A restless mountain reawakens

"I don't know, I don't know where I'm a gonna go when the volcano blow."

Singer Jimmy Buffett penned those words in 1979, a year before Washington's Mount St. Helens blew its top and showered much of the Northwest with volcanic ash.

The lyrics still resound in 2004 as the mountain rumbles and burps and steams and threatens another eruption.

But now people are going toward the volcano to witness nature at its cataclysmic best.

Volcano watching has become a spectator sport as thousands of tourists (as well as the requisite media crews) have converged on Mount St. Helens hoping to see the mountain blow again.

Last weekend was the busiest one ever at the Mount St. Helens visitor centers. Throngs of people packed the buildings, crowded into parking lots and parked along roads to watch the volcano.

Why?

For many people, it's the chance to see one of the most powerful forces in nature. Something major is about to happen at the most active volcano in the lower 48 states - and people want to see the spectacle.

Volcano scientists agree that the earthquakes, steam bursts and magma movement point to a big event for Mount St. Helens.

But this time around, geologists say there is little chance of anything close to the devastating May 18, 1980, blast which blew 1,300 feet off the top of the peak, flattened 230 square miles of forest and killed 57 people

The ash that blew hundreds of miles away paralyzed much of the inland Pacific Northwest - even the Flathead Valley and much of Western Montana.

Many local residents might remember that bizarre week in May 1980 when falling ash brought the valley to a near standstill.

The blanket of ash that covered the Flathead shut down schools for three days, prompted the governor to order all but a few businesses closed, forced the postponement of school levy elections and grounded all plane flights.

The Inter Lake remained open and printed accounts of how the valley was enveloped in an eerie gray-white haze; anyone venturing outside was urged to wear a mask to limit breathing the ash.

At one point, Kalispell's air had a particulate count of 3,749 micrograms per cubic meter; the danger level was 875.

That's just a glimpse of the far-flung effects of a major volcanic eruption, and perhaps a reason why the current situation at Mount St. Helens is being watched so closely by so many people.