One million Britons stranded by ash and food shortages expected:

[Naturalist111]

Volcano flight chaos to last until next week

One million Britons were stranded abroad last night by the travel paralysis caused by volcanic ash.

The unprecedented air lockdown was extended until at least 7am today but the chaos and confusion will drift well into next week.

Some holidaymakers in Spain were told they face a ten-day wait for a flight home and the delays - coming at the end of the Easter holiday period - intensified problems caused by the massive Icelandic eruption.

Schoolchildren, and their teachers, will be missing from classrooms on Monday, and Britain faces shortages of air-freighted food as the impact of the vast spume of ash begins to bite beyond air travel.

Read more
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1266568/Volcanic-ash-cloud-100-000-Britons-stranded-Europe-air-traffic-chiefs-extend-lockdown-7am.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. They'll have to start doign a SHIP bridge

I am sure they can do that.

[malaise]

26. Kenyan florists are losing about

$2m a day as their roses can't move. Fresh vegetables and fruits must be spoiling in several places. This is the sort of disaster for which there is no plan.
My sis in Denmark says the air smells of ash.

[uppityperson]

2. Places with ash on the ground need to keep an eye on their car's air filters

Speaking from experience.

[Naturalist111]

4. Keep the windows rolled up too!

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. They'll need to replece those filerts to be safe

[Naturalist111]

8. Do you mean passenger compartment filters?

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Engine filters, passenger perhaps, but engine filters in particular

or the ash can gum down your engine, the same way it shuts down jet engines.

[uppityperson]

10. Air filters in the engine. After MtStHelens went off in WA, some places

downwind used paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls for air filters for a bit. Or they had to change their regular air filters like every 10 miles. Running ash through your car engine really eats it up and you have to be really on top of the air filters.

[Naturalist111]

11. That makes sense I thought that is what you were conveying.

When you said safe I assumed it was about health.

[uppityperson]

14. Had a sib right outside blowdown range downwind, told me wild stories

Said they used tp and changed them every 10 miles or so and drove only when they absolutely had to. Seeing pictures of them driving through ash in Iceland, whew. Looks like snow, but it isn't.

[gateley]

13. When Mt. St. Helen's erupted, all the ash was blown east of the mountains

(videos of Spokane showed it was dark as night and it looked like a huge vacuum cleaner bag was being emptied onto the city), but even in Seattle, where we were unscathed, there was a layer of grit on our cars, fences, walls, etc.

[uppityperson]

16. Family in ND complained to me about "my" volcano and the ash that fell there

it was only a tiny bit, but still. Did you see that video of the guy caught in the ash, filming himself as he tried to walk out? It was on the news a few days after, when he got out, really creepy hearing him as he trudged along through the darkness of the ash. It helped knowing that he got out, but was creepy.

[gateley]

24. I don't remember that particular video, but I do remember seeing cars trying

to get ash off of their windshields and as I said, it reminded me of a huge vacuum cleaner bag being dumped on them. It was so eerie -- and I bet the one you're referring to was almost surreal.

That ash everywhere -- whether you see it or not. The power of Mother Nature! :hi:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. "Food shortage" is a bit extreme.

It's going to be more difficult to get some items for a while, but nobody's going to go hungry.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Nah a few things are goign to be short

things that people are used to... like oh Bananas...

I can also foresee meat, and a few other goods.

They will have to rely on mostly local production. But as I said above... a ship bridge is in the future. I cannot believe they don't have a plan for something like this somewhere in civil defense.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

15. Meat? Really?

I can't recall buying anything other than British-raised meat when I lived there. Yeah, tropical fruit and some veggies will be in short supply, but it's not as if you can't live without those things.

Edit: That only goes for raw meat, not things like cured meats, etc.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. They fly some luxury from NZ

but as I said, I cannot believe a SEA FARING nation, if need be, cannot do this thing called using ships.

Yes they will face a shortcut of what mostly would be luxury goods and perhaps some canned... and even some milk... but they survived the blitz.

So I'd say the Mirror is doing what it does beset, and I am sure they have a dusty file marked DISASTER PLAN FOR VOLCANIC ASH. And After 9.11, they had a similar problem with people stranded. That is more of the immediate disaster.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

20. It's not just a matter of using ships.

The entire air-based produce supply chain is currently broken. You can't rework that from scratch in a couple of days, even if you had all the ships in the world. Ship transit time is much longer than air transit time which means that for perishable items (think fresh fruit) you're going to be looking at a lot of spoiled produce. Not to mention the fact that you can't just throw this stuff in a container ship and send it on its way. The ships need to be specifically modified to handle this type of cargo, which might mean refrigeration, different sanitary procedures, crew education, permits for handling agricultural products of this type, maybe even new import licenses, etc. It's not as simple as throwing the stuff that used to go onto planes onto ships.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. I am aware of this why I said DISASTER PLAN

the British Navy has supply ships that all they do is well supply the Navy. They are already modified to do this. So there are already some assets for this.

As to fresh fruit... here is how they used to do bananas, for example, before the jet age. You think bananas are harvested green these days? You have no idea how green they were harvested back in the days.

The problem is that this per force raises transport costs.

And you would not be able to get a cargo of bananas even using the Royal Navy Supply ships that are already refrigerated, for at least two weeks, with best times from there to Central America. (And I am assuming the weather behaves and those things are actually fast ships... otherwise you are looking at best case three weeks)

This is why you'll see shortages no matter what you do, and personally I'd use those ships to make the trip to European ports for more critical things, like Milk.

I am sure somebody is dusting that plan off, or if not available, writing one.

Now the effects on the POLITICAL system... will be more than just amusing.

Oh and I forgot, Cargo Containers can do this already too.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

22. But this isn't a disaster of any serious magnitude.

Nobody is in danger of running out of food. Some items will be more expensive or less readily available, but nobody is going to go hungry. I highly doubt that history will record this as the Great British Banana Famine of 2010.

[northernlights]

29. Great British Banana Famine of 2010

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: thanks for the laugh. Needed that!

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. Bananas already come by sea

For instance, Fyffes, Europe's leading importer and distributor of bananas:

The bananas are cut from the plant whilst they are still green – if they were left to ripen on the plant they would be over ripe and inedible by the time that they reached their market, which is quite likely to be on the other side of the globe. The green fruit is removed from the stem and washed in gigantic cold water baths. This dislodges any insects and plantation debris and cools the bananas down and helps remove any latex present when the fruit is cut from the plant. Because fruit is alive unlike, for example meat, it continues to produce its own heat as it ripens. Even after it has been harvested, the race is on to keep the fruit cool so that it doesn’t ripen during the ocean voyage. Once it has been washed and packed into cardboard boxes, it is palletised and lifted gently into the ship’s temperature controlled hold.

After the ocean voyage from the tropics, the bananas are unloaded from one of our 15 ships and taken without delay to a ripening centre. These centres house a number of ripening rooms or chambers, into which the palletised fruit is carefully placed. Over a period of 5 days or so, the temperature in the chamber is controlled closely, and the bananas turn from green to yellow. The system is computerised so that once the Ripening Manager has determined the most appropriate ripening programme, the computer will ensure that the temperature inside the chamber stays within a preset band – too cool and the bananas will catch a chill and their skins turn from a dull yellow colour and then black; too warm and they will ripen too quickly with decreased shelf life. The introduction of a minute amount of ethylene vapour (a substance produced naturally by all fruit as it ripens) at the beginning of the ripening cycle, accompanied by an increase in temperature from about 14°C – to about 18°C awakens all the bananas in the chamber from their sleep, so that ripening can be closely controlled and uniform throughout each chamber.

http://www.fyffes.com/products/bananas/cultivation.htm

Why on earth you think canned goods are sent by air on any scale, I have no idea. The whole point of cans is that they last for ages, and don't even need refrigeration. They were designed for sea transport before air, or refrigeration, were even possible. And they're heavy.

Imports of fresh milk to Europe are negligible: "the EU restricts the import of milk for personal uses to other EU nations, with very few exemptions like Switzerland", and Europe is a net exporter of dairy products.

Imported New Zealand meat comes frozen; approximately 99 percent of meat exports leave New Zealand shores by sea. Meat from outside Europe is fairly rare, apart from frozen meat from southern hemisphere countries like NZ and Argentina.

[Prometheus Bound]

28. Bananas are not transported by air.

Do you think they could be sold so cheap if they were?

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. Thank you; also, note the only foods involved are out-of-season fruit and vegetables

From the article (and this is almost exactly the same list as The Guardian gave): lettuce, grapes, spring onions, asparagus, prepacked fruit salads (and there are British greenhouse lettuces available, and other northern European countries like the Netherlands grow even more stuff in greenhouses).

This is not a massive problem for the customers; more of a problem for the Kenyan flower growers whose main market is now cut off.

[Prometheus Bound]

40. I know. It's embarassing reading this.

Especially since we're all on the Internet and can check stuff within seconds.

[LeftyMom]

5. Couldn't the people in Spain take the train to France and then use the chunnel?

I imagine that would be slow, but not ten days worth of slow.

[uppityperson]

12. I think tickets are sold out all over, but still I don't see 10 days worth.

what a pain

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

17. It can be expensive, and from what I've read the trains are packed.

Obviously a lot of people are already using it as an alternative to air travel.

[WolverineDG]

36. Not as expensive as flying

and normally you can walk up & get a good fare, except for routes that are in high demand. But now everyone is using the trains & buses, so even those options are out of the question.

dg

[eShirl]

19. or even a taxi... "Stranded in Oslo, John Cleese takes taxi to Brussels"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100416/od_afp/icelandvolcanoaviationentertainmentoffbeat_20100416141228

..."The comedian is not the only one spending heavily on taxis as the volcanic ash from Iceland spreads over Europe.

"According to Oslo Taxi, drivers have made numerous trips between Oslo and Stockholm since Thursday and a number of fares have gone even further.

" "The longest trip so far was from Oslo to Paris," Oslo Taxi spokesman Lars Dolva told the NTB news agency." "

[Turborama]

39. $5,100 for a taxi!

Wow!

[WolverineDG]

35. they're all booked nt

[uppityperson]

38. French train strike is in its 11th day now. Some trains are running, all are full

There is a workers strike going on in France, 11th day.

Articls is Khaleejtimes but is AFP, just was first on the list.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/international/2010/April/international_April921.xml§ion=international

The Eurostar cross-Channel rail service laid on three extra Paris-London trains but places rapidly filled up and passengers were building up in the Gare du Nord station.

The company said 10,000 more passengers than usual had attempted to book Eurostar seats out of Paris on Friday; almost a third more than would normally have been expected.

A strike on the French national network forced the cancellation of one high-speed TGV in 10, a fifth of regional trains and more than a third of local services, operator SNCF said.

[provis99]

23. One million Britons stranded by ash and food shortages executed?

Oh, boy, I read that headline wrong the first glance.

glad they haven't been executed.:-)

[jberryhill]

25. A Shortage Of British Food? What's the problem? /nt

[blueamy66]

30. Exactly.

:-)

[Rage Inc.]

27. It's a Hoax

That volcano didn't erupt! That's just what those tree-hugging lefties want us to think! Rather, the mountain was going through its natural cycle of inhaling and exhaling!

:silly:

[ThomWV]

32. Low value bulk items, like foodstuffs, are rarely shipped by air

Some frozen select meats and canned delicacies fly but hamburger and heads of cabbage don't, and neither do canned peaches or fresh tomatoes.

Europe will not starve because their aircraft do not fly, nor will there be medical shortages so long as they have roads and boats.

[Gin]

34. from another angle....I hope the folks stranded here are not

being robbed...would be a good time for some nice US PR to help them instead of taking every last cent...(IMO)

[canetoad]

37. Makes you think

doesn't it. Here we are with all the technology that money can buy. The ability to be anywhere in the world in a few hours, satellites, nukes, patented dna - and a smallish volcano on a little country in the middle of the ocean can grind all that sophistication to a halt. And there's not a dammed thing we can do about it.