It farted on Friday, and the USGS thinks it'll fart, belch, and hiccup quite a bit more over the next few weeks. Harmonic tremors are rather frequently occuring now, something that hasn't happened since the big one. It won't go near as bad as the May '80 blast, just comparable to the snort Friday. If it does out-and-out blow, odds are that bang will blow ash quite a ways; but that's it. The local paper is doing an excellent job of keeping folks updated on what all is happening up there. Strictly facts, what some of the USGS folks are saying in the way of theories, and how a few of the local government offices are handling things. Pretty nice, all told. Can't say the same for the media, though. Local TV stations are making it out to be a catastrophy, and the national boys think if it blows the planet will be blasted in half. After Friday's fart, both CBS and Fox said that it blew ash far enough to lightly dust cars in Vancouver (WA, not BC) 40 miles away. Well, aside from being way off on the distance, that ash/steam sneeze barely got out of the park. Let alone the crater.
Both USGS folks and the USFS have closed off a lot of the area to the public. The swarm of TV trucks is parked down at Cold Creek, which is as close as anyone can get. The Forestry Service has closed down the South, East, and North roads that lead into the park. Only the West entrance is open, and even then only to Coldwater Ridge. Johnston Ridge and the observatory there is closed because of the short distance to the mountain (4.7 vs 8 miles).
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Flakbait [Delta6]
