Steam vents from Crater Peak on Mt. Spurr in 1992. (Bill Roth / ADN)
In the days since scientists warned that Mount Spurr, Anchorage’s closest volcano, is likely to erupt within “the next few weeks to months,” Southcentral Alaska residents have snapped into preparation mode.
Here’s what residents should know to protect their children, pets, homes and vehicles from about one-eighth of an inch to a quarter-inch of ash that scientists say is likely to coat Southcentral Alaska in the near future.
The basics
Mount Spurr sits 78 miles northwest of Anchorage at the southernmost end of the Tordrillo Mountains, and is visible from the city on clear days. Its Crater Peak, the southern vent of Spurr volcano, has erupted four times in the last 100 years: in 1953, and three times in 1992. In two of those eruptions, about a quarter-inch of ashfall rained down across Southcentral communities for several hours, temporarily shutting down airports, offices and schools, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. The cost of cleanup in 1992 was about $2 million.
Ardell McCunn (foreground) and friends Beulah and Dick Follman, all of Massena, Iowa, make their way to breakfast and a search for face masks August 19, 1992 following an eruption by Mt. Spurr. The group was to have left on an early morning flight home but like many other visitors, they have been left stranded in Anchorage. (Fran Durner / ADN)
The most widespread hazard for Alaskans if Mount Spurr erupts will be from volcanic ashfall, according to an FAQ published by the state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The ash — which is made up of pulverized jagged rock, mineral and glass — can impair visibility, labor breathing and damage lungs, and fail engines in cars and planes, the FAQ says.
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Official ashfall warnings will be issued by the National Weather Service’s Anchorage Forecast Office, and will include where ash is expected to fall, when and how much.
According to an ASH ALERT! advisory published by the state on March 10, residents are advised to prepare disaster supply kits with standard items including two weeks’ worth of nonperishable food, water, flashlights and external cellphone chargers.
Additional, volcano eruption-specific supplies include N95 masks for adults and children, spare air and oil filters, washer fluids for vehicles, and plastic sheeting to protect outdoor equipment.
[Previously: A Mount Spurr eruption is ‘likely’ within weeks or months, scientists say]
Transportation
Ashfall poses the most lethal threat to aviation, experts say.
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Airborne ash can damage visibility, impair flight control systems, and cause jet engine failure, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
During the 1992 Spurr eruption, Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport shut down for 20 hours, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
A small airplane banks for Merrill Field as a plume of ash and steam from Mt. Spurr dominates the skyline October 2, 1992. (Paul Souders / ADN)
In the event of an ashfall that’s carried by winds southeast, toward Anchorage and its surrounding area, the National Weather Service’s Anchorage office would issue an ash warning. Planes in the area would likely be grounded as a result.
Ash can also make roads slippery, reduce visibility and damage vehicles.
During an ashfall, the state recommends Alaskans stay off the road. Afterward, vehicle owners are advised to wash their vehicle thoroughly with water, and change their oil, oil filter and air filters.
Do not attempt to dry brush ash off a vehicle or it will scratch, mechanics and car parts salesmen said. The same goes for windshields: use wiper fluid anytime you use your wipers to avoid scratching your windshield.
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John L. White, Jr., the detail manager at Stepp Brothers Lincoln Mercury car dealership, hoses down cars on the lot on 6th Avenue on August 19, 1992 following an eruption by Mt. Spurr. (Fran Durner / ADN)
John Hennessy, a salesperson at O’Reilly Auto Parts on Northern Lights, said there’s been a surge of customers coming in for certain vehicle products.
Air filters, cabin filters, car covers, engine covers, washer fluids “and for some weird reason, antifreeze” have been flying off the shelves in the past week, Hennessy said. “Some of them are getting ready for doomsday,” he said.
A shelf of vehicle air filters is picked over at Autozone on Friday, March 21, 2025 in South Anchorage. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Pets
Pets and livestock, too, should be kept inside or sheltered from ashfall as much as possible, vets and state officials warn. Particularly sensitive areas are their eyes, nose and lungs, according to the state’s FAQ.
Livestock, if not covered, should be moved to an area free from vegetation and ash accumulation, according to the state. Animals should not consume food that’s been contaminated by ash.
The Alaska Veterinary Clinic recommends pet owners “immediately wash ash off pet’s fur or skin with clean water if they’re exposed and flush eyes with eye water solution,” according to a fact sheet the clinic prepared. The clinic also recommends pet jackets, or protective clothing, goggles, booties and canine-specific filtered masks to further protect animals.
AK Bark, a pet supply store in Anchorage, is selling all the bells and whistles for pet preparedness, owner Mark Robokoff said this week.
He said his store has sold roughly 800 canine masks, 100 pairs of goggles, and tons of dog booties since the Alaska Volcano Observatory’s announcement. They also carry power-washers to clean paws, ear muffs, full-body raincoats and pee pads, he said.
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The key, Robokoff said, is to get dogs comfortable wearing the gear beforehand, so they’re not stressed when and if the time comes.
Louise Russell holds Maggie, her miniature dachshund, as AK Bark owner Mark Robokoff fits a pair of goggles on Friday. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Homes
Chugach Electric Association isn’t anticipating a power outage in the event of an eruption, but said residents should be prepared nonetheless.
“Just because the volcano erupts doesn’t mean there will be a power outage, like it’s not an imminent reaction,” company spokesperson Julie Hasquet said. “It would depend on the amount of ash, and how long it lasted.”
In 2009, the next closest volcano to Anchorage in the chain — Redoubt — erupted, coating Homer, Anchor Point and Seldovia with an eighth of an inch of ash, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. But it didn’t cause a power outage for Chugach Electric’s 91,000 customers from Anchorage to the northern Kenai Peninsula.
Ash can also clog heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. The U.S. Geological Survey recommends residents add “temporary filtration” to external air intakes, and to monitor and vacuum excess ash from the air intakes regularly.
Joe Atafua, store manager for the O’Reilly Auto Parts location on DeBarr Road, said a lot of customers have been coming in asking for pantyhose to use as temporary filters on engines and HVAC systems. As a result, he’s looking into sourcing a bulk order, he said.
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Schools
Local school districts have communicated tentative action plans to families this week in the event of an eruption.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District and Anchorage School District each said they will base their actions on several variables.
Anchorage School District Chief Operating Officer Jim Anderson talks about preparations for a volcanic ash event on Friday at Dimond High School. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
“Depending on the time of day, size of the eruption, and anticipated weather pattern related to any ash fall, potential responses may include school cancellations, early dismissal, or shelter-in-place protocols,” Mat-Su Borough School District spokesperson John Notestine wrote in a memo to families on March 16.
The Anchorage School District wrote that schools will close if they’re not in session and ashfall is forecast, and release kids early if they are in session and ashfall is imminent, according to a March 21 notice.
Every ASD school also has a volcano response plan with shelter-in-place procedures and air quality measures, the notice reads.
A conex holds emergency supplies at Dimond High School. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Next steps
Mount Spurr hasn’t shown any dramatic changes in the past week, according to Matt Haney, scientist-in-charge at the volcano observatory, jointly run by the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute and the state Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys.
His team was conducting another flight over the volcano on March 21 to measure gas levels, which contribute to eruption likelihood, he said.
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Scientists are also actively monitoring seismic data from Spurr that’s remotely captured and transmitted to the group’s Anchorage office in real time.
Scientist-in-charge Matt Haney points at the location of a magnitude 2.5 earthquake recorded on Mount Spurr at 10:25 a.m. Tuesday, March 18. (Bill Roth / ADN)
“We’re looking for a particular signal called volcanic tremor, that one often sees before volcanoes kind of make the final push towards going to an eruption,” Haney said on March 20. “We have not seen that yet.”
Based on past volcanic eruption behavior, there should be ample time to send out warnings before an eruption, Haney said. Volcanic tremors started three weeks before the June 1992 Spurr eruption, and two months before Redoubt erupted in 2009.
“It just doesn’t happen without any warning,” he said.
A teenager has died after triggering an avalanche, the fourth person killed in snow slides in Alaska this month.
Alaska State Troopers said the body of 16-year-old Tucker Challan of Soldotna was recovered from the avalanche Sunday by the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group.
Troopers said a group of snowmachiners were riding Saturday on the backside of Seattle Ridge in Turnagain Pass, a popular winter recreation area about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southeast of Anchorage.
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“Witnesses stated that a juvenile male triggered an avalanche and died after being buried,” troopers said in a statement.
Challan was buried about 10-feet (3-meter) deep in the slide that measured about 500 feet (152 meters) wide, said Wendy Wagner, director of the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Center.
Conditions are worrisome because a weak layer is located about 3 feet (0.91 meters) beneath the snow surface, with newer snow falling on top of the weak layer.
Challan rode over a weak layer of snow that was buried under newer snow, about mid-slope, Wagner said.
When the slide happened, the center’s staff was conducting an avalanche awareness day in a parking lot on the other side of Seattle Ridge, she said.
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“These types of avalanches, they can be triggered when you’re on this slope. They can be triggered when you’re on the bottom of the slope and even the side or the top of a slope, because all you have to do is break that weak layer, and then that weak layer shoots out like dominoes and breaks into the slopes,” she said.
The weak layer can be broken on a flat track, but that wouldn’t cause an avalanche because there is no slope for the snow to come down.
“When we have avalanche conditions like this, as avalanche professionals, we recommend people just stay on slopes that aren’t steep enough to slide, and then they don’t have to worry about triggering an avalanche, and sadly, this person was not in that scenario,” Wagner said. “They were on the edge of the slope and ended up being caught.”
The avalanche center has been warning people of this weak layer for weeks, and there were similar conditions on March 4, when three heli-skiers were killed. That accident happened when they were caught in an avalanche near Girdwood, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Anchorage.
“It’s still unsafe,” Wagner said Monday. “We are still recommending that people stick to the lower angle slopes because this is not something we want to mess with.”
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Authorities in Alaska were searching Monday for a plane carrying three people that was reported overdue.
Few details had been released by Alaska State Troopers concerning the Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser, but the agency said a search was underway. An email seeking further comment was not immediately returned.
Troopers said they received a report late Sunday that the plane was overdue. It listed suspected locations as Tustumena Lake and the Kenai Mountains, east of Homer. The 60,000-acre (24,200-hectare) Tustumena Lake has been described by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as “notorious for its sudden dangerous winds.”
Homer is a Kenai Peninsula community located about 220 miles (354 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage.
I’m writing In response to Principal Eric Waltenbaugh’s opinion essay of March 11, “Funding for homeschool programs lacks accountability, due to absence of state standards.” The essay was a depressing, disturbing and truthful-yet-not-entirely-complete portrait of homeschooling families. While Mr. Waltenbaugh does concede that some homeschooling families are diligently educating their children, he seems to imply in his article that the majority are not, due to his experiences re-educating homeschooled students at his elementary school in Homer.
I would like to humbly provide an example of homeschooling done right and what, I hope, the state can be proud of as a sound investment, and also to offer some solutions to the problems he has raised. With limited funding, we are providing our son Gus a top-notch education that would cost tens of thousands of dollars a year at an elite private school. I should know. With a graduate degree in Elementary Education from one of the top education departments in the country, I know what high-quality elementary schooling should provide. But here’s a little secret: Do you need this fancy degree to homeschool your young children? Absolutely not. Do you need a high school diploma? Absolutely yes. Do you need training to evaluate curricula and how to adapt the appropriate one to your children? Yes, but although it does not require an education degree, it does require guidance from those who are trained to evaluate programs. One issue I have with Alaska’s correspondence programs is that the extreme latitude they permit parents in their choice of curricula means they end up funding some very poorly constructed ones. Parents should have a choice, but they should not have unlimited choices between excellent, good, bad and truly despicable. There are some splendid curricula out there and the state should be paying for only the best.
Principal Waltenbaugh’s issues at his Homer school are truly challenging, but here’s a different sort of problem: due to family circumstances, we are looking at enrolling our child in an elementary school for next year. And as we have actually looked at relocating to Homer, I would like to ask Principal Waltenbaugh: what would you do about Gus? The result of his 1:1 schooling is that he is so far advanced in his coursework that no school I have researched thus far is proving to be academically rigorous enough. Gus is above grade level in every academic subject. Will his future school attempt to “dumb him down” so he’ll fit in, or will they be able to meet him where he’s at? I think we all know the answer. When you have high-quality 1:1 schooling, quality being the key word, students will be far ahead of their contemporaries in 1:28 or 1:36 teacher/student ratio classrooms. Many of our 20% population of homeschoolers should be far ahead, instead of behind, as Principal Waltenbaugh so unfortunately has seen.
The question is: how do we achieve this? Most homeschooling families we know are diligent educators with a keen interest in providing a high-quality education for their children. I have, however, also run into some who have been doing poor jobs and I think a key underlying question is: why are these lax parents not sending their kids to school? If they are not really interested in educating their children, why in the world are they choosing the homeschooling route? They are doing a great disservice to their child, to our state, and to our country, and they should not be allowed to do it. If you choose to homeschool, you should have the same enthusiasm for learning and enthusiasm for educating youth, as do the best public school teachers. I do wholeheartedly admit that homeschooling can have major issues and yes: I do wish there were more oversight, mandatory testing, mandatory qualifications, and delinquency consequences for lax parents. Homeschooling takes work- a lot of work – and if you can’t do it right, you should be fired.
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But are Alaska public schools the panacea? Alaska consistently scores in the lower stratum in national evaluations of student achievement scores. Waltenbaugh writes: “Stop writing a blank check to 20% of our education system that has no measurable educational outcomes.” But should we instead write a blank check to 80% of our education system that has poor to middling outcomes? Unfortunately, some of our public schools are not doing their job either. I think we need more accountability for both. Simple internet research can reveal the percentage of students in particular schools who are achieving at grade level, and often the majority are not. These poor scores cannot be attributed only to the small number of homeschooling students entering the system.
Do not misunderstand: I am adamantly supportive of high-quality public schooling. I am a product of public schools, I was trained to be a public school teacher, and I want to find the best possible public schooling option for Gus for the upcoming years. But I am losing faith in public school systems that increase class sizes to the mid-30 student range and that eliminate gifted programming for the brightest minds who will be solving our problems of the future. I also lose faith in states that do not invest funds wisely in their education systems.
As a homeschooling parent, I welcome oversight! I welcome mandatory testing! Why? Because we will blow your socks off. Our situation, with my training, is admittedly not the norm, but it doesn’t need to be. With the right curricula, the right enthusiasm, and the right guidance, I truly believe any homeschooling family can recreate a top-notch public or private school in their home. But blank checks are a problem: both the homeschooling system and the public schools need more accountability for how they spend their dollars. I hope the state can be proud of Gus as an example of its funds well-spent, as should be the case for all of our public school and homeschooled students. There is a place for both models of education in our great state, and both should be supported financially and have equal evaluations for training and outcomes.
Jennifer R. Rodina of Paxson is the long-time co-owner of Denali Highway Cabins and a homeschooling parent.
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