Because it's Friday: Ash

I lived for 10 years within sight (on a clear day, anyway) of Mount St. Helens, and had seen and heard a lot about the devastation caused by the eruption and pyroclastic flow 30 years ago. But I'd heard relatively little about the effects of the ash cloud settling on land. I was surprised to learn about the effect it had on the city of Spokane: basically immobilizing everyone there and every vehicle for days. If you thought the effect of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption on air traffic was serious, imagine what would happen if the ash cloud settled on a city like London or Paris. Check out the slide show below for what happened to Spokane, and extrapolate.

Spokane Spokesman-Review: Mount St. Helens

Comments

[nico]

Well, think of what happened in 79AD in Pompeii...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii#Vesuvius_eruption

[Conrad Halling]

I didn't experience what happened to Spokane, Yakima, and other cities east of Mt. St. Helens, but I remember driving from Seattle to Portland through two inches of ash, wondering if our car was going to die. A classmate of mine was camping north of Mt. St. Helens the day of the big eruption and captured amazing photos of the pyroclastic flow. He was lucky to get out alive.