[Hamish McBagpipe]

I was 10 growing up in Calgary at the time. Close enough that I remember there being some concern about some kind of fallout effect. Hard to compare with NO. Even though 50 or so people died from the volcano, you'd have to consider the area to be pretty remote compared to flooding in a major metropolitan area. I don't think there were any real fears in Seattle, Calgary, or even Spokane that rivers of lava would be flowing down the neighbourhood streets at any timesoon. My childhood impression was that the media treated it as more of a natural phenomenon than a real threat and I think there was a bit of surprise that as many as fifty people got killed by the blast.