Media enthralled by science and drama of Mount St. Helens

By Nancy Bartley, Hal Bernton and Ian Ith
Seattle Times staff reporters

THE (LONGVIEW) DAILY NEWS Media crews await the possibility of "a big payoff" at Mount St. Helens, which began rumbling two weeks ago.

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Since the volcano stirred to life last month, reporters and photographers have rushed to its flanks in droves. St. Helens' rumblings have been chronicled around the world.

For media from the U.S., Canada and beyond, the mountain offers a payload of possibilities to captivate viewers and readers eager to devour anything about the most active volcano in North America, one within a two-hour drive of a major metropolitan area.

"It's a great story," said Chris Brown, a Canadian Broadcasting reporter stationed north of St. Helens last week. "You have science. You have drama. And in the end you may have a big payoff. ... When it comes to volcanoes, I'm not sure there is a border."

Images of steam and ash, coupled with St. Helens' history, have given some faraway followers of the story a distorted picture of the immediate danger. In Australia, one woman wrote in an Internet chat room of watching sightseers at the volcano on TV.

She called them danger-seeking "wackos. Watch it on TV, tape it even, but don't go there. The last time she blew, people died."

In another Internet forum, a man in Pennsylvania said he's as close as he wants to be to the mountain.

But Jake Lowenstern, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist who has shared the duty of briefing reporters daily in Vancouver, Wash., refuses to blame the press for such misperceptions.

"I've been relatively impressed with the way the media have been doing their jobs," he said. "We've been trying to show that things here are pretty normal for volcanic activity, and we've always talked frankly about it, but it's been a difficult message to get across. People always focus on worst-case scenarios. That's more fun."

Last week, citizens of the world could read about St. Helens in the German Berliner Morgenpost, Dublin's Irish Times and the Courier Mail in Queensland, Australia.

News about the volcano was broadcast from Norway to Tokyo. Up on the mountain, camera crews jockeyed for position to capture images of the most recent steam plume.
 
NBC correspondent James Hattori said Mount St. Helens was worth covering because it's the most famous volcano in North America. He planned to remain on the mountain through this weekend, even though many other journalists were pulling out.

"This is a big story," he said, "and there is still a lot of interest in it."

Even the White House was interested: It called the USGS office in Vancouver last week, asking to be better briefed to prepare for questions from the Washington, D.C., press corps.

All the attention has turned scientists like Lowenstern into reluctant media spokesmen.

They were center-stage back in 1980, but in recent years have worked in relative obscurity. That began to change over the weekend of Sept. 25-26, as swarms of earthquakes below the Mount St. Helens crater picked up intensity.

At first, just a few regional journalists tracked the story, and USGS scientists were willing to meet with them one-on-one. But during the next week, as the earthquakes intensified and scientists began to reassess their earlier theories, media interest — regionally and internationally — skyrocketed.

The scientists "weren't prepared for this kind of assault," said Stephanie Hanna, a public-affairs officer for the agency.

Catherine Puckett, another USGS media-relations manager, said she spent last week fielding calls from all the large national newspapers, and also spoke with reporters from Australia, Scotland, Ireland, England and even Norway.

"I've worked with national media a lot," she said Thursday in Vancouver during a rare lull in setting up press interviews and answering the phone. "But this has been the most intense media I've ever worked, for so long a time. It's been around the clock."

Foreign reporters are generally unfamiliar with Pacific Northwest geography, and European reporters, especially, don't appreciate the vastness of the American West, Puckett said. They don't understand how far St. Helens really is from major cities like Seattle and Portland. And they don't realize that North America is pocked with volcanoes.

"So they want to know how many people could be hurt or killed, and what the hazards are," she said.

In Vancouver, the press conferences last week became predictable. USGS scientists would say what they knew about the volcano's most recent rumblings. Then they would stress what they don't know, which is exactly when and how powerful a large eruption might be.

Even so, questions from television and radio reporters, especially early in the week, focused largely on eliciting predictions about the eruptions. "They want to know when and why, but it's not a hurricane or a tornado," Puckett said.

On Tuesday, after reporters repeatedly wondered whether an ash and steam emission broadcast live on a television monitor was what one termed the "main event," Lowenstern finally jumped in.

"There's not necessarily going to be a 'Big One,' " he said. "People need to get that out of their minds."

Later in the week, Lowenstern was more circumspect. He said that as the days wore on, reporters developed more understanding about the uncertainties of volcano science.

Puckett was similarly empathetic.

"The visual imagery of a steam emission going up is so powerful, and when you see it filling a TV screen, you don't have the full perspective," she said.

"We need to get the message out that, yes, you need to be aware of what's going on, but you have to be aware that this is not a repeat of Mount St. Helens, May 18, 1980," Puckett added. "We want to get the message out that it's something we need to be aware of ...

"... But not afraid of," Lowenstern said, finishing Puckett's sentence for her.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com. She reported from Seattle, Hal Bernton from overlooks north of Mount St. Helens, and Ian Ith from Vancouver, Wash. Seattle Times reporter Christopher Schwarzen also contributed to this report.