Volcanic ash may hover over Europe for days

It's a sign from God!

My parents are stuck in Denmark after visiting me brother. their flight today will be cancelled and my mum is an oap and bracic. How many others will be affected by this?

Hey, new advertising campaign:

Come to Japan! You can get here! It is not covered with ash.

The article fails to mention anything about passengers stuck in Japan.

I was reading the Nishi-Nihon newspaper this morning, and Europeans were complaining that the airport workers will not even loan them blankets while they are stuck in the airport. They cannot get hotel rooms near the airport because of lack of vacancy. Some people are running out of important medicines, such as heart medicine, and cannot get any in Japan.

I think this negates your new advertising campaign, shinjukuboy.

Absolute chaos for some, and not a big deal for others. Either way, I think it's a good lesson for us in terms of how much we depend on and cannot deal without certain things. Perhaps this will bring about some new technologies to attempt to deal with such problems.

stevepfc,

my mum is an oap and bracic.

mum I understand. What is an oap and bracic? Hopefully, they'll enjoy Denmark for another day then be able to get home.

I wonder if this is Iceland's revenge for not getting a better bailout from Europe after declaring bankruptcy.

Interesting report circulating about this whole volcano thing: "The truth is, from Reykjavík, we not only can’t see the volcano, which is located about 85 miles east of us, but we have also been spared the ash, which is traveling southeast to northern Europe. Strangely, this eruption has had more impact on people throughout the world than on people in Iceland. Ash is falling as far as Milan and Icelanders only a few miles away are completely unaffected. in Reykjavík, while people are glued to the news and there is a general awe over eruption’s worldwide impact, most people don’t seem overly worried about the impact the eruption could have here. Not yet, that is.

But, as a friend of mine pointed out, that’s likely to change as soon as the ash starts blowing our way. There is an ever-popular saying here, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes.” If wind patterns change, the ash could very well start raining on us here in the greater Reykjavík area, which is home to about two-thirds of Iceland’s population. Some are wondering whether the nearby and much larger volcano, Katla, will follow suit. Historically it has often followed Eyjafjallajokull eruptions within days or months. Jokes making light of the situation are flying every which way, especially given Iceland’s Ice-Save debt dispute with the Brits and the Dutch — though I think I’ve heard the cash-ash mix-up joke ("You've heard about Gordon Brown? When he heard about Iceland he wanted cash, but there's no 'c' in the Icelandic language, so we gave him ash.") a few too many times. People have also been sending around a great photo of the eruption, which looks like a vicious man-eating monster emerging from the glacier."

LIBERTAS, thanks for this local perspective! Hope you guys can ride this out safely.

You guys in Japan, should learn something from this...Mount Fuji is expected to wake up sometime soon.

Europeans were complaining that the airport workers will not even loan them blankets while they are stuck in the airport.

At least the airport is opened in Japan. Was reading reports of several European airports completely closing down, leaving passengers stranded OUTSIDE airports. Airport officials have been criticizing European governments for their lack of leadership, as well as lack of information. In other words, no one knows exactly when they would be able to leave.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/sns-ap-eu-iceland-volcano,0,1670826.story

Also, according to: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Europe's_airline_chaos:_in_depth

Even countries as far away as Japan were affected by the ash clouds. A correspondent for the BBC, in Tokyo's Narita Airport, says that many travellers en route to Europe had to spend the night in the departure lounge because their flights were cancelled: "Airlines have handed out sleeping bags and blankets but there have been complaints there aren't enough to go round. The longer the airports are closed the longer the backlog of passengers builds up," he reports.

borscht, OAP is a senior and bracic is a term for not having much/any money.

Saw on UK Sky news that this could last for months and the ash is expected to reach the US East ciast by 18.00 GMT today.