- Who the hell is this guy?
- I sent you here to look around,
not to scare the hell
out of the city council.
But two people are dead.
Recommending an alert seemed
the only responsible thing to do.
There are dozens of reasons that would
account for what happened there.
Anything from a mild earthquake
to a slight seismic shift.
Not one of them means the mountain's
gonna blow up next week or next month...
- or the next hundred years.
- The whole spirit
of the town was on its way up.
Just thinks he can walk in here...
Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure
Dr Dalton was doing...
what he thought was
in your town's best interests.
However, I have learned
through bitter experience...
that these decisions
are not to be made lightly.
Back in 1980, I would have
bet you a million bucks...
that Mammoth Mountain
was about to go up.
We began to talk about the possibility
of putting that town on alert.
Thank God the mountain didn't go up,
but the damage had already been done.
The word leaked out that the
U.S.G.S. Had expressed concern.

So the tourists panicked
and stayed away.
The real estate values plummeted,
and the town nearly went bankrupt.
Consequently, I'm now
a lot more cautious...
when it comes to even talking
about putting a town on alert.
Now, folks,
understand something.
We are gonna be camped out here
for as long as it takes...
with seismometres and tiltmetres
that are gonna measure and monitor...
every little hiccup
that the mountain makes.
We'll be bouncing laser beams off it
to track any changes in size.
We'll be analyzing
gas emissions.
We've got a robot that's gonna stroll
up there and take its temperature.
Now, believe me, I'm not trying
to make light of your concerns.
But I want you to understand
if the time comes to call for an alert...
If the time comes, it will be based
upon scientific evidence...
and not upon anyone's opinion.
For God's sake, Rachel,
this thing...