• The supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park was not supposed to erupt in my lifetime, but it did. Long ago scientists saw all of the signs pointing to a major eruption; earthquakes, geysers falling silent or exploding, wild animals fleeing the park, and the ground rising. Yet, they ignored these signs, and now eighty years later to the day, we are still suffering from their mistake. Perhaps if we had been warned, we could have prepared. However, there may have been no way to prepare for so much destruction and so much death.
    The explosion was massive. It caused hot lava and ash to be spewed high into the sky. Clouds of hot ash rushed out from the sight, vaporizing everything as far as 620 miles away. Yellowstone Park was instantly obliterated and the whole northwest part of our country was destroyed as well. Now it is buried under layers of ash and lava. Fortunately for us, Yellowstone’s eruption did not cause the other two supervolcanos located here in the United States to erupt as well.
    In the days following the eruption, crops throughout the United States were destroyed by the ash that fell from the sky and blocked out all sunlight. The grocery store shelves were soon empty and we ran out of food. People everywhere were slowly starving to death. The ash also contaminated the streams, rivers, lakes and oceans. The air was saturated with its poison. We all wore masks over our noses and mouths but people continued to be poisoned. Starvation and poisoning were both slow and painful ways for us to die and I saw many die this way.
    The ash covered everything in those dark years after the eruption. When the ash became wet it was much thicker and heavier than normal mud. It blocked the rivers and caused
    catastrophic flooding. Along with the floods there were enormous mudslides that often wiped out entire towns. Many who survived the initial explosion were later crushed as their roofs collapsed under the weight of wet ash.
    Power lines and telephone lines in the United States snapped under the weight of the ash. Communication between cities, states and countries stopped. We were left in the dark when it came to what was happening in the rest of the country and the world. We had no electricity or heat as the temperatures slowly dropped. The clouds of ash in the sky also blocked cell phone signals and satellite signals. Today we have electric power on occasion, but only because of our gas generators. Gas is hard to come by these days, so that is why it is rare that we have light other than that of candles or fire.
    At one time, before this disaster devastated the world, we could fly in the sky in airplanes and jets. However, those that were in the air at the time of the eruption crashed. Their engines were quickly clogged with ash and other debris. Those on the ground are still unable to be flown. The pilots and mechanics that once flew and maintained them are all dead now. The planes are covered in ash and are corroding, just like the cars.
    Rain never returned to normal after the ash stopped falling. It was very acidic and burned if it touched a person’s skin. Only many layers of thick clothes would protect us and sometimes even that was not enough. The rain would burn through our clothes. We avoided going out in it because of that. It also corroded the buildings, cars, planes, and everything else it touched.
    The plants as well as the animals were killed by the acid rain, the lack of sunlight, and the dropping temperatures. The animals died the same way we did. They starved to death and were poisoned by the water and air. Those that were kept as pets were sometimes eaten as their owners
    began to starve. Now we only have food because we are able to grow it indoors with artificial light and raise our own animals indoors as well.
    The clouds of ash took time to spread, but they covered the sky in months if not weeks, blocking out the sun and its warmth. Over the years our climate has changed. The temperature has dropped slowly and is now at least twenty degrees lower than it used to be. What we live in today is considered an Ice Age, at least for the United States. Most likely the entire northwest and all of what once was Yellowstone is a frozen wasteland now but no one is sure. We seldom venture more than a few miles from our homes.
    Our government fell apart as it struggled to find some way to deal with such a large scale disaster. The citizens of the United States were left without guidance or laws to keep us safe. Survival was the only thing we cared about. Many people robbed and killed to provide shelter for their families and to keep from starving to death. However, we were not the only ones to suffer from this tragedy. What happened to the rest of the world is unknown. We still have no way to communicate with other countries. We probably will never know all the facts; we have no way of finding out the truth.
    As for the population of the United States, we were almost destroyed. We were pushed to the edge of extinction. Millions of us died in the first year. Only those of us who didn’t panic and were able to adapt quickly were able to survive. We were all terrified. Who wouldn’t have been in the face of such a horrifying catastrophe?
    So this is the dark tale of what happened to our civilization and this is the world that is left. The dark years we endured are behind us but the effects will live on forever. The explosion of the Yellowstone supervolcano changed the world we knew and created the one we live in now. It may be harsher than the old one but this is how we live now. I only hope that when you are my age this cold world will be over and your children will live in a world bathed in sunlight once more.