With her family trapped in Alaska by the eruptions of Mount Redoubt, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, took to the Senate floor this week to appeal for a stable source of funding for volcano research and monitoring.
“Recently, there were some comments made about federal spending for volcano monitoring and the suggestion that this might be wasteful,” she told the Senate. “I can assure you that monitoring volcanoes is critically important to the nation, and especially, to my home state of Alaska, where we are being held hostage by a volcano.”
Murkowski recounted the hundreds of flights canceled at the Anchorage airport, including the one scheduled to bring her sons back to the nation’s capital from spring vacation in Alaska.
Murkowski is seeking an annual appropriation of $15 million for the U.S. Geological Survey to monitor, warn and protect Americans from harm from volcanic activity.
Her bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, would set up a National Volcano Early Warning and Monitoring System at the federal agency.
I have to applaud the fact that Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich are thinking about the safety of ALL Americans who have potentially active volcanoes in their back yards.
As we Alaskans have learned many times in the past, mother nature MUST be respected and learning when she is about to blow off a little steam (and ash) can keep the episode from causing serious harm, and possibly fatal results.
In December 1989, a jet flying 150 miles northeast of Anchorage encountered an ash cloud from Mount Redoubt and lost power in all four engines. The plane, with more than 200 passengers on board, dropped more than 10,000 feet before the pilots were able to restart the engines and land safely.
(That almost makes me wet my pants every time I read it.)
Our early warning system has served us well these last few months and I believe there is a very real need to implement a similar program throughout the nation.
However I still think throwing Bobby Jindal into Mt. Redoubt couldn't hurt. And don't we want to err on the side of caution?
It's always best to throw in a little extra for good measure and well, he asked for it!
ReplyDeleteWhat was little Sarah P. doing while all this was going on? manicure? Pedicure? Hair extensions?
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm from Washington. I remember St. Helens. I'm all in favor of monitoring volcanoes. People in Hawaii should be too, although I understand according to Republicans they're too exotic to be really part of the United States so maybe we shouldn't worry about them...
ReplyDelete"...A jet flying 150 miles northeast of Anchorage encountered an ash cloud from Mount Redoubt and lost power in all four engines. The plane, with more than 200 passengers on board, dropped more than 10,000 feet before the pilots were able to restart the engines and land safely."
ReplyDeleteStill can't compete with SPal's wild ride.
Shmlessly cut and pasted portion of comment at
ReplyDeleteThe Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 361 from http://journals.democraticunderground.com/top10/361
"Meanwhile, Bobby Jindal's arch-rival Sarah Palin is carving out her own path to 2012 - unfortunately it's starting to look like one of those extreme skiing videos where the guy trips at the top of the mountain and then plummets all the way to the bottom."
My lord that made me laugh and it is so spot on