ND-Lahar MT Rainier...

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Looking for newsprint story now. Heard water/snow slid down MT. Rainier. An alert/warning is now in place for the area.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

Answers

KING TV

Glacial outburst on Mount Rainier causes rise in Nisqually River August 14, 2001, 11:45 PM

ORTING – A surge of water rushed down the Nisqually River from a melted portion of a Mount Rainier glacier Tuesday night, causing the river level to rise, a state emergency services spokeswoman said.

State emergency operations officials say it was not a mudflow, and there was no evidence of unusual seismic activity at the 14,411-foot volcano.

There was no word of any injuries.

The Nisqually River was running at four times its normal level, but was staying within its banks. Emergency officials were monitoring the situation overnight.

Pierce County activated its emergency operations center and called out its search and rescue personnel and swift water rescue teams, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.

“What appears to have happened is the Van Trump Glacier up there has done a large water release and the water is kicking trees up in the campgrounds … and at this point it appears that when it all filters into the Nisqually, that the Nisqually should contain it,” said Troyer.

“We want everybody away from the Nisqually River, but at this point there is nothing going down through the Puyallup River or the Carbon River. So that’s good news for the towns that are up a little bit north,” said Troyer.

The glacier is located west of Paradise.

“We are on our way up there and hopefully this whole incident will end with just a mess down the Nisqually,” said Troyer.

Orting Police Chief Ron Emmons was about just getting ready to go to bed when he got the call.

“There was no sirens put out or anything else, just what people were picking up here and there over radios or scanners or whatever. They started calling neighbors and one thing or another and the next thing I know I got a call at home, I was in bed and going to sleep and they said ‘well the mountain’s going off,’” said Emmons.

“I got out right away and started checking around and found out it was just some melting snow that was causing a little debris into the Nisqually, and the Nisqually, fortunately, is one of the few rivers that doesn’t affect us at all anyhow. And so the Carbon and Puyallup are normal, and no alarms went off and everything here is fine,” he said.

Glacial outbursts

The U.S. Geological Survey explains on its Web site:

The smallest, but most frequent, debris flows at Mount Rainier begin as glacial outburst floods, also called by the Icelandic term "j”kulhlaup" (pronounced "yo-kul-h-loip").

Outburst floods at Mount Rainier form from sudden release of water stored at the base of glaciers or within the glacier ice. Outburst floods have been recorded from four glaciers on Mount Rainier: the Nisqually, Kautz, South Tahoma, and Winthrop glaciers.

From 1986 through 1992, South Tahoma Glacier released a total of 15 outburst floods, including at least one every year. These outburst floods from South Tahoma Glacier occurred during periods of unusually hot or rainy weather in summer or early autumn, and were apparently caused by rapid input of meltwater or rainwater to the base of the glacier. The exact timing of such outburst floods is unpredictable, however.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001


KIMA TV "Glacial Outburst" on Mt. Rainier

August 15, 2001 By News Staff

PIERCE COUNTY - A surge of water, likely from glacial melting on Mount Rainier, rushed down the Nisqually River Tuesday night, causing the river level to rise, a state emergency services spokeswoman said.

Several campgrounds near Paradise at the base of the 14,411-foot peak were evacuated as a precaution but there was no word of any injuries or flooding, spokeswoman Laura VanderMeer said at the state emergency operations center at Camp Murray.

Earlier reports of a massive debris and mud flow were incorrect, she said. There were no reports of seismic activity on the volcano.

"Reports are still coming in, but we're lucky at this point," Jody Woodcock, spokeswoman for Pierce County Emergency Management, said late Tuesday night. "This isn't the big one we've been practicing for."

At about 10 p.m., state troopers noticed the level of the river was rising, VanderMeer said.

Pierce County activated its emergency operations center and called out its search and rescue personnel and swift water rescue teams, sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said, deploying spotters to assess the river level.

"We're warning people to stay away from all parts of the Nisqually River," he said.

Pierce County handled the response to the water surge, with state emergency personnel helping field media queries.

"It's not overflowing. It's just coming down much faster," John So of the Gateway Inn near Ashford, at the base of the mountain, said of the Nisqually.

"The river is not that high. It's not at the level where it's going to overflow."

Troyer said the water came from the Van Trump glacier on the south side of the peak.

Ron Emmons, police chief in Orting, a Pierce County community on the Puyallup River, also downstream from Mount Rainier, said no siren was sounded in the town, as might have happened if the flow had been into the Carbon or Puyallup rivers. Still, several highways above Orting were closed.

"Everything here is fine," Emmons said. "Probably it was a pretty good drill, but we don't like those kinds of things, at night especially."

A federal emergency simulation last May indicated the region isn't prepared for a major eruption of Mount Rainier.

The computer simulation showed that as many as 5,000 people could be killed, 9,000 homes destroyed and $10 billion in damage done if the volcano were to erupt.

Many would perish under mud flows as they sat in traffic trying to evacuate, the simulation showed. Falling ash and rock from the mountain could rip out every bridge across the Puyallup River from Orting to downtown Tacoma, sweeping away cars and complicating evacuation plans.

The grim scenario was the result of a simulation done under the auspices of the Federal Emergency Management Agency at a complex called Mount Weather, tucked in the Blue Ridge Mountains, 70 miles west of Washington, D.C.

Nearly 100 community leaders, police officers, firefighters and government officials from Pierce County attended the simulation.

Fifty-seven people died when Mount St. Helens, south of Rainier in Washington's Cascade Mountain range, erupted on May 18, 1980.

This report was compiled by the news staff of KOMO-TV in Seattle. For more information, go to www.komotv.com

Additional information can be found at: www.volcanoes.usgs.gov/Products/Pglossary/lahar.html

For more info, see also http:// geohazards.cr.usgs.gov/pacnw/structure/rainier.htm

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001


Thanks Old Git for the information. I had looked and didn't find any thing on this to post. The snip below, would be enough to get my attention, if I lived anywhere close to that area:

A federal emergency simulation last May indicated the region isn't prepared for a major eruption of Mount Rainier.

The computer simulation showed that as many as 5,000 people could be killed, 9,000 homes destroyed and $10 billion in damage done if the volcano were to erupt.

Many would perish under mud flows as they sat in traffic trying to evacuate, the simulation showed. Falling ash and rock from the mountain could rip out every bridge across the Puyallup River from Orting to downtown Tacoma, sweeping away cars and complicating evacuation plans. [end snip]

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001


I had read an article on Rainier in Scientific American, I think it was, and was struck by the same information you repeated. I guess I just thought it would be kinda like St. Helens; instead, it would be catastrophically worse. The city pictured above is Tacoma, I believe.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

That is an awsome picture of Rainier, that you... with all your talents of posting great pictures... had posted here. The snip/parts are from the info that you had provided. It sorta blew me away a little, from the frankness of the report. Usually, news reports of such potential disasters... in well populated areas, are somewhat watered down. A writter by the name of Sun Bear, had said when little sister (Mt. St. Helens) erupted, it wouldn't be long before Grandfather (Mt. Rainier) did the same. When Mt. Rainier erupts, it will be much worse then when Mt. St. Helens did her thing. To me, from the information on dangers of living in that area, I just couldn't live there, no matter how pretty it is.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001


Dang! We have relatives around there...

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

Barefoot, have you called your relatives to find out what's happening there now? There is a hot link on one of OG's post, the site is great, with sooo much info on that area.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

Mags, it's ever so easy to post a picture. You do a left-mouse click on the picture you want to reproduce and at the bottom of the little window that pops up, it says "Copy Image Location." Click on that and it copies the image location for you. Now, find the place you want to insert the photo and put the character < in front of img src= (no space). Then paste (Ctrl V) the image location right after the equals sign, no space. After that you do a > (no space) That's it! It would look like the following except pretend the ( is a < and the ) is a > If I do it for real, it won't show up cos it's html code and will think it's supposed to print the picture.

(a href=http://geohazards.cr.usgs.gov/pacnw/structure/rainier_tacoma.jpg)

and that will get you the picture of Tacoma with Rainier in the background.

If you get a broken icon symbol, don't worry about it. One of us will fix it when we see it. Sometimes it won't "take" because the line of code splits off.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001


I sent the articles above to my auntie, who has forwarded them to my cousin who lives in Orting.

Git, I find that I have to put the URL in between ""'s to get the photo to show. So I have to do (IMG SRC="URL") I checked yours and see that you do not do that. Strange.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001


Yep, been strange for a long time.

Dunno why you need the quotes and I don't. Something to do with the browser? I use Netscape. Screw Microsoft.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001



Netscape here, too. The IE thing crashes too much.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

Thanks for the lesson, I will give it a try monyona.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

You mean ma·ña·na (mä-nyän) as in:

1.Tomorrow.

2.At an unspecified future time.

An indefinite time in the future.

And not a town in Iowa? Or are you going to Monona IA soon?

LOL

[sorry, the word just looked funny so I checked it.]

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001


It must feel so good to be so perfect. . .;)

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2001

Hey, I can see where the Mailman would be obsessive about how towns are spelled...

A secretary I had here for a while, first day, she puts two photographs up on the counter. One of St. Helens before it blew. One after. she casually mentions (on that first day) that her dad was up there hiking around before the eruption and they never found him. Frankly this is more than I want to know about an employee on their first day. Wonder if he was part of the 57 count or if that was just bodies recovered.

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2001



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