Anchorage Hit by Ash Cloud From Erupting Volcano
The Mt. Spurr volcano erupted Tuesday for the second time this summer, showering light ash on Anchorage, 80 miles to the east, and closing several airports.
The ash began raining on Anchorage, the state’s largest city, about 8 p.m., a little more than four hours after the volcano erupted.
Within minutes authorities had closed Anchorage International Airport, Merrill Field, Lake Hood, Elmendorf Air Force Base and Kenai Municipal Airport, stranding hundreds of tourists.
Earlier, the Federal Aviation Administration banned all planes from within 25 miles of the volcano as it spewed ash and steam 50,000 feet into the air. The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood watch for streams in the area.
The 11,100-foot volcano, across Cook Inlet from Anchorage, had been dormant for 39 years until a June 27 eruption that spewed ash onto several interior Alaska communities to the north.
Tuesday’s single, sustained eruption, so far classified as of moderate magnitude, occurred from the same vent at 7,575-foot Crater Peak as the June eruption, said John Paskievitch of the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
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