Getting ready to blow: Alaska’s Mount Redoubt

The hardy residents of Anchorage and Kenai are pooh-poohing the consequences of Mount Redoubt blowing its top in the coming days or weeks, instead focusing on what the falling ash will do to cars and planes. Mount Reboubt last erupted in 1989 and geologists say this eruption will likely be Alaska-style: a big explosion with ash expected to shoot eight miles high.

It looks like Governor Sarah Palin’s house in Wasilla is too far to be directly affected, but Anchorage is 100 miles away and Kenai is 50 miles away. Depending which way the wind is blowing, ash will drift far and wide.

When Washington state’s Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, 57 lives were lost. Most of the people who died were on the mountain at the time — loggers, scientists, and campers, as well as a few die-hards who lived in cabins nearby. In terms of residents, Cougar, WA is the town closest to Mount St. Helens, 18 miles away, but that didn’t matter since the ash and soot traveled miles — even drifting as far at the Northeast. Here’s a great first-person article about experiencing Mount St. Helens’ explosion. Stay tuned.

(Photo of Mount Redoubt courtesy CNN)