Kachadee Outburst — Leo Briefed on a Melting Glacier
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Josh briefs Leo on a glacial lake outburst in Alaska, detailing the emergency and its immediate impact on the town of Kachadee.
Leo misinterprets Josh's tone, thinking he's joking about the disaster, leading to a brief moment of tension.
Josh clarifies the seriousness of the situation, prompting Leo to acknowledge the urgency and agree to brief the President.
Leo asks why the dam broke, and Josh explains it was due to the glacier melting, highlighting the environmental implications.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Controlled urgency — outwardly businesslike but keyed to the gravity of the information.
Josh delivers a brisk, technical briefing citing USGS and Coast Guard sources, names the time and mechanism, urges international assistance, then immediately pushes on to prep C.J. and inform press/operations staff.
- • Inform senior staff quickly and accurately about the disaster.
- • Trigger immediate operational steps (presidential briefing, mutual-assistance activation, media prep).
- • Accurate technical detail compels immediate action.
- • The White House must move quickly to coordinate international rescue resources before the story frames the administration as slow or uncaring.
Mildly exasperated but focused—already shifting mental gears from politicking to PR/briefing work.
C.J. arrives as the crisis is relayed through Josh and Will; she listens, helps translate the shifting priorities (disaster vs. media), and is positioned as the person Josh will prep for communications.
- • Understand scope well enough to shape a clear message.
- • Coordinate staff to manage both the disaster story and the DAR/GLOBE distraction.
- • Information control and timing matter in public perception.
- • She must separate operational information from PR spin to preserve credibility.
Not present; used as contested provenance in staff discussion.
Thomas (Thomas Broom Weathergill) is invoked as the named qualifying ancestor at issue in the DAR complaint; his alleged piracy/privateering fuels the PR thread.
- • None active; provides genealogical focal point for the DAR dispute (inferred).
- • Anchor for the Globe's query and staff rebuttal (inferred).
Off-stage; implied gravity and responsibility—anticipated concern and need-to-act.
President Bartlet is referenced as the person who will need to be briefed and possibly put on the phone about mutual-assistance activation; his authority frames the urgency of Josh's report.
- • Receive accurate briefings to make rapid decisions (inferred).
- • Coordinate federal and international response (inferred).
- • The president must be in the loop on sudden foreign-aid/rescue cooperation.
- • High-level attention prevents operational and political failure.
Not present; characterized as righteously offended and mobilized to shame the First Lady.
Marion Cotesworth-Haye is referenced by Will as the caller to The Boston Globe organizing a DAR boycott; her action generates the immediate PR subplot juxtaposed against the Alaska catastrophe.
- • Discredit the First Lady's DAR eligibility (inferred).
- • Mobilize a boycott to assert standards and influence publicity (inferred).
- • Ancestry and ceremony matter and must be defended publicly.
- • Public pressure can force institutional response from the White House.
Not present in scene; represented as sober scientific authority whose data demand response.
David Elsin is invoked as the USGS author of the report Josh reads; his analysis supplies the scientific authority that converts an oddity into a presidential-level crisis.
- • Convey accurate geological facts to decision-makers (inferred).
- • Ensure operational responders have technical understanding of the hazard (inferred).
- • Empirical data should drive response.
- • Geological events can have sudden social and political consequences.
Not onstage; presented as urgent operational actor whose capabilities must be coordinated.
Commander Dennis Travis is cited as the Coast Guard co-reporter; his operational role is the implied provider of rescue and evacuation capability referenced by Josh.
- • Direct rescue and evacuation operations (inferred).
- • Communicate immediate needs and constraints to civilian leadership (inferred).
- • Rapid, coordinated response saves lives.
- • Military/coast guard resources are central to Arctic rescue logistics.
Not present; functions as a narrative device — a disputed credential around which PR skirmishing occurs.
Feathersworth is named as the First Lady's ancestor and the subject of the Globe inquiry; his historical role is used to defuse or complicate the DAR complaint.
- • None active; serves as evidentiary anchor for staff to use (inferred).
- • Provide a factual basis to counter Marion's claim (inferred).
- • Historical fact can settle contemporary disputes (in fiction).
- • Context (privateer vs pirate) will matter to public opinion (inferred).
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Alaska Glacier is invoked as the origin of the dam; Josh explains the dam 'was part of a glacier' and that the glacier melted — converting a geological abstraction into a politically charged cause that reframes the incident as climate-linked.
The Battletree Lake natural dam is the central causal object: Josh reads that it 'burst' in a glacial lake outburst, creating the 300-foot-wide flow that drives the rescue and political response. It functions narratively as the physical hinge between climate science and human disaster.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The West Wing Hallway functions as the transitional space through which Josh carries the disaster from Leo's office into the rest of the staff flow; it stages the shift from briefing to broader operational communication and introduces the DAR/Globe subplot as staff cross paths.
Kachadee is the on-screen disaster site described by Josh: the town being swept by the 300-foot-wide surge. It is the human focal point for rescue needs, casualty risk, and the emotional stakes that elevate a geological event to a political one.
Battletree Lake (the natural dam's site) is invoked as the geographic origin of the outburst. It anchors the technical briefing and gives concreteness to the USGS/Coast Guard report Josh cites.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Coast Guard is cited (via Commander Dennis Travis) as the operational entity responsible for rescue and evacuation logistics; its capabilities and reports determine the immediate feasibility of response.
Russia is named as another signatory to the Arctic mutual-assistance agreement, representing a diplomatic actor whose cooperation or friction could shape rescue operations and political interpretation.
The Boston Globe functions as the instigator of the concurrent PR problem — its call about the First Lady's alleged privateer ancestor injects a distraction that competes for staff attention during the emergency.
The White House is the institutional stage where competing pressures converge: scientific urgency, operational rescue demands, and petty PR disputes. The staff's movement and decisions in the scene are driven by institutional responsibility to respond effectively.
The USGS provides the scientific report (via David Elsin) that converts physical observations into authoritative cause-and-effect claims; their data legitimizes the administration's need to act and frames the event as more than a local accident.
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) are the locus of the domestic PR dispute; a member's threat to boycott a White House reception frames the First Lady's eligibility as a ceremonial-political problem.
Canada is invoked as an international partner in the Arctic mutual-assistance agreement, positioned to provide Pavehawk helicopters and airborne rescue support to reach Kachadee quickly.
The Mutual Assistance Agreement (Arctic Airborne Rescue) is the procedural mechanism Josh invokes to justify contacting international partners; it provides the legal/operational pathway for Canada and Russia to assist.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Will's initial mention of Abbey's 'pirate' ancestor is later resolved by Amy's creative solution involving the 'Francis Scott Key key' award."
"Will's initial mention of Abbey's 'pirate' ancestor is later resolved by Amy's creative solution involving the 'Francis Scott Key key' award."
"Will's initial mention of Abbey's 'pirate' ancestor is later resolved by Amy's creative solution involving the 'Francis Scott Key key' award."
"Josh's briefing on the Alaskan disaster leads to Leo's meeting with Hillary Toobin, who labels the event as 'global warming fatalities,' escalating the political stakes."
"Josh's briefing on the Alaskan disaster leads to Leo's meeting with Hillary Toobin, who labels the event as 'global warming fatalities,' escalating the political stakes."
Key Dialogue
"JOSH: "This is from David Elsin from the USGS-the US Geological Survey-and the Coast Guard Commander Dennis Travis, 'Last night at 3:45 a.m. Battletree Lake burst through its natural dam in what is known as a 'glacial lake outburst'. Okay, it's a rushing river of ice and water and rock. It's about 300 feet wide and it's sweeping through Kachadee which is a town on one of the sides of the lake.'""
"JOSH: "The dam was part of a glacier, and the glacier melted.""
"LEO: "Glaciers melt once every hundred million years. This one melted today?""
"JOSH: "Well, I would, Leo, but a glacier melted this morning, so at this point Americans are simply trying to outrun it.""