"Vancouver Team Views Volcanoes"

"The locals are often vulnerable because they don't understand the history, and they can't identify the changes that indicate something is about to happen." -- Paul Bell, Central American Office of Disaster Assistance

Leaving their offices and view of Mount St. Helens behind, a team of volcano experts has traveled abroad to seven exploding mountains in the last year.

The mission of the Volcano Crisis Assistance Team is uncomplicated: It uses the most sophisticated equipment available to monitor volcanoes, gives advice to Third World officials on when to evacuate threatened residents and leaves the equipment behind as a gift when the work is done.

It cost the U.S. government $687,000 in the past year to finance the efforts in the Philippines, Colombia, Zaire, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Indonesia and the Cape Verde Islands. Barry Heyman, coordinator of the effort for the U.S. Agency of International Development's Office of Disaster Assistance, thinks it was a bargain.

"In addition to bettering the capacity of various countries to prepare for and handle volcanic eruptions, we also get to observe ... and learn from the experience what to do at home," Heyman said.

Aside from Alaska and Hawaii, where most volcanoes are comparatively far from urban areas, the active mountains in the United States are mostly in the Cascade Range. They erupt only once or twice a century, but pose threats, especially from mudflows and ashfalls, to large populations near Portland, Seattle and Tacoma.

The director of the team of five scientists at the Cascades Volcano Observatory is C. Dan Miller, who says proudly, "We have the equipment and technology to prevent volcanic disasters around the world."

The effort began in 1986 in the wake of the mudflow the previous year down the slopes of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia, which caused at least 22,000 deaths in the town of Armero.

"The Colombians had very little detection equipment, and there was no warning of the residents," Miller said. "Had they known, it would have been only a short distance to higher ground for so many of those who ended up losing their lives."

By contrast, he said, in the 1991 Pinatubo eruption, the U.S. team worked closely with Philippine authorities, resulting in timely evacuations that reduced the number of casualties. The loss of life was in the hundreds, when it easily might have been in the thousands.

The Americans do not go uninvited. Countries wanting help must request it through the U.S. State Department. But the volcanologists, who are on the staff of the U.S. Geological Survey, are ready to go on short notice.

Paul Bell, senior regional adviser in Latin America for the Office of Disaster Assistance, said the Geological Survey "is unique in the world."

"In many cases, they have the best historic records on these volcanoes, compiled from many international research efforts," he said from his office in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Bell pointed out that "because most volcanoes don't erupt very often, because many haven't erupted in one person's lifetime, it is frequently the case locally that no lessons have been learned and carried forward. ... The locals are often vulnerable because they don't understand the history, and they can't identify the changes that indicate something is about to happen."

When they are called upon, the scientists from the Cascades Observatory take the equipment needed to build seismic networks and measure ground deformation and gas emissions -- and appeal to the airlines for help.

"We had 44 extra pieces of baggage when we went to Rabaul (in Papua New Guinea) last year," Miller recalled, adding that the airline was willing to take it for free.