OKMOK: Remote ranchers evacuated by fishing boat.
A volcano erupted Saturday with little warning on a remote Aleutian island, sending residents of a nearby ranch fleeing from falling ash and volcanic rock.
The Okmok Caldera erupted at 11:43 a.m., just hours after seismologists at the Alaska Volcano Center began detecting a series of small tremors.
The explosion flung an ash cloud at least 50,000 feet high, said geophysicist Steve McNutt.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Lee Goldsmith said those at Fort Glenn reported rock and ash falling around them.
Okmok is 60 miles west of the busy fishing port of Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island.
Ten people, including three children, were at Fort Glenn, a private cattle ranch six miles south of the volcano on Umnak Island, located in the western Aleutians.
They were later picked up by the fishing boat Tara Gaila, which responded to a Coast Guard request for emergency assistance. The boat was taking them to Dutch Harbor, the Coast Guard said.
Ranch residents had managed to call authorities on a satellite phone before losing their connection, according to the Coast Guard.
After the 10 were picked up, the Coast Guard canceled plans to send a cutter to the island, about 860 miles southwest of Anchorage.
The Fort Glenn residents initially had planned to use a small private helicopter to fly one passenger at a time to nearby Unalaska Island, which is separated from Fort Glenn by a five-mile channel.
However, a rescue helicopter from the cutter Melon tried to reach Fort Glenn but had to land in Dutch Harbor after flying through some volcanic ash, damaging the aircraft, the Coast Guard said.
Two planned flights from Unalaska were canceled because of the eruption, said Jerry Lucas, a spokesman for PenAir, the primary airline serving the area.
The 3,500-foot volcano last erupted in 1997, according to McNutt. The volcano has shown signs of increased activity during the last few months, he said.
Previous eruptions have typically produced lava flows, but the volcano center could not immediately determine if that had occurred in Saturday's explosion, McNutt said.
Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins contributed to this story.
