Volcanic Ash Causes Power Failures, Grounds Flights

ANCHORAGE —  Redoubt Volcano continued to belch ash Saturday, grounding flights for thousands of Christmas vacation travelers and triggering power failures, authorities said.

A shift in the wind dropped ash onto Anchorage for the first time since the volcano burst to life Thursday, and authorities warned people with lung ailments to stay indoors.

Police in Soldotna and Anchorage advised leaving cars parked to limit the chance of engine damage. Some businesses covered sensitive computers and other equipment for fear that ash would filter into buildings.

“The mountain is still vibrating, and ash is still coming out,” volcanologist Tom Miller of the U.S. Geological Survey said Saturday.

Widespread but light ash was reported falling in Anchorage, 115 miles from the volcano, and in surrounding areas. Roughly half of the state’s residents live in the region.

The eruption rained ash on Kenai Peninsula towns 50 miles east of Redoubt, knocking out a Federal Aviation Administration international radar link for Asian flights, FAA spokesman Paul Steucke said.

Ash dusted Delta Junction 350 miles northeast of the volcano, and FAA pilot reports said ash drifted as far as Sitka, 650 miles away in southeast Alaska.

Rocks blown out of the mountain rained onto the roof of a fishing lodge 17 miles from the erupting volcano, the two nervous caretakers reported by radio.

Anchorage International Airport filled with travelers trying to go somewhere at the airport’s busiest time of year--the start of Christmas school vacation and a winter escape for many sun-seeking Alaskans--but the volcano halted air traffic.

Friday’s frightening plunge by a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines jumbo jet that flew into an ash cloud and lost all power stunned the airline industry into a cautiousness that grounded flights.

Delta Air Lines canceled all flights in and out of Anchorage. Other airlines suspended flights until ash conditions eased. There were no flights between Alaska’s two biggest cities, Anchorage and Fairbanks. Flights between Europe and Asia, traveling over the North Pole with an Anchorage refueling stop, were rerouted.

Ash can cause jet engine failure and abrasion on windshields.

Ash clouds hit several other planes besides the KLM craft, the FAA said, but all landed safely. An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 aborted a flight Friday when ash pitted the cockpit windshields, damaged the wings and turned the landing lights opaque, district manager Bill MacKay said.

Steucke said heavy ash shut down a radar facility in Kenai that is “a major link in the FAA’s international airway system, particularly for flights to and from the Orient.”

For a time Saturday, parts of Soldotna and Kenai lacked even artificial light. Ash settled on insulators and lines, knocking out power to about 15,000 to 20,000 Homer Electric Assn. customers, said John Sorrels, an area superintendent for the utility.

“We’ve got all of our crews out working, but it’s hard for them to breathe and see,” even with masks and goggles, Sorrels said.

Power was restored promptly in some places, but outages continued to occur, he said.