The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

We were on an EMT call yesterday when earth started to fall from the sky.  This particular flavor of earth was volcanic ash. It came down in a fine, brown mist that stunk of sulphur (or, as a fellow EMT put it, 'smelled like Satan').  Visibility was reduced to less than a quarter mile as the ash cloud rolled into Homer around 1:30pm.

They had been warning us for weeks that Mt. Redoubt, a 9,000 foot volcano 75 miles Northwest of Homer, AK, was set to erupt, and the volcano finally did deliver on Monday, but the wind was blowing to the north, and all the selfish people of Homer danced a jig because the volcanic ash poured down on the interior of Alaska, near Talkeetna, instead of on us.  

Well, apparently Mt. Redoubt frowned on such selfishness and let forth another  belch yesterday around 9am, throwing a plume of ash, steam, smoke and other smelly stuff to 60,000 feet.  The wind was blowing straight across the Cook Inlet towards Homer. When the ash started to fall, someone told me to put 'pantyhose' over the air intake on my car. I have been in Alaska two years and have yet to spot a pair of panty hose. They are certainly not stocked, and are possibly even illegal in the state.  I guess I will just change my air filter and hope for the best.

The ash fell for a couple hours, and then the sky turned blue and the sun came out to reveal that the whole world was covered in a gritty layer of brownish grey.  No flights were arriving or departing Anchorage, let alone Homer. The senior citizens and Y2K-type fanatics had cleared the shelves of the grocery store. My aunt called to tell me to start digging an outhouse to preserve water.  

Redoubt has erupted 3 more times since yesterday morning. We can't tell if what is falling right now is ash or snow. Al Gore's Internet claims that the ash is rolling towards Anchorage this time.  She's still kicking, but the majestic Mt. Redoubt has already covered an area the size of the I-94 corridor from Minneapolis to Chicago with a layer of ash, grounded hundreds of airplanes, stopped thousands of cars, and forced a whole bunch of people to walk around with bird flu masks on.  

Amazingly, if you check out CNN or FOXNEWS, they aren't really covering these eruptions. Usually, Alaskans are used to being ignored by the rest of America in all cases except those of political idiocy and corruption, but this time we're taking second chair to a national disaster in North Dakota? That seems a little insulting.  Besides, if it's not on Foxnews, how will my mom know to worry that her daughter has moved to the next Pompeii, or to ask how my outhouse is coming?