When a volcano erupts, immediately tune in to determine if you are in immediate danger where you are and also to find out what is happening around you.  These advisories will be your “eyes” to see the larger picture and help you assess the situation and make the right decisions.  The sirens will most likely be your first warning that an eruption is occurring, but you might receive other indications that something is amiss. If you see a plume of debris rising from the volcano, or if you feel an earthquake, tune in immediately. Make sure your battery-operated radio is in working order in case the power goes out. It's an important way to stay connected and learn about updates that can affect your safety. In most cases, you'll be told to stay inside, but you may be ordered to evacuate. It's extremely important to follow the advisories, whatever they may be, in order to ensure your family's safety. Most importantly, if you're told to evacuate, do it right away. Conversely, if you are not instructed to evacuate the area, stay where you are unless you can see immediate danger.  Taking to the roads may be more hazardous than staying at home.  In recent eruptions, many people have been killed because they did not heed an evacuation order.  If you are lucky enough to get advance warning, use it wisely instead of trying to hold your ground. It's also important to evacuate the area as soon as possible after being told to do so. If you wait too long, you'll have to deal with ash fall, which will muck up your car's engine and make it more difficult to leave. Unless you need to evacuate, the safest place you can be is inside a strong structure. Close all the windows and doors to protect yourself from ash and burning cinders. Make sure all of your family members are inside, and that your emergency supply of food and water is indoors with you.  If you own livestock, bring them inside their shelter and close the doors and windows. If you have time, protect machinery by putting it inside a garage. Lava flows, lahars, mudflows, and flooding are common in a major eruption. All of these can be deadly, and all of them tend to travel in valleys and low-lying areas.  Climb to higher ground, and stay there until you can confirm that the danger has passed. While you want to get to higher ground, you should also try to shield yourself from pyroclastics, which are rocks and debris (sometimes red-hot) that are sent flying during an eruption.  The most important thing to do is watch out for them and get out of their range.  Sometimes they actually rain down, and in some types of eruptions, such as that which occurred at Mount St. Helens in 1980, they can land miles from the volcano's crater.  Protect yourself by staying below the ridgelines of hills and on the side of the hill opposite the volcano. If you are caught in a hail of smaller pyroclastics, crouch down on the ground, facing away from the volcano, and protect your head with your arms, a backpack, or anything else you can find. Volcanoes emit a number of gases, and if you are close to one when it erupts, these gases could be deadly.  Breathe through a respirator, mask, or moist piece of cloth—this will also protect your lungs from clouds of ash—and try to get away from the volcano as quickly as possible.  Do not stay low to the ground, as some of the most dangerous gases are heavier than air and accumulate near the ground. Protect your eyes as well. Wear goggles if your mask doesn't cover your eyes. Keep your skin covered with long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Hot spots, geysers, and mudpots are common on volcanoes.  The ground around these is typically very thin, and a fall through could result in serious burns or death.  Never try to cross these during an eruption, and otherwise cross them only on safe, marked paths.  Mudflows and flooding following an eruption generally kill far more people than pyroclastics or lava.  You can be in danger even many miles from the volcano. Never try to cross a lava flow or lahar. Even flows that appear to be cooled may simply have formed a thin crust over a core of extremely hot lava.  If you do cross a lava flow, you run the risk of being trapped between flows if another suddenly develops.

Summary: Listen for radio or TV advisories if you hear the sirens go off. Do not ignore emergency instructions. Get inside if you're caught outdoors. Get to high ground if you can't find shelter. Protect yourself from pyroclastics. Avoid exposure to poisonous gases. Don't try to cross geothermal areas.


When using PowerPoint slides you want them to actually help and raise the quality of your presentation, not simply exist alongside it. The best way to do this is to ensure that your slides do not simply restate what you are saying. You should not be reading from your slides. Really, you want PowerPoint presentations to contain as little text as possible. Having to read text will distract your audience, even if only unconsciously, from what you are telling them. With this in mind, keep your text to a minimum and present it in a way that is easy to read, such as a bulleted list. So, if you can't put all your information onto your slides, how are you supposed to tell your audience everything that can't fit into your speech? Handouts! Make a one or two page handout, for each audience member or for people to take at will, which contains a section for each slide or portion of your presentation. Here you can put extra information or key points of information that were included in your presentation. Graphics are what make a really engaging PowerPoint presentation. These can provide your audience with a new way of looking at what you are trying to tell them. They can provide information which may be difficult for you to convey in words, such as charts and graphs. You will want to be sure, however, that they actually add to your presentation and do not simply provide a distraction. With the above information in mind, you will want to be absolutely sure that you do not include unnecessary visuals or audio. Examples would include transition animations, clip art, sound effects, and cluttered templates or background images. These are the features which tend to make Powerpoint presentations boring, dated, and unhelpful. They distract audience members and add nothing to the presentation. They even hinder the audience's ability to absorb information.
Summary: Streamline text. Give handouts. Use informative graphics. Cut unnecessary sounds and visuals.