities are already built right on the flanks of volcanoes. In the old days logging is what drew people to the towns of McLeod Mount Shasta and Weed, but no more these days all reasons seem connected to one impressive centerpiece. >>We've got a climbing community that you know it's absolutely an awesome mountain you have a skiing community that thinks it's wonderful visibly everybody that comes up here when they buy a home they want a view of Mount Shasta because it is so tremendous there's a New Age community that it looks at it for their reasons there's a lot of different religions that are attracted to it because for their reasons so it's extremely important to the all the North State economy. >>People come here to attain a certain quality of life and most don't care to worry about the possibility of an eruption. >>I just love the mountain and if something happened I guess I would take means to get out of here but I never think about it like I chose to live here and everyone wants to come here and vacation and I live in the vacation land so I get to enjoy it every day. >>There is however some cause for awareness if not concern. >>You have about a 1 in 25 or 30 chance of seeing an eruption in any decade or if you multiply that out of a person lives to be 70 or 80 years old there's about a 1 in 3 or 4 chance that if you lived here your whole life time you'd witness an eruption from Shasta but you know it's just of course there's a lot better odds and you get with the state lottery or something like that. >>When the odds finally do play out the communities that skirt Mount Shasta will indeed face real danger. >>Well Mount Shasta is a volcano that tends to erupt like mount st. Helens it tends to be a more explosive volcano and when it erupts it produces particularly large volumes of pyroclastic flow materials it also produces mud flows because of the snow and ice on the upper part of the volcano at Mt. Shasta, the pyroclastic flows have been very voluminous in the past and they have gone down nearly all flanks of the volcano at high speeds and they've gone out to distances of at least 30 kilometers or 20 miles from the volcano. >>The towns around Mount Shasta house 50% of the county's population and are built right on top of these old flows. >>Volcanoes like Unzen make it very clear that once the town is there and the pyroclastic flows begin you one has real really serious problems people have to be evacuated hopefully in time it's difficult to keep people out of their towns until they've been destroyed and the consequences are very costly for civilization, when pyroclastic flows sweep through a village and destroy it. >>So even if the citizens aren't concerned government agencies should be in order for evacuations to work there must be prior planning the towns here coordinate their efforts with the county. >>Because of it being a rural area there are very few evacuation routes we basically have a main north-south route and one east-west route and there aren't any other ways of getting out of here so planning wise the routes are already identified it's just knowing which routes are going to be open for any given set of circumstances. >>No matter what the circumstances the impact of an eruption would most likely reach far beyond this County the I-5 corridor a major route for traffic heading up and down the west coast runs right by Mount Shasta. >>It doesn't take much ash to really wreak havoc now not Mt Shasta historically has not been a big ash producer but all it would take would be perhaps five centimetres of ash a couple of inches of ash to fall in this area to accumulate on the interstate and you can imagine how that would disrupt traffic. The other thing is of course this is a narrow air corridor flights from the Pacific Northwest go on one side of the mountain flights from Southern California to that area go on the other side and as has happened with the Alaskan volcanoes if a plane is caught in the plume from the volcano the grit will get in damage the jet engines and they often have to make emergency landings so there's a potential for really disrupting air traffic. >>The potential for disaster is increased when eruptions occur during inclement weather radar systems onboard aircraft cannot tell the difference between a normal cloud bank and a cloud of ash. >>It may cause loss of power on the engines now this has happened a number of times there has yet there have yet to be any any crashes as a result of this but it has cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide over the last 25 years or so. >>There are about 3,500 permanent residents in the town of Mount Shasta and most of them share the same attitude. >>Most of the locals those that have either been born and raised here been here for a lot of years don't think much of it at all maybe we should I don't know but we don't think much of it at all and so it's the folks that are coming in to think a lot more of it and typically I think we think that you know the geologists and a lot of people it kind of ends up in the newspapers on a continual basis they just don't have much else to print a report on so about every one two years you know it shows up again and everybody gets stirred up for Minute then it all dies down. >>I think that there's no problem there's a hundred percent probability that the mountain will erupt just a matter of when, and it may happen in our lifetime it may not it happens you know will react and get the word out to do the best we can it may not happen so why worry about it (chuckles) >>This may be easy to say when an eruption does not appear imminent but would they feel the same way when actually faced with the unthinkable. From 1993 through 1996 there were more than 82 pyroclastic flows from Mount Fugen Dake and though it is dwarfed in size by the Cascade Mountains there were also numerous mud flows in all 44 people were killed while more than 2,500 homes and precious acres of farmland were engulfed. Nevertheless the Japanese government is not about to surrender this land to a volcano. Massive construction projects are underway to repair the damage and prevent further destruction by future druptions. To do this they are building a series of some 80 sabo or sediment dams in the valleys leading away from the volcanoes. (translator) >>The function of the sediment dams is to control the mud flow and to prevent it from overlaying large areas at one time. >>Dams of this type have been used in Japan for close to 100 years but there are several aspects of this project that are unprecedented one is its size the project began in 1992 and will continue for at least 20 years it involves moving deposits from one side of the mountain to the other every day 800 loads of volcanic debris are scooped trucked across town then dumped as fill. The use of satellites is another first for this type of operation. (translator) >>Because of the inability to predict sudden massive amounts of debris flow above the sabo dams we deemed it as necessary to undergo this activity of using remote control. >>Like giant children's toys these earth movers roam about seemingly unattended. As a result of these efforts land that just a year ago resembled the surface of the Moon is once again becoming rich farmland. And rather than being apprehensive most people can't wait for the new Sabo dams to be completed so they can return to their ancestral homes. (translator)>>I have childhood and school memories of it being incredibly beautiful but these memories have been erased they disappeared instantly it was a beautiful place now there is nothing left it seems like my past has vanished. But since government agencies are taking necessary steps to make the area safe I feel that in the future I will live in the same area once again. >>When we look at a country like Japan it appears as if technology and engineering can be used to circumvent most if not all problems associated with volcanoes but in order to accomplish this there must be a tremendous dedication of resources something not all countries are willing or able to do >>Well in some places you may be able to intervene put the proper countermeasures but I think this strategy is really just to deflect flows away from developed areas away from towns away from cities if you can but there are places when you have to give up if a town is a longer way and you put a barrier the lahars will just fill this up and then later on attack the town. >>This has been the case with a large volcano in the Philippines in 1991 Mount Pinatubo woke from a 500-year sleep to create crisis on an international scale. (TV audio)>>Thousands of American military families and civilian workers have been evacuated from Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Station in the Philippines the mass evacuation was prompted by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. >>The United States had two large military bases in harm's way and members of the United States Geological Survey's "volcano crisis assistance teams" were brought in to help determine what the volcano might do. >>They and their Filipino colleagues from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and seismology accurately predicted that the volcano was building up to something big as outward signs of the mountain's activity increased the Philippine government and the US military heeded the scientists advice and evacuated, a move that ended up saving thousands. >>The climactic eruption at Pinatubo was about 2:00 in the afternoon local time and that was when we bugged out because of all our equipment had been destroyed we were no longer serving any function standing there in the path of the potential pyroclastic flows and so we left. >>With the eruption in full swing very dark basically the Sun in the middle of the day is blotted out it's a very dark dark the it's a special kind of dark it's a it's a kind of a smothering dark as we drove away you know though there were we were being showered by pieces of pumice perhaps golf ball-sized and ash coming down continuously extremely difficult to drive in. >>A few hours later the big earthquake started and they went pretty much through the night and into the next day there was a combination of having had the tropical storm pass through as the volcano was erupting and ensuring that all the ash that felt was wet so you had six inches or twelve inches of wet cement on you, shaking everything with magnitude threes and fours and even I guess a five but because most of the damage the roofs collapsed buildings fell in. >>About 1 million people were evacuated during the eruptions at Mount Pinatubo yet still at least 300 died overrun by pyroclastic and mud flows and trapped under collapsed roofs more than 10,000 of the evacuees were permanently displaced so now most of these people live in relocation settlements built by the government. This eruption of Pinatubo was much larger than the one at St. Helens in 1980 and it indicates just how long a volcano can disrupt people's lives often changing how they live forever. >>That eruption produced such a large volume of loose fragmental material that piled up around the volcano and now that material is being redistributed downstream by water in the form of lahars or mud flows the chronic effects of the eruption are probably worse than the acute effects that occur during immediately after the eruption. >>In tropical settings like the Philippines that have prolonged rainy seasons where it's normal to experience numerous typhoons every year the problems with lahar's are amplified. The rains carve gullies hundreds of feet deep into the debris on Pinatubo's slopes and wash it to the valley floors below. >>We have one called, one worst case scenario where 30 million cubic meters of lahar came down during one one rainfall and that's a lot. If you imagine about ten cubic meters can be loaded in one truck ten cubic meters thirty million would require three million. >>Year after year the flows continue. >>We are here at Mt. Katchambora, very near the active Channel Pacepatero which is one of the most critical channel or lahar in the eastern side. >>From 1991 through 1996 350 million cubic meters of volcanic material have come down this channel alone. Mount Pinatubo stopped erupting the same year it began yet it still continues to disrupt people lives. Bacolor is located some 30 miles from the mountain it was first hit by lahars in 1992 but the worst occurred in October of 95 when a dike constructed to hold back the debris failed three to four meters of silty mud buried a large section of town. The community's grand Cathedral cracked under the strain but withstood the blow now however parishioners must enter through what used to be a second-story window. >>Damage to properties can be seen all around and then as to the numbers of number of lives lost the figure that we are always ready to talk about is something like forty to fifty people lost but there are families who keep insisting that they have not found their loved ones and the tally of this amounts to something like 1,000 people missing during that during that one episode. >>The danger of lahars here continues to this day but rather than abandon the area completely some people have chosen to rebuild their homes on stilts, the theory being that with its path unobstructed the next lahar will simply flow past. >>The fact that Bacolod is the premiere town of Pompanga this was once the capital of the province and at one time also the capital of the Philippines so this is populated by most of the old reeds and the influential people of Pompanga and they just don't want to abandon the place even if it if it is already being hit by lahars. It is a common response the world over few want to admit that their land or towns cannot be saved a fact that can frustrate scientists in the Philippines they have warned people that we'll take at least ten years for many of the areas around Mount Pinatubo to stabilize. >>Well we just draw the hazard map and show people that these are the possible places that may be impacted by lahars, but as volcanologists, we cannot control people as long as we tell them that that is a possibility and people are willing to take the risk, then so be it. The best thing really is to move people away from the source of the hazard but that's easier said than done. >>In communities like Poroc, the population of 72,000 have suffered ever since June 15 in 1991. >>I thought it was the end of the world there were thunders there were earthquake those were simultaneous. There were rains with mud and buildings collapsing businesses were closed and houses are full of sand. >>As bad as it seemed then things got worse after the major eruptions the town continued to be plagued by mud flows from 1991 through 1993 around 600 homes were destroyed in Peroc alone and about 500 acres of land right along the riverbanks were lost. >>it's just since 1991 we've been agonizing considering the loss of livelihood and loss of source of income. The wait and see attitude for almost five years estimated our economy it's only after 1996 did we think of going back growing and developing. >>The jungles around Pinatubo have been home to an Aboriginal people called the Aeatas for centuries living off the land on the mountain's remote slopes thier's was a way of life time had passed by. >>We are going to the village of Aeatas and the main problem there now is poverty and many many of the Aeatas are hungry and malnourished we have no food to eat because their habitat which is the mountain, reduced of land where it is to hunt they were all destroyed by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. >>The eruptions forced the Aeatas to leave their mountain retreats and live at least briefly in resettlement areas life among city dwellers proves hard for them here everything is foreign and with no formal education they cannot find jobs to support themselves and often become targets of discrimination. >>They don't like to mix with the non-Aeatas because they have their own culture their own tradition yea they cannot live normally with the other other people. >>This is why most returned to the mountains as soon as they could yet here too only hardship seems to await them. >>They are having much difficulty now especially their food specially during this rainy season they do not have food to eat though they have plants but their plants have not produced very well. They have no problems about their foods before Pinatubo erupted because they planted and the harvest there's vegetables so they have plenty of food to eat and they can even send some of them. ... in Jesus name we pray amen >>Reverend Wilson and his wife Cora and have been working with the Aeatas since before the mountain erupted their long-term commitment has won the trust of many tribal members. >>He will be staying with us coming here just reading his experience is only ready when you and I told him Solomon. >>The Wilsons believe that the Aeatas future lies with their children that is why they run a school especially for them. >>It's them and nurture them not only the ways of the Lord but also teach them how to read how to write how to compute and then later on they will be the one to come out and then teach their own people they will be the one to minister to their own people and in that way the other people will be improved in their life. >>It's hard for adults to change the way they view the world this mountain is the home of their people and better or worse they wish to stay here but like parents the world-over they also wish for a better life for their children. >>She realized that they made themselves parents haven't gone to school and they don't want them to be like them. >>In a foreign capital we are praying the Lord will help them to have their own life view so that they can support themselves there are no jobs the mountain is destroyed by the heart the hunting ground there were no more wild animals to hunt they were all gone so life becomes very very hard for the Aeatas. >>Along with the resettlement camps the government is building some sediment dams to try and protect people in the valleys but this government does not have the same resources as the Japanese and the areas being impacted are on a much larger scale than those around Shimabara. >>Rright now we are only dealing with three river systems it used to be nine now it's only three so we can concentrate resources to this river channels. >>But for the most part the timetable for recovery here is one that mother nature dictates and it is one that people on the west coast of the United States could someday face as well. >>You see some vulcanologists would be classifying volcanoes as long sleepers in other words they they have not done anything during the past 100 200 300 years and volcanoes of the type would tend to have big explosions when they erupt like Pinatubo stayed quiet for about 400 years and after that it gave a big blow so something like that may happen in some volcanoes in the Cascades. >>If there is one volcano in the Cascades that concern scientists the most it is Mount Rainier its massive size steep slopes and snow-covered peak, create such an image that the hundreds of thousands who live around it wait in anticipation to catch sight of it on a clear day yet it is the very same features that worried scientists and their concerns are based on experience. >>In 1985 there was a large ice-covered volcano similar to Mount Rainier in Colombia that erupted it's name is Nevada del Ruiz it produced a relatively small eruption that melted lots of snow and ice and produced very large volume mud flows. >>At Nevada del Ruiz over 23,000 people died as they were swept away by mud flows a tiny eruption on a snow-covered volcano makes a lot of water the water rushes down the volcano volcanoes are composed of loose debris the debris is included in this flood and it turns into this wall of flowing concrete it's moving and perhaps forty to sixty miles an hour and it comes tearing down the valleys basically just consuming and engulfing everything in its path. >>We view Mount Rainier as an analogue to Nevada del Ruiz, it's a snow and ice covered volcano it erupts relatively frequently it has deep valleys leading away from it and there are now tens of thousands of people living in those Valley bottoms on deposits from old mud flows. >>One Valley community located closest to Mount Rainier is named Orting it has a population of about 3,000 and growing the city itself is situated on an island of sorts. >>The city itself is in a flat very flat area between the two rivers of the Puyallup and the Carbon, but what we are sitting on is a mud flow that was generated from Mt. Rainer. >>If Rainier generated a mud flow now evacuating this town would be difficult this issue recently came to light in Orting because of a Washington State law called the land use management Act it requires communities with identified hazards to have an evacuation plan the information gained while developing one for Orting has caused some of the town's officials to take the threat of mud flows more seriously. Orting's evacuation plan is now based on what they think would be a worst case scenario. >>The timeframe in which it could impact the city varies from 40 minutes to two hours there's a lot of variables and on what would slow it down but the worst case scenario is a 40-foot wall of mud right where we're standing right at this point. >>One problem the town would face during an evacuation is traffic jams there are only two roads leading out of harm's way and they both cross bridges. Another concern is that Orting's current warning system consists of a single siren at the fire station unless more are added there is no way the entire community would even be able to hear an alarm. >>What people need to do is when the evacuation warning system has been activated we need to just pack up their family and follow the evacuation route that's been prescribed to their area and do just what it says because if you try to do anything other than that you could complicate the entire evacuation plan. >>This is why he says now is the time for residents to learn what to do if they wait until there is an actual emergency it will be too late. >>What they really need to understand is that they are on their own there there are no public agencies there to help them that if they are told or given the indication that they have to leave the city they have to leave the city and they will not get any assistance from us if you don't have a car make arrangements with your neighbors to pick you have them pick you up have them come over and get you but these are things you have to do because we are not available we have our own problems we have to get out as well. >>Some residents are critical of the attention talk of needing better warning systems has brought to Orting, they feel their community is being hurt by negative publicity over something that may never even happen. >>I'm in the real estate business and the concern I have is as you're forgetting about the small town atmosphere how nice our town is here how the community we have a real good community and it's all that's been forgotten because of the mountain and my family lived here for since the 40s if I didn't think it was safe I wouldn't be here. >>They also want people to realize that if Orting is in trouble so are a lot of other communities located in the lowlands around Mount Rainier Orting, Orting, Orting that's all you ever hear in the media is Orting, and what I want to see is the whole picture shown of from the tide flats from the east from the Enumclaw all the other places for the mud flow or whatever would happen could happen this is not Orting. >>It is not just Orting in the past Mount Rainier has generated mud flows that have traveled all the way to Puget Sound so any community that inhabits a valley leading away from the mountain lies in the path of potential danger. >>Unfortunately the information that scientists have passed along to public officials about the nature and volume and character of mud flows at Mount Rainier is accurate and that is to say that the volumes of mud that have been involved in past mud flows at Mount Rainier are truly colossal in size and mud flows have filled some valleys to depths of a thousand feet or more as they pass through the valley it sort of passes through the valley like a giant wave and so after the wave goes down Valley it leaves a deposit smeared onto the valley sides and in the valley bottom sometimes quite thick tens of feet thick. >>If a flow is generated by an eruption geologists are confident there will be prior warning warnings that can be detected by the Pacific Northwest seismographic Network based at the University of Washington the network is comprised of 135 seismograph stations that cover most of Washington and Oregon to monitor earthquakes one-third of these stations are specifically testing volcanoes so unless Mother Nature throws a curve this equipment will help provide advanced warning to volcanic activity. >>Which means that in general I feel anyway that almost always you will get some type of earthquake precursory signals before an eruption occurs inevitably when the the magma comes up into the volcano it must break rock and the breaking of the rock is what an earthquake is, we record those and if we're clever enough we can interpret that in terms of how much magma how long will it take to come here what are the chances of it being explosive or not and we've gotten good enough that in many cases we've been able to warn populations ahead of time and alert the civil authorities etc to actually save lots of lives >>Saving lives is what Bill Lokey's job is all about ...I would love to get on there... >>The Pierce County Department of Emergency Management is responsible for disaster planning how to reduce the potential and how to train people what to do when it happens, it coordinates all the different agencies that are thrust together in emergency situations. >>In volcano hazards are some of the hardest ones to deal with because they represent what could be the most catastrophic disaster to ever occur in this country and yet it things like that occur on such infrequent intervals to the tens of thousands of years that it's hard for people to grasp what's going on so we have information ready to go about volcanoes and depending on what happens if something starts going right now St Helen's, we can start a vigorous public education program so people will understand what's going on and be able to respond better to it. >>Emergency plans concerning volcanoes in the northwest rely heavily on having advanced warning that something is about to happen at the mountain agencies say other budgetary priorities make it hard for them to keep readiness at the highest level possible especially when the event in question may not occur for years to come. >>I can't afford to have a flood plan, a volcano plan hazardous materials plan search and rescue plan you know space invasion plan all these imminence like that we have an emergency plan that accommodates getting organized to respond with information to emergencies our main primary purpose in government is to be the most good for the most people and so if we have a plan that approaches is on a community basis if we have warning like Mount St. Helens gave us we can do tremendous amount of things to save a lot of lives and property and get people out of the way, and reroute traffic and things like that. If we have no warning the best we can do is do the best we can to get people out of the way. >>The most geologists say the odds are low it is possible that landslides or mud flows at mountains like Rainier can occur without warning. >>It's possible that a major collapse or a plank slope collapse of Mount Ranier could be either spontaneous no warning whatsoever or triggered by a local earthquake geologists tell us there's evidence in the deposits now that this has occurred in the past. It's hard to judge what the chances of that how likely that is to another case currently we're actually thinking about warning systems that could give maybe a half an hour's worth of warning should such a thing occur the technology exists to do that it's a matter of funding to put it in place training and maintenance all of which are very significant issues not to mention the social issue of is that even a wise thing to do? >>This debate is treated differently city to city and county to county pierce county has begun to restrict development in areas that could be at risk to volcanic activity yet the incorporated cities within the county have less stringent rules allowing for more development. >>From a public policy standpoint, I can't fault them, I mean when you when the vitality of your community is based on some development what's reasonable and that we were to shut development down in some of these towns, they would die on the vine and then nothing happens in 10,000 years you know what good have we done you know but something too you know the investments if you never have a wreck in your car what a waste of money that car insurance was but just in case something happens it was good to have it so each jurisdiction gets to decide what is reasonable for them. >>What is reasonable this can be difficult to determine especially when the possibility of an eruption appears unlikely however America's neighbors just south of the border are dealing with these very same questions on a daily basis and they are far from hypothetical. Since 1994 Popocatepetl located in central Mexico, has been living up to its name producing small and medium sized eruptions. >>Actually the name of Popocatepetl derives from this activity. Popocatepetl means the smoking mountain in the aztec language so not this is a common phenomena. >>But at times Popocatepetl has done more than just clear its throat. >>We can distinguish extremely violent eruptions probably comparable to that of Pinatubo or maybe even larger. >>Despite the fact that Popo and many smaller volcanoes in this area have been active since even before the Aztecs started calling them by name the heart of Mexican civilization is located just 30 miles away. The pulse of the country's culture echoes through its capital Mexico City from the Aztecs to the Spanish to the present federal government this has been the seat of power. About 20 million people live here and in large part they consider themselves beyond the reach of poco's power prevailing winds have made ash fall on this city streets uncommon during Popocatepetl's current activities but for others living closer to the mountains dealing with ash has become a nuisance of everyday life. Since the area surrounding Popocatepetl is heavily populated the mountain is monitored very closely the job of tracking what is happening here belongs to the National Center for the Prevention of disasters known as Cenopred. Cenopred fills a similar role as that of the USGS, it's people collect and analyze data from the volcano they then pass on their information to the government agencies that must decide if and when evacuations are required the fact that the mountain could be active for years to come makes the need for accurate in-depth information on what the volcano might do next vital. >>This activity could last for years so it is not a threat over days that it easy to take a decision in this case to evacuate and then when it is finish you can bring people back but this could last maybe 10 years. >>Hazard maps have been developed to help identify which areas are most susceptible to the mountains activity. >>It was decided to make a hazard plan in order to detect all the ways out that includes for example in the this inner circle here 30 communities and we're talking about 100,000 people just in that if you go farther to this level or this one here what you're talking about a million people more or less so the problem we could have in the Popocatepetl has an eruption it's a very big so where we are working with the federal state and municipal authorities in order to to make this plan work. >>And this process does not end when a hazard plan is in place. >>A plan like this is never ended it's never finished so you have to work every day the roads for example that before the rainy season are all right within four months you have to repair them so you're never quite ready you have to be pushing this program every time. >>Evacuations have taken place at one point when 50,000 people were removed from a hazard area it took about nine hours and then people were not allowed to return to their homes for five days a fact that does not sit well with most villagers. Trying to predict how the public will respond to emergency situations can be a difficult as determining what the mountain might do. Well they have been living there for centuries especially the old people are very tied to their land and what they produce so it's not too easy to ask them to leave their homeland but I think that the young people are very aware of the of the danger and I would say that 99% the people know what to do but of course it has been done with basically an order otherwise it could be more dangerous. >>The best way to ensure discipline and order during an emergency is to make sure that the people have received prior education about what to expect and how to respond. >>I would say that the the better you understand the problem the better prepared you are to deal with it. >>The government has used everything from traveling displays to the media and pamphlets to try and educate residents as to what they should do before during and after an eruption it has also devised a method of keeping communities informed on the mountain status on a moment-to-moment basis the concept is called the traffic light alert system lights or colored flags are displayed continuously in the towns surrounding the mountain. >>If it's green there is no problem, if it is yellow you must remain alert and living communicated and try to know how to going on and if the traffic light change to red means something really serious going on and then you have to to do whatever you are told but for instance leaving your town. >>The system's simple design is meant to eliminate misinterpretation of the information but it is not a perfect solution. >>We have been in the yellow conditions since 1994 now who and how it decides how to change color in either direction well that's a another difficult problem. >>Under current circumstances the Mexican government feels it is doing everything it can to protect its citizens however most people involved with the process admit the system is not infallible to improve upon it they say they need the help of individuals. >>Normally, Society says that the government is obliged to inform which is right but I think that we have to make a consort with the people and they have to go and get the information in the agencies that are set up for so I think that's the best advice not wait for the government to inform you, you have to go and ask for information and maybe you can save your life. >>This attitude is one shared by officials and geologists alike the world over. >>As we learn more we're able to better anticipate when a volcano is reawakening and the types and scales interruptions that it might have but we can't with our tools sanitize the world for your protection there are some places where where people simply should not build their houses and certainly not critical facilities or if they do so they should be prepared to lose those when volcano reawakens. >>I think the bottom line is that there are a number of volcanoes in the Cascade Range that could go from a quiet state such as they are at right now into a full-blown eruption within a few days warning those of us who live in the Cascade Range or near the range who are involved in some way have to be prepared and we have to anticipate the kinds of things that will happen and we have to make preparations now while we have time. >>Though these images are from far-off lands they need not be one look at St. Helen should serve as a reminder that everyone along America's West Coast could soon be forced to deal with a similar situation for within each of these giant beauties there is a sleeping beast, and you can't enjoy the company of one without possibly meeting the other when it wakes.
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Channel: KSPS Public TV
Views: 403,339
Rating: 4.6201549 out of 5
Keywords: Cascade Range (Mountain Range), Ring Of Fire (Location), volcanoes
Id: 8Fk-Z5_YIm0
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 56min 4sec (3364 seconds)
Published: Thu Aug 28 2014
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