Volcano and a bag of chips

Mount Augustine reawakened this week and has continued with eruptions of steam and ash rising some 30,000 feet into the air. Activity at red alert for much of this week. Some ashfall warnings for the lower Kenai Peninsula but nothing has come our direction as yet. Other volcanoes in this chain which begins just across Cook Inlet from us - Mounts Spurr and Martin - are showing some higher levels of activity but no eruptions are thought imminent, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

Our governor Frank Murkowski is appearing in television PSAs encouraging people to take general emergency preparedness steps. We have a pretty good system of technology as relates to state government and communication - no doubt because of our vast distances between communities. So we have an excellent state website, pretty responsive television and radio stuff, etc. But I had to wonder whether this last one was put together a little on the rush side. I'm taking this in somewhat attentively when I realize that as Uncle Frank is talking about having a week's supply of food on hand, the camera pans over a handful of items on a table and seems to settle on nothing more than a bottle of water and a large bag of chips. (Not sure what kind though the words "Sweet and Salty" appear prominently - in our current gubernatorial state, this may be a calculated message.)

Okay, I exaggerate. I think there was a single can of peaches in the shot as well. Still, I must conclude that illustration was cobbed together only by whatever the production assistants happened to have in the break room and not what any authority would recommend as a week's worth of emergency provisions. But I need no further prompting to lay in a large supply of volcanic protection snack foods.