I'm in W. Seattle, on the side of the ridge that faces West. We don't have a view of the mountain. We don't even get Seattle FM stations over here without static.
Hell, I'm outside of Eatonville, about 25 nautical miles from the mountain with a direct view of its' western side. We don't worry about lahars much, since we're about 400' above the Nisqually Valley floor (where the Nisqually and Mashell rivers meet), below the Alder Lake Dam. An eruption, however, would result in our area possibly catching some heavy semi-molten rocks. The resulting fires would be our undoing. At the very least, the ashfall would collapse all of the structures on the property - even if the winds were in an onshore pattern. Winds here are usually out of the south, which means not only would the southern end of the Sound get heavy ashes, so would you folks up in Seattle.
This article didn't mention what the folks at the dam have to do in the event of a lahar: They've got 15 minutes to EMPTY both dams - completely. And then shut the flood gates in an attempt to hold back some of the debris. If they are successful, they save the towns of McKenna and Yelm. These guys aren't given the opportunity to escape.
As for the woman who runs the park, well, she's SOL - that 60 feet wouldn't help her one bit. Projected height of a lahar at Paradise is nearly 300 feet, moving downhill at nearly 150 miles per hour. The only escape for the park employees would be by keeping a CH-47 running 24/7 and hope you were close enough to it to get out.
I've only been to Alki...we just moved here. It certainy is beautiful!