Today, part 2: We get ashed by Mt. Redoubt

Melanie, wearing her ash mask in the parking lot of the Arts building at the University of Alaska, Anchorage.

When I left Wasilla for Anchorage, the sky was clean and pure, deep, blue, the mountains gleaming stark and white against it. I thought about taking some pictures, but I had already taken quite a few pictures today and I expected to take several more at the play.

I did not want to spend the time editing and processing the white mountains against the clean blue sky pictures, since that is not an uncommon scene around here.

Now, I wish I had taken those pictures, just to show the contrast. It happened so fast. 

As I neared Anchorage, the sky suddenly darkned, the air in front of me became hazy, fine dust - ash - swirled about cars as they drove through it.

Mt. Redoubt has been blowing off and on for days now. The ash has gone here and there, but has always missed us.

Now, all of sudden, it had hit us. 

Or at least Anchorage. I did not know if it had hit Wasilla.

The tower at Merrill Field. No planes were flying.

I wanted it to stop, all right. I hate to breathe this stuff. Imagine glass ground to the consistency of powdered sugar. That's what ash tends to be like. It hurts to breathe the stuff.

Flags near Merrill Field.

I did not want to drive the car through it, either. Ash is not good for cars. I hope my filters all did their job. Better replace them soon.

When I got back to Wasilla, it was even worse.

It was simply awful in Wasilla. In some zones, almost like a blizzard.

I had no choice but to breathe the stuff.

Jacob and Lavina reached the house at the same time I did. They had been out shopping. They reported that when they stepped out of Fred Meyer's, they got struck in the face by tiny rocks falling from the sky.

That must have been one hell of a boom.

If this keeps up, I am going to have to get some masks for Margie and me.

Comments

[James Mason]

http://www.pbase.com/zidar/image/9421101 Here's a shot of some serious ash. I was living in Kennewick, Wa., due east of Mt. St. Helens. After the big blow I spent one night in my apt and then drove east, going through Spokane and a lot of the small towns that had been heavily dumped on. In some places, like Yakima, the ash was as deep as six inches. I'm still using one of the cameras from those days, and I never had any problems with the others, all Nikon F2 bodies. I protected them from the ash as much as possible and never wiped them. I used canned air to blow any ash off. My car was a '73 VW Bug with 200,000 miles on it. I drove it another 150,000 miles before I sold it. The only real damage I recall is to helicopter jet engines. We flew my friend's 185 thru light ash with no bad effects. The following year the fruit crops were spectacular.

[kalaluka]

wow. that's some serious ash... scary how fine the particulates can be. take care!