Mount St. Helens Erupts; Accident At Boston Area Elementary School Injures Several Critically; Analysis of Bush, Kerry Debate - Part 1.

(From CNN News)

Byline: Kathleen Hays, Rhonda Schaffler, Greg Clarkin

WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Happening now, tragedy in the Boston area. A school, a car has plowed into the group of children. Now, reports some are in the hospital.

Also happening now, Mount St. Helens let's loose in Washington State and the volcano may not be finished.

Stand by for hard news on WOLF BLITZER REPORTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): CNN exclusive: target insurgents, U.S. led forces in Iraq are in all-out combat.

Back on the trail, fresh from their first face-off, Bush and Kerry wrap up their rhetoric.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Last night, Senator Kerry only continued his pattern of confusing contradictions. SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D-MA) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He says, well, I don't know how you're going to pay for all of that. You're going to have a tax gap. My friends, this is the president who created a tax gap. BLITZER: Who won round one?

Were the candidates playing loose with the truth? Today, the reality check and reaction from around the world.

Al Qaeda cornered? A very unusual message, allegedly from a top leader that indicates terrorists may feel trapped.

ANNOUNCER: This is WOLF BLITZER REPORTS for Friday, October 1, 2004.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: In Washington State, a sleeping giant is waking up. Thick, white smoke began pouring out of Mount St. Helens, the volcano that killed 57 people when it erupted in 1980.

After a week of earthquakes on the mountain, a CNN camera was trained on the 8,300 foot peak when the eruption began and it caught these dramatic pictures. You can see smoke beginning to pour out of the crater, marking Mount St. Helens first eruption since 1986. CNN's Kimberly Osias is on the scene for us. She's joining us now live with the latest -- Kimberly.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the show may not be entirely over. We may be just in a brief intermission, a geological intermission, if you will. Because, of course, this is a very active ecosystem and there is nothing to point to that evidence, other than this example. It was amazing. It was fast and furious, just around noon Pacific time. Mount St. Helens erupted again. This is the first major activity since the last quake, the last big one in 1986, the last eruption.

Now, most of the earthquakes that we've seen, we've a spade of activity since last Thursday, were very, very shallow, some with a magnitude of 3.3 even. Scientists are sifting through the data to determine what happened, but it was a plume of steam and smoke and ash that just went upwards probably a 1,000 or so feet into the sky and then downwind. It took about 20 minutes or so, 25 maybe, for everything to dissipate.

They say that nobody was in danger, but they are still monitoring things to see exactly what happened. And we will, of course, follow this and have everything for you later -- Wolf. BLITZER: Kimberly Osias on the scene for us. Thanks, Kimberly, very much. Joining us now on the phone from the state capital Olympia, is the Washington State governor Gary Locke. Governor, thanks very much for joining us. What's the latest information you're getting on this volcano?

GOV. GARY LOCKE, WASHINGTON STATE: Thanks very much, Wolf. Everything happened as predicted by the scientists. And since the earthquake, the massive earthquake and eruption almost 25 years ago, scientists have put in a huge array of sophisticated monitoring equipment and communication systems.

And so there's -- there was a huge release of steam mixed with some ash. It was everything that was expected. The area is still closed off to hiking and camping and we'll continue to monitor it.

The cloud of steam may have reached as high as 16,000 feet, but it's nothing that is stopping flights. Pilots are told that they should fly around it, as they would a thunder storm. Some flights out of Portland International Airport…