Multiple local businesses said they've had deliveries delayed, or worry they may be delayed by future airport shutdowns, from spring seed orders to shipments of fresh hives to area beekeepers.
Cheryl Young, manager at the Flowers by Louise store in Palmer, said the eruptions last week caused a mini crisis by postponing a crucial shipment of flowers intended for the Palmer High School prom. The prom was set for Saturday. The flowers finally arrived Friday. That made for a late-night cram session of corsage making by employees who stayed until 10 p.m. to finish the job, she said.
"We were lucky to get them here in time," she said.
For others, the volcano has cut less into inventory than people power.
Palmer Midas store manager William Wright said he was down a mechanic this week after the man got stranded at Disneyworld in Florida. Or, he joked, at least that's what the mechanic told him.
Carrs store district manager Glenn Peterson said flight disruptions had also stranded employees, including a fellow manager in Kodiak. It also put a pinch on the few employees who still rely on printed paychecks instead of direct deposit, he said. The checks, printed in Bellevue, Wash., got stuck in Seattle for a few days.
Goods on the grocery store's shelves haven't been affected, however, since most of the company's freight, with a notable exception of cut flowers, is delivered by ship, he said.
Most business owners described the delays so far as minor.
Tim VandenToorn, who owns Trophy Tanning & Taxidermy in Palmer, for example, said his only impact was having to put on hold this week plans to ship out a tanned bear hide to a customer in Texas.
Anthony Schmidt also is unaffected although he's crossing his fingers.
As owner of Triple D Farm & Hatchery near Wasilla, Schmidt relies heavily on air freight, flying in about 40,000 duck, turkey and chicken chicks each summer from Texas, Iowa and other places in the Lower 48.
Some he raises himself. Other he sells to residents across the state.
So far, his shipments have made it.
But with up to two shipments a week expected through the end of July, he's contemplating potential back up plans like pouring cement into Redoubt to plug it up.
"Of course, it'd probably really blow then," he said.
While most have escaped relatively unscathed by the volcano, a few have had a rougher ride.
Nick Dolecek and Mike Coons, both from Colorado, were camped 4,400 feet up on the Hayes Glacier in a remote corner of the Tordrillo Mountains when Redoubt decided to blow.
At that point, the pair of 26-year-olds had already spent a week in the area scaling the steep mountainsides and skiing down.
They were more than ready for a good meal and warm bed, Dolecek said.
Instead, they spent two extra days huddled in down sleeping bags inside their tent in temperatures so cold that 2 inches of ice would form inside the tent every night.
Dolecek said he didn't know the exact temperature.
But Coons, who works on a research ship in Antarctica, told him it was colder than anything he had experienced.
Minus a satellite phone, the two could only guess as to what had happened when they woke up to find an inch thick layer of gray ash covering their tent and the surrounding snow.
Dolecek said the two rationed food, subsisting on crackers and a half bag of beef jerky and passed the time playing a game of horseshoes made out of their avalanche shovels and water bottles.
Anyone who hit a shovel scored a point, and the winner got to eat 10 crackers, he said.
Several times, the two thought they heard the sound of a plane engine.
So, he said, they couldn't quite believe it when the plane from Talkeetna Air Taxi finally did arrive Tuesday, two days after their scheduled Sunday pickup.
"When we saw that one flying up the valley, it was really, really good," he said.
Reporter Rindi White contributed to this report. Find S.J. Komarnitsky at www.adn.com/contact/skomarnitsky or 352-6714.
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