Where I Go I Hope There's Rum...
I sat at work all afternoon watching Augustine Volcano on the AVO website. There were high, thin clouds but the view of the volcano from the webcam was excellent. A thin plume of steam trailed off to the southeast. I was keeping my eye on it.
Channel 2 news ran a short segment on the volcano last night, encouraging people to make preparations in case of an eruption. Also, during the last week or so, the PBS station has run (and re-run) the NOVA program on the Southeast Asian tsunami of 2004. Maybe that was the reason (if reason applies to it) that the whole town seemed to be rumbling with rumors that a volcanic eruption was immenent. The manager at the bank apparently was telling people that the volcano was going to erupt today and the employees at the grocery store were fretting about closing so they could go home. When I came in to relieve him, Mr. Gruff told me he had fielded several calls from people looking for the latest news and that I could expect more such calls in the afternoon. So I was ready...
The air was clear enough that the volcano and steam cloud were visible from the station, especially as the sunset, back-lighting the cloud and the volcanic cone. The webcam offered a larger view, updated every few minutes.
Lots of steam but, as the image faded into the evening twilight, no eruption.
I worked all evening on my belated "holiday" letters and had closed the station, just about to leave when the unrecorded phone line rang. Thinking that it might be Denny, I answered it. It was the manager of the grocery store, asking me if I had any word on the volcano. She had felt an earthquake in the past twenty minutes or so and wondered if that meant the volcano had blown. Well, anytime there is a significant earthquake, we get a message from the Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer--and I hadn't gotten any such message, so I told her that would indicate that the earthquake was local and of a small magnatude. Everyone is jumpy, it seems.
Anyway, I talked with her for ten or fifteen minutes and managed to assure her that as far as we knew, the volcano was quiet.
Channel 2 news ran a short segment on the volcano last night, encouraging people to make preparations in case of an eruption. Also, during the last week or so, the PBS station has run (and re-run) the NOVA program on the Southeast Asian tsunami of 2004. Maybe that was the reason (if reason applies to it) that the whole town seemed to be rumbling with rumors that a volcanic eruption was immenent. The manager at the bank apparently was telling people that the volcano was going to erupt today and the employees at the grocery store were fretting about closing so they could go home. When I came in to relieve him, Mr. Gruff told me he had fielded several calls from people looking for the latest news and that I could expect more such calls in the afternoon. So I was ready...
The air was clear enough that the volcano and steam cloud were visible from the station, especially as the sunset, back-lighting the cloud and the volcanic cone. The webcam offered a larger view, updated every few minutes.
Lots of steam but, as the image faded into the evening twilight, no eruption.
I worked all evening on my belated "holiday" letters and had closed the station, just about to leave when the unrecorded phone line rang. Thinking that it might be Denny, I answered it. It was the manager of the grocery store, asking me if I had any word on the volcano. She had felt an earthquake in the past twenty minutes or so and wondered if that meant the volcano had blown. Well, anytime there is a significant earthquake, we get a message from the Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer--and I hadn't gotten any such message, so I told her that would indicate that the earthquake was local and of a small magnatude. Everyone is jumpy, it seems.
Anyway, I talked with her for ten or fifteen minutes and managed to assure her that as far as we knew, the volcano was quiet.
