May 18, 2025 • 29 mins
This is the 45th anniversary of the Mt. St. Helens eruption which is a good time to prepare for another eruption and any disaster. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is celebrating a major milestone in Oregon.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. This week today
is the forty fifth anniversary of the nineteen eighty eruption
of Mount Saint Helen's and it's a good reminder to
be prepared for future eruptions and in general, any disaster.
We'll have information on how you can be prepared. Plus,
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is celebrated a major milestone in Oregon.
(00:25):
We'll tell you how it works and how young kids
can get free books. This is Volcano Awareness Month and
Oregon Emergency Management officials want you to be prepared for
a future eruption. This is the forty fifth anniversary of
the Mount Saint Helens eruption. Vanessa Swenton is a geologist
from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and
(00:47):
Aaron's Isaac is with Oregon Emergency Management. Vanessa, from a
geological standpoint, how is the Cascady a subduction zone and
Mount Saint Helen's connected.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's an interesting question because it's so complicated in that
in the subduction zone system as a whole, those things
are part of the same system. So the trench itself,
like where the plates are colliding and then this like
a creationary prism, which is basically includes like offshore to
the coast range. It's a super structurally complex, very faulted
(01:20):
area that accommodates all that pressure and accordion like build
up of material that's getting scraped off of the oceanic
plate that's subducting under the continental crust. And then there's
the actual volcanic arc itself, so it's the volcanoes that
make up the Cascade range. And to put it simply,
(01:41):
it's basically, as the oceanic crust is subducting, it's carrying
some fluids with it, right like the ocean water, and
it causes the rocks to melt at depth when they
wouldn't normally be able. They wouldn't normally be in conditions
that are hot enough to melt, so you end up
getting this buoyant melt that rises and forms this really
nice chain in volcanoes.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
So could a subduction zone earthquake cause the volcano to erupt,
And to.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Put it simply, it's not impossible, but it's very unlikely.
So they are part of this same overall like geologic
system that is a subduction zone, but they're so structurally
and physically complex in their own ways that they are
(02:26):
relatively distinct, and so what's really cool about it is
they have their own ways of accommodating different stresses and strains.
So usually when there's earthquakes around a volcano, it's because
there's some sort of magma movement in Oregon. It can
be pretty complicated because there's just a lot going on
in Oregon, like there's like block rotation and all these
(02:48):
different things. But for the most part, the earthquakes are
at greater they're at different depths, and they accommodate this
movement in different ways. But the subduction zone earthquake is
going to be one that happens because those plates are
sort of stuck together as they move and then they
(03:08):
just sort of it's like it pops out to it
can't be crunched up anymore and it just sort of pops.
So if people are wondering wood an earthquake at the
subduction zone trigger a volcanic eruption, No, but there would
be shaking that happens at those right, so you'd have
Like Dogami has produced a seismic hazard database that's really
(03:29):
awesome with it includes like maps that show the shaking
intensity if there were if there was a subduction zone earthquake,
and so there would be shaking that could produce some
things like landslides and avalanches and things, but not necessarily
a massive volcanic.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Eruption, and the volcano would have to be charged with
magma underneath it in order to erupt if something like
that happened, most likely.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Right, right, and they are you know, they all the
Cascade volcanoes are considered active. They're just different levels of right,
I guess, like.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Risk Aaron, what lessons have been learned from the nineteen
eighty eruption a Mount Saint Helens and how have they
helped scientists improve predictions and preparedness for future volcanic activity.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Scientists were monitoring the volcano and they knew that it
was primed to erupt. But of course, just because as
we've seen with subsequent activity on Mount Saint Helens, just
because Mount Saint Helens starts spewing ash into the air
doesn't mean it's going to have a full eruption, right,
And we see this with other volcanoes. And getting local
(04:36):
officials and the public to understand and coordinate to get
out of danger areas and danger zones. A lot of
data came out of being able to measure how the
lajars moved through the valley and where these different hazards
(04:58):
might be, and also just lessons learned about better ways
to coordinate messaging to the public about where they should
evacuate to and how they should respond when they are
given an evacuation notice.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
What measures should residents at the Pacific Northwest take to
stay informed and be prepared for both volcanic eruptions and
major seismic events.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Anywhere you live in the country, the first step is
to know what risks exist in your backyard. In the
Pacific Northwest, we have a number of natural disaster risks,
the volcanoes being one of them, Cascadia being another one
of them. More commonly, we have ice storms, we have
deadly heat waves. Now we have wildfires. Wildfires is the
(05:47):
most common one and the one that people think about
the most especialists who are starting to move into wildfire season.
Once you know what your hazards are, you know you
have a better idea of how to prepare. For instance,
in the mid a lot of people have basements and
they have tornado shelters that they can go to. We
don't have a lot of those here in the Pacific
Northwest because we don't have as many tornadoes. So knowing
(06:11):
what your risks are as your first step, your second
step is to get signed up so that you get
alerts on your phone. That's both making sure the WEA,
the Wireless Emergency Response Alerts are activated on your cell
phone so that you get that warning signal when there's
a hazard in your area, be it weather, be it
(06:32):
a volcano, be it a tsunami warning, things like that,
also signing up for our alerts, which is more local
to your address. The difference between the WEA and ther
alerts is that our alerts is tied to your zip code.
It's tied to your address, so it's going to notify
you about the hazards around your area, whereas the WIA
(06:52):
is tied to your GPS. So if you're out hiking
and you have access to GPS, you're going to get
a WEA alert if you're out camping and things like
that for the area that you're in, But you may
not get an O or alert unless you've signed up
specifically to get our alerts in that particular area. Again,
we see these a lot with wildfires. Last year, we
had to evacuate some of the public state parks and
(07:15):
campgrounds because of wildfires in Eastern Oregon, and so it's
always really good and important to know what's going on
in different areas. If you're visiting the coast, it's important
to understand tsunamis and where the tsunamis zones are and
where the evacuation zones are. If you're visiting eastern Oregon,
especially during wildfire season, it's important to take a look
(07:35):
at our wildfire maps and know what active wildfires are
happening and make sure that you have that we are
turned on and that you are getting alerts in that area,
so you know when you get those different evacuation level
notices that you neither need to get out or that
you need to shelter in place. And one of the
things you know sometimes people get a little confused about
is depending on the type of disaster that your respond to,
(08:00):
you may be asked to shelter in place. You maybe
asked to stay in your home, close your doors, secure
your windows, try to keep the air as clean as possible.
Or you may be asked to evacuate your home and
you may have to grab a go bag, supplies for yourself,
your family, and for your pets and get yourself and
your family out. One of the things we tell people
(08:23):
is if they have any kind of mobility issues or
if they have medical equipment. If you're given a level
one evacuation notice, which is be ready, maybe treat that
as a level two evacuation notice, be set. If you
get a level two, treat it as a level three go. Now,
the level three is a get out and go. So
(08:44):
it's important to understand what those evacuation levels mean. It's
important to make sure that you're getting those evacuation levels,
and it's important to make sure that you have a
bag that everybody in your family is a bag that
they can grab that has closed, it has maybe some food,
It has copies of your vital documents, medical records, rx's
anything that you would need to be able to kind
(09:06):
of sustain yourself or rebuild afterwards, so copies of your
Social Security card and things like that, and just be prepared.
We don't want people to walk around being scared all
the time. That's not what preparedness and messaging is about.
It's about empowering you to know that you are ready
(09:27):
to handle situations when they occur, and that you can
grab that go bag, you can get in the car,
and you can evacuate with your family if you're as
to evacuate.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So the anniversary of the nineteen eighty eruption Vanessa, how
is research and monitoring amount Saint Helen's evolved and what
role does technology play and understanding future risks.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
So there's different kinds of monitoring.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
There's like remote sensing things so people can use they
basically can place things like GPS monitors and in sense
if there's any sort of movement, So whether it's for example,
like Mount Saint Helens, it would have been really important
in the nineteen eighties to recognize that bulging that was happening,
(10:09):
So something like that. When we measure gas emissions and
things like that, they're at USGS. They're constantly looking and monitoring,
like what is considered a normal amount of gas emissions
like CO two and sulfur versus what is elevated and
you know, ground movement if there's any you know, small
(10:31):
smaller earthquakes and shaking events are normal, Like there's a
normal level at every volcano that they consider just kind
of standard background or what's normal movement of magma for
that particular volcano, and if it seems like it's elevated,
then that when they might start saying like, okay, let's
(10:53):
think about what's going on here. So the more the
nineteen eighty eruption, it's my understanding that they it was
it was an event that made people realize how critical
monitoring is and where areas of improvement could be. And
(11:13):
they've just advanced a lot since then. So the technology
I know has gotten better since a lot better since
nineteen eighty, and it's it's actually really fascinating, Like it's
someone who doesn't do active monitoring things myself, I love
to hear them talk about how you know, you can
see on their screens that they have like every single blip,
(11:35):
every single gas emission, every single thing.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
They're watching it all the time.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
So it's really important so that we can understand, you
know what, when there is some level of unrest, how
significant that unrest is and kind of like what we
would need to do about it.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
What's the eruptive history of Mount Saint Helens and how
likely is it that that'll erupt again?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
The eruptive history of Mount Saint Helens is really interesting
that talk about it's basically been the stratovolcano that we
know and love since about two hundred and seventy five
thousand years ago. There's all these different stages that geologists
have have defined in its history, but its earliest stage,
(12:20):
so you know, two hundred and seventy five thousand years
to go to about eighteen thousand years ago, it had
a lot of lava domes and some more explosive eruptions
that created like ash and pyroclastic flows, some lava flows,
some major debris avalanches. And then after that there was
(12:44):
you know, about sixteen thousand years ago to up to
like the pre nineteen eighty eruption.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
There were some.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
More some more lava flows and lava domes and debris
flows in the earlier part of that, so I guess
the later part so it would be I think it's
about like seventeen thousand years ago. That includes the lava
flow that contains the Ape Cave. So I don't know
if that sounds familiar to anybody, but it's that really
(13:13):
fun cave you can go through. And then there's the
the post nineteen eighty phase. So obviously that huge lateral
blast that happened, which is the one, the one that
we all love to talk about. And in terms of
how long you know it's been, it's been active like
that's pretty much. It's it's history so that you know
(13:38):
to basically, it's two hundred and seventy five thousand years
of activity with some really brief hiatuses and eruptive activity,
and it is definitely going to in terms of how
likely it is to erupt again, is definitely going to
erupt again.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
It's it's very it's in.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
The like highest likely category, so it's not really matter
of if it's kind of when Aaron.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Let me go back to preparedness for a moment. What
are the evacuation levels and how should we treat them?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So level one is be ready. Residents should be aware
of the danger and monitor media outlets for information, making
sure that you're getting good sources of information. Make sure
you're following official if you're doing if you're following social media,
make sure you're following official social media channels. But we
prefer that you know, monitor news broadcasts, get yourself Noah radio, uh,
(14:32):
and make sure you're monitoring good sources of information because
in these types of situations, ground truth is is hard
to get, and the ground truth is going to be
coming out of official sources, from first responders that are
on the ground feeding that information to the organ Department
of Emergency Management. So it's really important to make sure
(14:52):
that you're getting good information from official sources. Level two
is be set there's a significant danger and residents should
voluntarily or be prepared to leave in a moment's noticed.
During wildfire season, I was at a level two in
twenty twenty. When Level two hit, I packed up all
of my supplies into my car, so all I had
to do was throw my cat into a carrier and
(15:13):
we could get in the car and go. When that
level three hit, Luckily I did not get a level three,
and level three is go now. That means get in
your car and get out. Residents our advice to leave
the meat area immediately, and that can change in a
moment's notice. That's why it's really important to have those
alerts set on your phone. I remember during twenty twenty wildfires,
(15:34):
I was living in Springfield and I would have alerts
coming in on my phone at three o'clock in the morning,
and there were a couple of nights where I did
not sleep because those alerts were going out, and they
were really really important because the area just around my house.
I've lived in downtown Springfield in the area just around
my house was being evacuated and threatened and it was frightening,
(15:58):
but I also felt confident and our emergency managers in
Lane County they were doing what they were supposed to
be doing and they were getting the good information I
needed to know what to do.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Does the Oregon Deproblement of Geology website have risk maps?
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yes, we do.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, so you go on some of these websites, there's
some really great hazard assessment maps and sometimes like some
of the language can seem a little bit intimidating, like I,
but it's if if you look at some of these
maps the way that the Dogami folks put it together,
put the maps together, they're very easy to read, and
(16:36):
I love looking at them, like they're very easy to understand.
And yeah, so we have all of those as publications
where you can download the PDFs or you can just
you can actually download them and put them into like
an RGAS you know, mapping program if you want.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
They also have a really good tsunami maps. So if
you're visiting the most knowing where the tsunami areas are,
because with tsunamis your warning is that the ground shakes.
That's your warning. Yes, so you know where you're gonna go.
And again you don't need to be afraid, but you
need to have a kind of an assessment to a
risk assessment. If the ground starts shaking and I'm on
the beach, where am I gonna go? And how am
(17:17):
I going to get there? Just know that in the
back of your head and have a little bit of
a plan going forward. I would encourage folks to go
on the Oregon dot gov slash OEM website and you
can look at the b two Weeks Ready Kit. It's
a really great curricula that'll walk you through how to
get your supplies in place if you need to shelter
(17:39):
in place. We say start at two weeks and then
maybe work up to six weeks if you if you
want to be ready for Cascadia, but start at two
weeks even just start by going around and gathering the
supplies that you already have in your house. People are
more prepared for this sort of thing than they think
they are you have more supplies in your house than
you think you do. You probably already have batteries, probably
(18:00):
already have some bottled water, You probably already have some
cans of food. So do an inventory and then and
every September is preparedness month, and we encourage people to
go through their supplies and kind of make sure everything
is restocked after a wildfire season going into our next
you know, windstorms and things like that, and just to
make sure that you have your checklists in place in
(18:23):
a planted place. Talk to your family, talk to your kids.
Don't be afraid to talk to kids about this. We
actually have a curriculum right now up on our website.
Actually it's on our blog and they can access that
again through our website. That's a fun activity about volcanoes
and how to talk to kids about preparedness and how
to talk to kids about, you know, the risk of
(18:45):
volcanoes in their backyard in a way that is engaging
and fun and science based. You don't want to scare them,
but you also want them to feel empowered. There are
great resources on the ready dot gov website about how
to prepare go bags for seniors, for kids, for pets,
people with disabilities, and there are great resources with the
(19:08):
Red Cross as well, So just you know, start thinking
about how you're going to plan, what you're going to do,
have a plan in place, talk to your friends and family.
Also connecting with your local community emergency response teams. These
are volunteers that live in your neighborhoods who are trained
and do exercises and are gathering cases for keeping their
(19:29):
communities safe should a large disaster event happen, because we're
really going to have to rely on each other, and
we talk a lot about in this country the epidemic
of loneliness, and one of the ways that we can
counter loneliness is connecting with our neighbors. And the first
thing that we always tell people with preparedness with any
kind of disaster, with any kind of like heat weave,
(19:50):
is check on your neighbors. Talk to your neighbors, get
to know them, know what their names are, have at
least a cordial relationship with them so that when disasters
do head you can come together and you can take
care of each other.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That's Aaron's ISAEC with Oregon Emergency Management and Vanessa Swenton,
a geologist from the Oregon Department of geology and mineral industries,
discussing the history of Mount Saint Helens on this forty
fifth anniversary of the eruption, and how to prepare for
future eruptions. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library now covers the entire
(20:25):
state of Oregon. Kids from birth to age five can
get a book a month for free. Program director Laurie
McNichol joins us on local voices, Lourie, how does the
Imagination Library work?
Speaker 5 (20:36):
The backstory of the Imagination Library is that in nineteen
ninety five, Dolly Parton, in her home county, Severe County, Tennessee,
wanted to help children with their academic success. And after
trying some different things and knowing that access to books
(20:58):
and reading early, being read too early has a profound
impact on a young person's cognitive development, that putting books
in the hands of the youngest kids was the way
to help kids make it through school, graduate and be
successful in their work, in their life. And beyond, this
(21:23):
small effort, this modest effort in one county just blossomed.
It mushroomed, and we're now in five countries, so in
the United States and in the UK, in the Republic
of Ireland, in Australia and Canada.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So how often do they get the books?
Speaker 5 (21:43):
First, their family member, parent caregiver get them registered. And
they can register their child as early as birth so
that they can begin receiving books each month in the
mail at no cost to the family. And so if
a child is registered at the very earliest possible, they
(22:08):
can receive up to sixty books between birth and the
month of the child's fifth birthday.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
That is terrific. When did it start in Oregon and
what is the big milestone?
Speaker 5 (22:20):
So in Oregon we got our start in twenty eleven
and we grew slowly but incrementally from that point forward.
In twenty twenty four, the State of Oregon joined the
Local Program Partners to help fund the program. So prior
(22:42):
to twenty twenty four, local organizations and nonprofits were working
alongside the Dollywood Foundation and the Imagination Library to cover
the cost of books and mailing. The Dollywood Foundation covers
all the other overhead expenses for the organization the Imagination
(23:07):
Library broadly, but the cost of the books in mailing.
The wholesale cost is covered by a local program partner
that works specifically at the grassroots level in their own community.
And so with the State of Oregon coming on board
(23:27):
and providing a fifty percent match to the cost of
books and mailing, you know, the opportunity to enroll even
more children and to build on the progress we'd already
made in Oregon, you know, just materialized. So we started
in twenty eleven, we had that significant boost from the
(23:50):
support from the State of Oregon in twenty twenty four,
and now in twenty twenty five, almost on the anniversary
of the state match becoming a reality for us, the
statewide coverage has been achieved. And that means that every
family in Oregon with a child under five years old
(24:14):
can register their child free of charge to receive brand
new books in the mail every month.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
What was the latest area that was added that kind
of completed this statewide coverage.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
So our newest zip codes are in the communities of
red Sport and Gardener in Douglas County, and those were
the final two that we'd been working toward bringing on board.
And the organizations that made that possible were a collaboration
between the Lower Umpqua Library in Reedsport and then the
(24:53):
red Sport Rotary Foundation with funding from a a grant
through the Oregon Community Foundation.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
What's been the response to the Imagination Library in Oregon?
Speaker 5 (25:09):
It has been just overwhelmingly just welcomed and appreciated. Everybody
knows Dolly, everybody loves Dolly, and you know, many people
already know about this work that she does to support
early literacy. Some people, when they, you know, perhaps weren't
(25:31):
aware of it. When they learn about it, they're just
even more in awe of her generosity and kindness.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
So how do parents take part if they want to
sign their kids up?
Speaker 5 (25:43):
So it's really easy to enroll a child. All the
parent has to do is go to the Imagination Library website.
If they simply google it, they will find it, and
then they click on a button to enroll their child
and just follow the prompts. They don't need a lot
(26:04):
of information, just the child's name, the mailing address, and
they are good to go.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Tell us about the importance of books and the development
of young children.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
So the first five years of a child's life is
when ninety percent of brain development happens. So the opportunity
to read to children at an early age shouldn't be missed.
It's critical to their cognitive development, and it's a wonderful
(26:38):
way for parents and children, family members to connect with
their youngest loved ones.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Do you need donations to run the program?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
Absolutely? So I mentioned our local program partners in Oregon.
There are fifty seven local program partners that make this
work happen. The Lower Umpqua Library and Read Support Rhetory
Foundation are the fifty seventh. Before that, we already had
(27:09):
fifty six. And those local program partners are nonprofit organizations,
they are libraries and library foundations. We have among them
are some of our partners who are United Ways, and
we have other community organizations in different parts of the state.
(27:31):
And the beauty of this grassroots model, even though it's
a global effort, it's really also a grassroots, you know,
way to build community buy in. So those organizations at
the grassroots level are fundraising and they're receiving donations, they're
(27:53):
holding events, they are writing grants, and you know, the
community support stays local, which is something everybody loves to hear.
So if anyone listening wants to make a donation, they
are welcome to reach out through the Imagination Library website
(28:17):
or you can post my contact information and I can
connect them with their nearest local partner for their region
of the state.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
What is the website.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
The website is Imaginationlibrary dot com.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Anything else that you'd like to add, LORI that it
didn't ask you about.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
It is a joy to do this work, to get
books out into the hands of children. It makes a
significant difference in a child's ability to be prepared for
kindergarten when they're read to at an early age. Oregon
ranks almost last in kindergarten readiness and the third grade
(28:58):
reading benchmark. It's concerning and it's something that we can
do something about and it doesn't have to be hard.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Laurie, thanks for joining us on Local Voices. That's Laurie McNichol,
the program director of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Oregon.
And again, their website is Imaginationlibrary dot com. Thanks for
listening to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. You can hear
past episodes on the iHeartRadio app under the podcast tab.
(29:27):
Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio.
Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. This week today
is the forty fifth anniversary of the nineteen eighty eruption
of Mount Saint Helen's and it's a good reminder to
be prepared for future eruptions and in general, any disaster.
We'll have information on how you can be prepared. Plus,
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is celebrated a major milestone in Oregon.
(00:25):
We'll tell you how it works and how young kids
can get free books. This is Volcano Awareness Month and
Oregon Emergency Management officials want you to be prepared for
a future eruption. This is the forty fifth anniversary of
the Mount Saint Helens eruption. Vanessa Swenton is a geologist
from the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and
(00:47):
Aaron's Isaac is with Oregon Emergency Management. Vanessa, from a
geological standpoint, how is the Cascady a subduction zone and
Mount Saint Helen's connected.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's an interesting question because it's so complicated in that
in the subduction zone system as a whole, those things
are part of the same system. So the trench itself,
like where the plates are colliding and then this like
a creationary prism, which is basically includes like offshore to
the coast range. It's a super structurally complex, very faulted
(01:20):
area that accommodates all that pressure and accordion like build
up of material that's getting scraped off of the oceanic
plate that's subducting under the continental crust. And then there's
the actual volcanic arc itself, so it's the volcanoes that
make up the Cascade range. And to put it simply,
(01:41):
it's basically, as the oceanic crust is subducting, it's carrying
some fluids with it, right like the ocean water, and
it causes the rocks to melt at depth when they
wouldn't normally be able. They wouldn't normally be in conditions
that are hot enough to melt, so you end up
getting this buoyant melt that rises and forms this really
nice chain in volcanoes.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
So could a subduction zone earthquake cause the volcano to erupt,
And to.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Put it simply, it's not impossible, but it's very unlikely.
So they are part of this same overall like geologic
system that is a subduction zone, but they're so structurally
and physically complex in their own ways that they are
(02:26):
relatively distinct, and so what's really cool about it is
they have their own ways of accommodating different stresses and strains.
So usually when there's earthquakes around a volcano, it's because
there's some sort of magma movement in Oregon. It can
be pretty complicated because there's just a lot going on
in Oregon, like there's like block rotation and all these
(02:48):
different things. But for the most part, the earthquakes are
at greater they're at different depths, and they accommodate this
movement in different ways. But the subduction zone earthquake is
going to be one that happens because those plates are
sort of stuck together as they move and then they
(03:08):
just sort of it's like it pops out to it
can't be crunched up anymore and it just sort of pops.
So if people are wondering wood an earthquake at the
subduction zone trigger a volcanic eruption, No, but there would
be shaking that happens at those right, so you'd have
Like Dogami has produced a seismic hazard database that's really
(03:29):
awesome with it includes like maps that show the shaking
intensity if there were if there was a subduction zone earthquake,
and so there would be shaking that could produce some
things like landslides and avalanches and things, but not necessarily
a massive volcanic.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Eruption, and the volcano would have to be charged with
magma underneath it in order to erupt if something like
that happened, most likely.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Right, right, and they are you know, they all the
Cascade volcanoes are considered active. They're just different levels of right,
I guess, like.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Risk Aaron, what lessons have been learned from the nineteen
eighty eruption a Mount Saint Helens and how have they
helped scientists improve predictions and preparedness for future volcanic activity.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Scientists were monitoring the volcano and they knew that it
was primed to erupt. But of course, just because as
we've seen with subsequent activity on Mount Saint Helens, just
because Mount Saint Helens starts spewing ash into the air
doesn't mean it's going to have a full eruption, right,
And we see this with other volcanoes. And getting local
(04:36):
officials and the public to understand and coordinate to get
out of danger areas and danger zones. A lot of
data came out of being able to measure how the
lajars moved through the valley and where these different hazards
(04:58):
might be, and also just lessons learned about better ways
to coordinate messaging to the public about where they should
evacuate to and how they should respond when they are
given an evacuation notice.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
What measures should residents at the Pacific Northwest take to
stay informed and be prepared for both volcanic eruptions and
major seismic events.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Anywhere you live in the country, the first step is
to know what risks exist in your backyard. In the
Pacific Northwest, we have a number of natural disaster risks,
the volcanoes being one of them, Cascadia being another one
of them. More commonly, we have ice storms, we have
deadly heat waves. Now we have wildfires. Wildfires is the
(05:47):
most common one and the one that people think about
the most especialists who are starting to move into wildfire season.
Once you know what your hazards are, you know you
have a better idea of how to prepare. For instance,
in the mid a lot of people have basements and
they have tornado shelters that they can go to. We
don't have a lot of those here in the Pacific
Northwest because we don't have as many tornadoes. So knowing
(06:11):
what your risks are as your first step, your second
step is to get signed up so that you get
alerts on your phone. That's both making sure the WEA,
the Wireless Emergency Response Alerts are activated on your cell
phone so that you get that warning signal when there's
a hazard in your area, be it weather, be it
(06:32):
a volcano, be it a tsunami warning, things like that,
also signing up for our alerts, which is more local
to your address. The difference between the WEA and ther
alerts is that our alerts is tied to your zip code.
It's tied to your address, so it's going to notify
you about the hazards around your area, whereas the WIA
(06:52):
is tied to your GPS. So if you're out hiking
and you have access to GPS, you're going to get
a WEA alert if you're out camping and things like
that for the area that you're in, But you may
not get an O or alert unless you've signed up
specifically to get our alerts in that particular area. Again,
we see these a lot with wildfires. Last year, we
had to evacuate some of the public state parks and
(07:15):
campgrounds because of wildfires in Eastern Oregon, and so it's
always really good and important to know what's going on
in different areas. If you're visiting the coast, it's important
to understand tsunamis and where the tsunamis zones are and
where the evacuation zones are. If you're visiting eastern Oregon,
especially during wildfire season, it's important to take a look
(07:35):
at our wildfire maps and know what active wildfires are
happening and make sure that you have that we are
turned on and that you are getting alerts in that area,
so you know when you get those different evacuation level
notices that you neither need to get out or that
you need to shelter in place. And one of the
things you know sometimes people get a little confused about
is depending on the type of disaster that your respond to,
(08:00):
you may be asked to shelter in place. You maybe
asked to stay in your home, close your doors, secure
your windows, try to keep the air as clean as possible.
Or you may be asked to evacuate your home and
you may have to grab a go bag, supplies for yourself,
your family, and for your pets and get yourself and
your family out. One of the things we tell people
(08:23):
is if they have any kind of mobility issues or
if they have medical equipment. If you're given a level
one evacuation notice, which is be ready, maybe treat that
as a level two evacuation notice, be set. If you
get a level two, treat it as a level three go. Now,
the level three is a get out and go. So
(08:44):
it's important to understand what those evacuation levels mean. It's
important to make sure that you're getting those evacuation levels,
and it's important to make sure that you have a
bag that everybody in your family is a bag that
they can grab that has closed, it has maybe some food,
It has copies of your vital documents, medical records, rx's
anything that you would need to be able to kind
(09:06):
of sustain yourself or rebuild afterwards, so copies of your
Social Security card and things like that, and just be prepared.
We don't want people to walk around being scared all
the time. That's not what preparedness and messaging is about.
It's about empowering you to know that you are ready
(09:27):
to handle situations when they occur, and that you can
grab that go bag, you can get in the car,
and you can evacuate with your family if you're as
to evacuate.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So the anniversary of the nineteen eighty eruption Vanessa, how
is research and monitoring amount Saint Helen's evolved and what
role does technology play and understanding future risks.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
So there's different kinds of monitoring.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
There's like remote sensing things so people can use they
basically can place things like GPS monitors and in sense
if there's any sort of movement, So whether it's for example,
like Mount Saint Helens, it would have been really important
in the nineteen eighties to recognize that bulging that was happening,
(10:09):
So something like that. When we measure gas emissions and
things like that, they're at USGS. They're constantly looking and monitoring,
like what is considered a normal amount of gas emissions
like CO two and sulfur versus what is elevated and
you know, ground movement if there's any you know, small
(10:31):
smaller earthquakes and shaking events are normal, Like there's a
normal level at every volcano that they consider just kind
of standard background or what's normal movement of magma for
that particular volcano, and if it seems like it's elevated,
then that when they might start saying like, okay, let's
(10:53):
think about what's going on here. So the more the
nineteen eighty eruption, it's my understanding that they it was
it was an event that made people realize how critical
monitoring is and where areas of improvement could be. And
(11:13):
they've just advanced a lot since then. So the technology
I know has gotten better since a lot better since
nineteen eighty, and it's it's actually really fascinating, Like it's
someone who doesn't do active monitoring things myself, I love
to hear them talk about how you know, you can
see on their screens that they have like every single blip,
(11:35):
every single gas emission, every single thing.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
They're watching it all the time.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
So it's really important so that we can understand, you
know what, when there is some level of unrest, how
significant that unrest is and kind of like what we
would need to do about it.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
What's the eruptive history of Mount Saint Helens and how
likely is it that that'll erupt again?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
The eruptive history of Mount Saint Helens is really interesting
that talk about it's basically been the stratovolcano that we
know and love since about two hundred and seventy five
thousand years ago. There's all these different stages that geologists
have have defined in its history, but its earliest stage,
(12:20):
so you know, two hundred and seventy five thousand years
to go to about eighteen thousand years ago, it had
a lot of lava domes and some more explosive eruptions
that created like ash and pyroclastic flows, some lava flows,
some major debris avalanches. And then after that there was
(12:44):
you know, about sixteen thousand years ago to up to
like the pre nineteen eighty eruption.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
There were some.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
More some more lava flows and lava domes and debris
flows in the earlier part of that, so I guess
the later part so it would be I think it's
about like seventeen thousand years ago. That includes the lava
flow that contains the Ape Cave. So I don't know
if that sounds familiar to anybody, but it's that really
(13:13):
fun cave you can go through. And then there's the
the post nineteen eighty phase. So obviously that huge lateral
blast that happened, which is the one, the one that
we all love to talk about. And in terms of
how long you know it's been, it's been active like
that's pretty much. It's it's history so that you know
(13:38):
to basically, it's two hundred and seventy five thousand years
of activity with some really brief hiatuses and eruptive activity,
and it is definitely going to in terms of how
likely it is to erupt again, is definitely going to
erupt again.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
It's it's very it's in.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
The like highest likely category, so it's not really matter
of if it's kind of when Aaron.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Let me go back to preparedness for a moment. What
are the evacuation levels and how should we treat them?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So level one is be ready. Residents should be aware
of the danger and monitor media outlets for information, making
sure that you're getting good sources of information. Make sure
you're following official if you're doing if you're following social media,
make sure you're following official social media channels. But we
prefer that you know, monitor news broadcasts, get yourself Noah radio, uh,
(14:32):
and make sure you're monitoring good sources of information because
in these types of situations, ground truth is is hard
to get, and the ground truth is going to be
coming out of official sources, from first responders that are
on the ground feeding that information to the organ Department
of Emergency Management. So it's really important to make sure
(14:52):
that you're getting good information from official sources. Level two
is be set there's a significant danger and residents should
voluntarily or be prepared to leave in a moment's noticed.
During wildfire season, I was at a level two in
twenty twenty. When Level two hit, I packed up all
of my supplies into my car, so all I had
to do was throw my cat into a carrier and
(15:13):
we could get in the car and go. When that
level three hit, Luckily I did not get a level three,
and level three is go now. That means get in
your car and get out. Residents our advice to leave
the meat area immediately, and that can change in a
moment's notice. That's why it's really important to have those
alerts set on your phone. I remember during twenty twenty wildfires,
(15:34):
I was living in Springfield and I would have alerts
coming in on my phone at three o'clock in the morning,
and there were a couple of nights where I did
not sleep because those alerts were going out, and they
were really really important because the area just around my house.
I've lived in downtown Springfield in the area just around
my house was being evacuated and threatened and it was frightening,
(15:58):
but I also felt confident and our emergency managers in
Lane County they were doing what they were supposed to
be doing and they were getting the good information I
needed to know what to do.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Does the Oregon Deproblement of Geology website have risk maps?
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Yes, we do.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, so you go on some of these websites, there's
some really great hazard assessment maps and sometimes like some
of the language can seem a little bit intimidating, like I,
but it's if if you look at some of these
maps the way that the Dogami folks put it together,
put the maps together, they're very easy to read, and
(16:36):
I love looking at them, like they're very easy to understand.
And yeah, so we have all of those as publications
where you can download the PDFs or you can just
you can actually download them and put them into like
an RGAS you know, mapping program if you want.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
They also have a really good tsunami maps. So if
you're visiting the most knowing where the tsunami areas are,
because with tsunamis your warning is that the ground shakes.
That's your warning. Yes, so you know where you're gonna go.
And again you don't need to be afraid, but you
need to have a kind of an assessment to a
risk assessment. If the ground starts shaking and I'm on
the beach, where am I gonna go? And how am
(17:17):
I going to get there? Just know that in the
back of your head and have a little bit of
a plan going forward. I would encourage folks to go
on the Oregon dot gov slash OEM website and you
can look at the b two Weeks Ready Kit. It's
a really great curricula that'll walk you through how to
get your supplies in place if you need to shelter
(17:39):
in place. We say start at two weeks and then
maybe work up to six weeks if you if you
want to be ready for Cascadia, but start at two
weeks even just start by going around and gathering the
supplies that you already have in your house. People are
more prepared for this sort of thing than they think
they are you have more supplies in your house than
you think you do. You probably already have batteries, probably
(18:00):
already have some bottled water, You probably already have some
cans of food. So do an inventory and then and
every September is preparedness month, and we encourage people to
go through their supplies and kind of make sure everything
is restocked after a wildfire season going into our next
you know, windstorms and things like that, and just to
make sure that you have your checklists in place in
(18:23):
a planted place. Talk to your family, talk to your kids.
Don't be afraid to talk to kids about this. We
actually have a curriculum right now up on our website.
Actually it's on our blog and they can access that
again through our website. That's a fun activity about volcanoes
and how to talk to kids about preparedness and how
to talk to kids about, you know, the risk of
(18:45):
volcanoes in their backyard in a way that is engaging
and fun and science based. You don't want to scare them,
but you also want them to feel empowered. There are
great resources on the ready dot gov website about how
to prepare go bags for seniors, for kids, for pets,
people with disabilities, and there are great resources with the
(19:08):
Red Cross as well, So just you know, start thinking
about how you're going to plan, what you're going to do,
have a plan in place, talk to your friends and family.
Also connecting with your local community emergency response teams. These
are volunteers that live in your neighborhoods who are trained
and do exercises and are gathering cases for keeping their
(19:29):
communities safe should a large disaster event happen, because we're
really going to have to rely on each other, and
we talk a lot about in this country the epidemic
of loneliness, and one of the ways that we can
counter loneliness is connecting with our neighbors. And the first
thing that we always tell people with preparedness with any
kind of disaster, with any kind of like heat weave,
(19:50):
is check on your neighbors. Talk to your neighbors, get
to know them, know what their names are, have at
least a cordial relationship with them so that when disasters
do head you can come together and you can take
care of each other.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That's Aaron's ISAEC with Oregon Emergency Management and Vanessa Swenton,
a geologist from the Oregon Department of geology and mineral industries,
discussing the history of Mount Saint Helens on this forty
fifth anniversary of the eruption, and how to prepare for
future eruptions. Dolly Parton's Imagination Library now covers the entire
(20:25):
state of Oregon. Kids from birth to age five can
get a book a month for free. Program director Laurie
McNichol joins us on local voices, Lourie, how does the
Imagination Library work?
Speaker 5 (20:36):
The backstory of the Imagination Library is that in nineteen
ninety five, Dolly Parton, in her home county, Severe County, Tennessee,
wanted to help children with their academic success. And after
trying some different things and knowing that access to books
(20:58):
and reading early, being read too early has a profound
impact on a young person's cognitive development, that putting books
in the hands of the youngest kids was the way
to help kids make it through school, graduate and be
successful in their work, in their life. And beyond, this
(21:23):
small effort, this modest effort in one county just blossomed.
It mushroomed, and we're now in five countries, so in
the United States and in the UK, in the Republic
of Ireland, in Australia and Canada.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
So how often do they get the books?
Speaker 5 (21:43):
First, their family member, parent caregiver get them registered. And
they can register their child as early as birth so
that they can begin receiving books each month in the
mail at no cost to the family. And so if
a child is registered at the very earliest possible, they
(22:08):
can receive up to sixty books between birth and the
month of the child's fifth birthday.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
That is terrific. When did it start in Oregon and
what is the big milestone?
Speaker 5 (22:20):
So in Oregon we got our start in twenty eleven
and we grew slowly but incrementally from that point forward.
In twenty twenty four, the State of Oregon joined the
Local Program Partners to help fund the program. So prior
(22:42):
to twenty twenty four, local organizations and nonprofits were working
alongside the Dollywood Foundation and the Imagination Library to cover
the cost of books and mailing. The Dollywood Foundation covers
all the other overhead expenses for the organization the Imagination
(23:07):
Library broadly, but the cost of the books in mailing.
The wholesale cost is covered by a local program partner
that works specifically at the grassroots level in their own community.
And so with the State of Oregon coming on board
(23:27):
and providing a fifty percent match to the cost of
books and mailing, you know, the opportunity to enroll even
more children and to build on the progress we'd already
made in Oregon, you know, just materialized. So we started
in twenty eleven, we had that significant boost from the
(23:50):
support from the State of Oregon in twenty twenty four,
and now in twenty twenty five, almost on the anniversary
of the state match becoming a reality for us, the
statewide coverage has been achieved. And that means that every
family in Oregon with a child under five years old
(24:14):
can register their child free of charge to receive brand
new books in the mail every month.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
What was the latest area that was added that kind
of completed this statewide coverage.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
So our newest zip codes are in the communities of
red Sport and Gardener in Douglas County, and those were
the final two that we'd been working toward bringing on board.
And the organizations that made that possible were a collaboration
between the Lower Umpqua Library in Reedsport and then the
(24:53):
red Sport Rotary Foundation with funding from a a grant
through the Oregon Community Foundation.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
What's been the response to the Imagination Library in Oregon?
Speaker 5 (25:09):
It has been just overwhelmingly just welcomed and appreciated. Everybody
knows Dolly, everybody loves Dolly, and you know, many people
already know about this work that she does to support
early literacy. Some people, when they, you know, perhaps weren't
(25:31):
aware of it. When they learn about it, they're just
even more in awe of her generosity and kindness.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
So how do parents take part if they want to
sign their kids up?
Speaker 5 (25:43):
So it's really easy to enroll a child. All the
parent has to do is go to the Imagination Library website.
If they simply google it, they will find it, and
then they click on a button to enroll their child
and just follow the prompts. They don't need a lot
(26:04):
of information, just the child's name, the mailing address, and
they are good to go.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Tell us about the importance of books and the development
of young children.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
So the first five years of a child's life is
when ninety percent of brain development happens. So the opportunity
to read to children at an early age shouldn't be missed.
It's critical to their cognitive development, and it's a wonderful
(26:38):
way for parents and children, family members to connect with
their youngest loved ones.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Do you need donations to run the program?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
Absolutely? So I mentioned our local program partners in Oregon.
There are fifty seven local program partners that make this
work happen. The Lower Umpqua Library and Read Support Rhetory
Foundation are the fifty seventh. Before that, we already had
(27:09):
fifty six. And those local program partners are nonprofit organizations,
they are libraries and library foundations. We have among them
are some of our partners who are United Ways, and
we have other community organizations in different parts of the state.
(27:31):
And the beauty of this grassroots model, even though it's
a global effort, it's really also a grassroots, you know,
way to build community buy in. So those organizations at
the grassroots level are fundraising and they're receiving donations, they're
(27:53):
holding events, they are writing grants, and you know, the
community support stays local, which is something everybody loves to hear.
So if anyone listening wants to make a donation, they
are welcome to reach out through the Imagination Library website
(28:17):
or you can post my contact information and I can
connect them with their nearest local partner for their region
of the state.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
What is the website.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
The website is Imaginationlibrary dot com.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Anything else that you'd like to add, LORI that it
didn't ask you about.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
It is a joy to do this work, to get
books out into the hands of children. It makes a
significant difference in a child's ability to be prepared for
kindergarten when they're read to at an early age. Oregon
ranks almost last in kindergarten readiness and the third grade
(28:58):
reading benchmark. It's concerning and it's something that we can
do something about and it doesn't have to be hard.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Laurie, thanks for joining us on Local Voices. That's Laurie McNichol,
the program director of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Oregon.
And again, their website is Imaginationlibrary dot com. Thanks for
listening to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. You can hear
past episodes on the iHeartRadio app under the podcast tab.
(29:27):
Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio.
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