The Eruption- Volume 1

The Eruption- Chapter 9

                                                                                     Chapter 9

That afternoon, the USGS issued their most recent update on the situation. Once again, despite the continued escalting unrest that still shows no signs of slowing down, they remained mostly optimistic. The new press release read the following "At 5:06 AM local time, a large earthquake occurred at a 3.2 kilometer depth near the West Thumb Lake of Yellowstone. This is now the second large seismic event that has occurred in the Yellowstone region since unrest began to flare up nearly a month ago. The quake registered a 7.5 on USGS seismic plots. Due to the proximity to the lake, the earthquake generated a tsunami wave that caused severe damage around the slopes of Lake Yellowstone. Due to the shallow depth of the earthquake, much more significant damage has been observed. Particularly hard hit cities include Cody, Jackson, West Yellowstone, Gardiner, and Bozeman. Shaking was felt as far away as Oklahoma state. The quake appears to be of tectonic nature. The two recent quakes have opened up a large new fault around the area. Earthquake swarming is extensive around the lake with several hundred quakes recorded today alone. Scientists are watching a major uplift episode around Norris and points eastward, where over fifteen feet of uplift seen over the past month. We have also discovered a hot region to the Southwest of the lake, where it's speculated that there is a small accumulation of magma of a depth of a kilometer, possibly less. In terms of potential hazards, it's possible fault building activity could continue and trigger additional large earthquakes. The intense seismic swarms, emissions of carbon dioxide, hydrothermal explosions, and the uplift epsiode could be precursors to volcanic activity, though at this time none of our projections are showing an imminent eruption. Nonetheless, USGS will be adding new equipment to Yellowstone over the next several weeks to get a better idea of the situation, and to make accurate predictions if unrest leads to volcanic activity, which chances of this happening are currently considered small. The alert status for Yellowstone remains at watch."

"How can they still be complacive!" Allison exclaimed. "They are part of the government, theya re going to be that way to keep panic away." I said to her. "They have all kinds of signs! Uplift, earthquakes, dying trees, mass animal evacuations... they need to post a warning!" "They will probably keep quiet until they really know for sure." "By the time they know that, it'll be too late." "That may be true, Ally."

Ally and I were on our way to my temporary new home. They found us a place to stay at the Best Western Inn, located in Cody. The motel suffered only minor damages, so it remained open. Allison drove me to the motel that afternoon. We pulled up to the parking lot and sat in the car for a little bit. "What a long day." I said. Allison nodded her head in agreement. She has a sad expression on her face. "What's the matter?" "I don't want you to leave me alone." she said. "Don't worry. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere." "I'm scared, Jake. I'm scared of what might happen. I'm scared that you'll move away." "I'll always be here for you, Ally." she gave me a smile. "And who knows, maybe my dad will accept your dad's offer. I would be with you nonstop!" "I would love that! I hope we can work that out!" "I'll bring it up with my parents." I said. "Yes you will Jakey." Allison kissed me on the cheek. There was a silence. "Hey, how about you come inside and meet my family!" Allison gave me an unsure look. "Your family is going through a lot right now. I wouldn't want to be a bother to them." "Oh don't worry. It will be okay. Let's go."

We climbed out of her car and proceeded to enter the motel. "Room 307." I said. We located the room on the first floor. Wow! It was a decent sized suite! At least my family doesn't have to cram into a small hotel room. I knocked on the door. My dad answered it. "Hi son!" he looked at Allison standing next to me. "And his friend!" he smiled. "Hello sir, I'm Allison." She shook hands with him. "Hello Allison, you can call me Mike. Come on in you two." Ally and I followed him into the suite. "Do you like it?" mom asked me. "Well... It's roomy. That's for sure." "Who's this?" Ally shook my mom's hand. "My name is Allison. Jake and I have been hanging out lately." "I'm so glad to see Jake actually has good friends!" I gave my mom a glare. "Very funny, mom." I turned to dad. "Is it fine if she hangs around here for a little while?" "Sure that's fine. She can stay for dinner if she wants to." "Oh no, that's alright. I won't stay for too long." Allison said. "Alright, well you are welcome to stay as long as you want. We aren't really doing anything here." Dad said.

Ally and I sat down on the couch in the room. "So dad, how long will we be here?" I asked. Dad frowned at me. "A while." "We don't even have all of our stuff here. A lot of it is still in the house." Mom said. "We won't be able to fit everything in here. We will have to move stuff to some sort of storage cell." Dad said, mumbling under his breath that it will cost more money. Marvin entered the room. "Can't we just plant a money tree?" he grinned. Mom and dad laughed at him. "Oh sweetie, it would be a miracle if money trees existed!" Mom patted him on the head. "Well... Allison has an idea that could be very beneficial to us." I announced. There was a brief silence as mom and dad turned to Allison. "You do?" mom said to her. "It's actually my father's idea." She replied. "Alright well, what's the idea?" mom asked. "This morning, my father Aaron overheard that your home was ruined in the earthquake, and that you guys are having trouble finding somewhere to stay." Allison started off. "Well we have a place now." Dad said. "There's no way we can financially support living here for very long." Mom chimed in. Allison continued talking. "Well... he offered that your whole family could move into our home so you guys would have some place to stay." Mom fell silent, looking back and forth between Allison, Dad, and I. "That's a very nice offer, but we couldn't possibly just move in like that and take over your house." Mom finally replied. "It wouldn't be permanent, we would just stay there until we got back on our feet." I pitched in. "Well that idea is..." "Not going to happen." Dad interrupted mom. "Mike..." "Why not?" I asked. "That's real nice of your father to offer something like that and it means a lot to this family that you guys are willing to help us out, but there is no way we could just move in free of charge." Dad said. "Mike, you know we can't afford to stay here for very long." Mom said. "We would take up way too much space. I'm sure your dad wouldn't enjoy that." "Honestly, it's not a problem for us. We have a pretty large house, and only my dad and I live there. There's plenty of space." Allison said. Dad fell silent for a few moments. "It would be wrong to just move into someone's home. Heck, we aren't even close friends with you guys!" Dad argued. "He said you guys could all come over for dinner and discuss this." Allison replied. "Mike, we should consider it. We need all the help we can get right now. This would be a huge help for us." Mom said. Dad fell silent yet again. The whole room was quiet. "Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!" Marvin chanted, breaking the silence. Dad sighed. "Alright. When can we meet for dinner?" A smile spread across my face. "Tomorrow night! If that's okay with you guys." Allison smiled. "Can we do that, Laura?" Dad asked mom. "I don't see why not." She replied. "Okay, plan on us being over there tomorrow evening." Great! I'll inform my dad!" Allison grinned. "I like you already, Allison!" mom said, smiling.

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