Nasty Weather Advisory

LOWER COLUMBIA OR-LOWER COLUMBIA AND I - 5 CORRIDOR IN COWLITZ COUNTY WA-SOUTH WASHINGTON CASCADE FOOTHILLS WA-SOUTH WASHINGTON CASCADES WA-WILLAPA HILLS WA-
1046 AM PDT THU MAY 20 2010

..SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR CENTRAL COWLITZ AND EXTREME NORTHERN COLUMBIA COUNTIES

AT 1037 AM PDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR WAS TRACKING A FEW THUNDERSTORMS NORTH TO NORTHWEST OF KELSO OR BETWEEN CASTLE ROCK AND STELLA...MOVING EAST AT 20 MPH.

HAIL UP TO ONE HALF INCH IN DIAMETER AND WIND GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH THESE STORMS.

* LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE...
LEXINGTON AND OSTRANDER...
CASTLE ROCK...
SILVER LAKE...
TOUTLE...

IF THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES YOUR AREA...TAKE SHELTER IN A STURDY BUILDING.

Wind Advisory

LOWER COLUMBIA-GREATER PORTLAND METRO AREA- CENTRAL WILLAMETTE VALLEY-I-5 CORRIDOR IN COWLITZ COUNTY- GREATER VANCOUVER AREA- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...ST. HELENS...HILLSBORO...OREGON CITY...
GRESHAM...SALEM...LONGVIEW...KELSO...BATTLE GROUND...WASHOUGAL
1143 AM PDT WED MAY 19 2010

..WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 11 PM PDT THIS EVENING FOR THE GREATER PORTLAND AND VANCOUVER AREA...THE CENTRAL WILLAMETTE VALLEY...AND THE I-5 CORRIDOR IN COWLITZ COUNTY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PORTLAND HAS ISSUED A WIND ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 11 PM PDT THIS EVENING.

* WINDS: SOUTH WIND 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 45 MPH ARE
EXPECTED.

* TIMING: BEGINNING LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND CONTINUING UNTIL
AROUND MIDNIGHT.

* LOCATIONS INCLUDE: SALEM...HILLSBORO...OREGON CITY...
GRESHAM...ST. HELENS...BATTLE GROUND...WASHOUGAL... LONGVIEW...
KELSO

* IMPACTS: HAZARDOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES
AND POSSIBLE TREE DAMAGE.


PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A WIND ADVISORY IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS ARE FORECAST TO BE
31 TO 39 MPH OR GUSTS WILL RANGE BETWEEN 45 AND 57 MPH. WINDS OF THESE MAGNITUDES MAY CAUSE MINOR PROPERTY DAMAGE WITHOUT EXTRA PRECAUTIONS. MOTORISTS IN HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES SHOULD USE CAUTION UNTIL THE WINDS SUBSIDE.

Volcano Awareness Month

Ahhh....spring. When a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of....volcano awareness. The catastrophic eruptions of Mt. St. Helens thirty years ago are a reminder that Cascade volcaoes hold potential to disrupt our communities. Eruptions and lahars at Mt. St. Helens took the lives of 57 people and caused billions of dollars in property damage. Here's a breakdown of our five active volcano neighbors.
•Mt. Baker, located in Whatcom County erupted last in the mid-1880s. River valleys are prone to landslides and lahars. Small stream plumes near the summit are observed frequently.
•Glacier Peak, is located in Snohomish County. This volcano last erupted in the 18th or 19th century. Large explosive eruptions in the past spewed ash to the east into Montana. Lahars threaten river valleys to the west.
•Mt. Rainier, located in Pierce County, produced small eruptions in the 19th century. Numerous large landslides flowed down the volcano's flanks into river valleys over the past 6,000 years. More than 150,000 people live on lahar deposits in river valleys around the volcano.
•Mt. St. Helens, is technically located in Skamania County. It is one of the most explosive and active volcanoes in the Cascades. The eruption on May 18th, 1980, was the most destructive volcanic eruption in U.S. history.
•Mt. Adams, located in Yakima County, is referred to as the "quiet giant." Mt. Adams produces lava flows, and is also prone to large landslides and lahars in the river valleys to the south, west, and north.

How can you prepare?

•Get a NOAA Weather Radio
•Develop an emergency plan with your family. For tips on how to create a plan, visit the DEM website.
•Prepare for ashfall with goggles and dust masks for all family members.
•Follow authorities' instructions.

Free Boat Safety Inspections

The Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office will be providing FREE boat safety inspections at Willow Grove Boat Launch on Sunday May 16th from 10 AM until 2 PM. The public is welcome to bring their boats and personal watercraft for this free event. There will be free handouts and other boating safety information available. Once inspected, each boat that passes the inspection will receive a 2010 Marine Safety Inspection Decal. For more information, contact Deputy Darren Ullmann at the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office at 577-3092.

What if it happened today? Part IV

Following 9/11, it became undeniable that agencies being able to communicate with each other would not only make things easier, it would save lives. Interoperable communications is now a priority of all levels of government. Many grant funding opportunities are available through the Department of Homeland Security to purchase interoperable radio equipment. Gone are the days of agency-specific code-speak, now the name of the game is "clear language." When everyone is on the same page, rapid and sometimes life saving decisions can be made much easier.

The technological advances made in the study of volcanic eruptions have been huge, thanks in no small part to the first-hand experiences of studying Mt. St. Helens. While earthquakes and volcanic monitoring are still basically the same as in 1980, the number of tools and the degree of accuracy are much more advanced. GPS and computers are now a major part of volcanic study, as is the study of the gases being emitted by the mountain. Scientists can now detect not only carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxides, but also a host of other gases, all at resolutions much sharper than 30 years ago, giving them clues about what is going on inside the mountain.

The widespread use of GPS and DNA matching would also make body recovery and identification much faster than in decades past. Our local Search and Rescue groups spent months searching for bodies. Once the bodies were recovered, the long task of identifying them began. The tools of forensics, though not necessarily as advanced as they are on TV, are still lightyears ahead of what they were in the 80's. Comfort and closure for grieving families could be achieved much fast today.

In conclusion, would 57 lives have been lost if Mt. St. Helens were to erupt today? No one could say for sure. The day of the week and time of day would make a huge impact, no matter the decade. Would the mitigation, response and recovery to the eruption have been more streamlined? Absolutely. No disaster is without chaos, it wouldn't be a disaster if it was. But the technological advances in communications and science would definitely make the darkest days of our community a little easier to handle with efficiency and accuracy.

Police Use Twitter in Missing Person Case

While I fully admit that I am slow to warm up to Twitter, I will acknowledge that it has many important uses in the fields of law enforcement and emergency management. Take this article from www.kgw.com for instance:

Police use Twitter to Find Man with Dementia
by Teresa Blackman
kgw.com
Posted on May 10, 2010 at 10:22 AM
Updated yesterday at 10:29 AM

PORTLAND – Twitter messages helped detectives find an elderly man with dementia who had been missing since last weekend.

Richard Lewis, who uses a walker, somehow wandered away from his caregivers on Saturday. Then, police were able to track him to the area of N Lombard Avenue and N New York Street before their clues ran dry.

Detectives used the Portland Police Bureau’s Twitter account to ask for help finding the 80-year-old man. And they said it was a tweet that eventually brought him home.

“It was a tip from a Twitter user which ultimately allowed detectives to locate Mr. Lewis,” said PPB detective Mary Wheat.

In all types of investigations, police continue to increase their use of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook as tools to help crack their cases and hunt out criminals.

Something tells me that I should stop fighting the social media monster and just embrace it as both an important tool for emergency information and a not-so-important tool for users to show their poor grammar and syntax to the world.

30 Years Ago Today

Here is a link to the USGS website that has a "30 Years Ago Today" feature about what Mt. St. Helens was up to days before the blast. Check it out here. For instance, here's what the mountain was doing 30 years ago on May 10th:
May 10, 1980:
The volcano remained under clouds most of the day. Steam and ash emissions were visible once the weather cleared. Surveys of the bulge showed that the outward motion had slowed to less than three feet per day, about half the average rate for the previous two weeks. The low rate was later considered to be the result of an erroneous measurement. There were 20 earthquakes larger than magnitude 3.0 recorded, including 10 larger than 4.0.

If you click here, there are some cool pictures and a some more information from our friends at the Discovery Channel.