http://www.businessinsider.com/un-health...-settles-2010-4

Here's a shelter-in-place scenario for you!

Some volcano 2,000 miles away shuts down everything.

Yes, it could happen here in the USA - without the Yellowstone scenario.

Best get the beers in then.

Yep. I lived 35 air miles from Mt. St. Helens when it blew.

And had just had my '69 Mustang painted. Ash is bad for lungs, engines and auto paint.

John..i read where you smell that volcano in Scotland!!!

If you haven't seen it already, here's some good video of the volcano, shot by Iceland TV. It even has some good Euro trash music to accompany it.
http://www.gettingprepared.info/blog/video-the-iceland-volcano/

I lost a motorcycle engine to Mt. St. Helens. Also spent
a week stranded indoors at a friend's house.

Don't drive, and replace those air filters asap.

I thought the "stay-indoors" alert was a hoax. I followed those links, and they seem pretty insubstantial. All it says is that some anonymous "UN official" says so-and-so.

Now there's a bit more meat to the bone from other sources. The source now has a name to it, seems credible - but still way out of proportions. It MAY come to a point where it would be advisable to stay indoors during ash fallout. Particular for people with airway issues.

Just business as usual. It may come to this, it may come to that... and then all you read in the headline is STAY INDOORS. As always I'm impressed by how the media distorts things to gain attention.

My brother is stuck in Denmark.

He can't get home because there are no flights. He can't even get a train ticket because they are sold out. Can't get a hotel room anywhere near Copenhagen, so he is a long ways out. Can't get a rental car even.

About all he can do is wander around whatever town he managed to snag a room in.

I was kind of hoping he would have to sleep on a park bench.

I am not aware of any advice or instruction to stay indoors, no ash or dust can be seen here, it is a bright sunny morning with a clear blue sky.
Life carries on as normal, except of course for those wishing to fly, or otherwise reliant on the aviation industry.

One should of course be prepared with supplies and plans etc. for sheltering in place, in case of pandemics, radiation release, escape of toxic chemicals, or natural disasters.
There does not appear however to be any need for sheltering in place at present in the UK.

The advice I've seen is that it won't affect you unless you have a pre-existing condition, like asthma (in which case you are probably affected by everything anyway, and you'll already know about it).

Here in Nottingham (middle England) it's sunny, but cold. I don't know if the cold is due to the dust. (If it is, I may have a solution to global warming.)

Is there anything you can do, such as frequent air-filter changes, to keep a car running when there's a lot of ash in the air?

"Is there anything you can do, such as frequent air-filter changes, to keep a car running when there's a lot of ash in the air?"

I was talking to a neighbor who was caught traveling downwind of St. Helens' big blast. They were out in the middle of nowhere. He said he would have to stop and pull out the air filter about every two miles to knock the ash out of it. He would pass people in stalled cars and yell out the window, "Clean out your air filter!" Some girls asked, "How?" and he stopped to show them.

People who've had no experience with volcano ash get a rude awakening when they have to deal with it. It isn't like wood ash.

Looked at under a microscope, you're looking at shards of broken glass. This is what causes the lung and eye problems.

It is very, very fine, and very light. It floats and flies and hangs in the air. You can't sweep it or shovel it, as it just becomes airborne again. It gets through every unsealed crack in every building.

It's really a health hazard to everyone, not just to people with breathing problems. Those glass shards stay in the lungs, like asbestos or silicosis -- you can't cough it out, it stays forever.

For all its lightness, it holds water like a sponge. I've read that if you have 4" of ash on your roof and get enough rain, it will collapse your roof. It changes from incredibly light to a substance like wet concrete.

Don't underestimate this stuff. If you've got it coming down, use breathing protection. And don't wear tight clothes, either. And keep your pets indoors, too.

Sue

I was talking with a pilot acquaintance yesterday. He is scheduled to fly to Germany tomorrow. They had not canceled the flight yet, but he said that he expects it will be cancelled.

My understanding is that even after the volcano shuts down it may be several weeks before air travel can get back to normal.

I got a couple of emails from my brother.

Saturday.



This morning.