Channel Surfing the Volcano

My after work TV viewing was interrupted yesterday by the breaking news of steam and ash emanating from Mount St. Helens. In the middle of a stressful week, this turned out to be ideal entertainment: lots of speculation if it would erupt the way it did in 1980 to build curiousity, just enough of an element of danger (the FAA enforced a no-fly zone to prevent ash from going into jet engines) to build suspense, and just close enough (about 3 hours from where I was watching) that if anything really blew up, nobody would more than likely be killed and I'd get a little souvenir to sweep off my deck.

The really entertaining part, however, was flipping through Seattle TV stations to see how they were responding to this demi-crisis. The talking heads at CBS affiliate KIRO were buzzing nervously as they kept reporting that they were unable to contact the Seismology Department at the University of Washington, implying that something serious was going on...

If it was serious for anyone, it was for KIRO's producers, as over on KOMO (ABC) the anchor team was engaged in a lengthy phone conversation with UW's resident Seismologist. Waiting at his office door was a reporter from KING (NBC). KCPQ, content to stick with the Fox network's tradition of hard-hitting journalism, talked to their weather guy.

Something may erupt yet, stay tuned. Too bad it didn't happen during sweeps last month....