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ANCHORAGE - The overnight eruption of Mount Redoubt spewed ash up to 60,000 feet in the air, snarling air travel Monday and stranding small groups of people in remote, sparsely populated parts of the state.

The eruption of the 10,200-foot volcano, about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, had a limited effect on the state's largest city and its suburbs. Winds blew the lower layer of ash north of Anchorage and into the Susitna Valley, where a mild coating of debris was reported in some rural areas.

The volcano erupted five times throughout the night, starting at 10:38 p.m. Sunday. The last reported eruption was at 4:31 a.m. Geologists said eruptions could continue for weeks or months and that the largest effect probably would be on air travel.

Alaska Airlines on Monday canceled 19 flights because of the ash. In-state carrier Era Aviation canceled four, and Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage kept 60 planes, including fighter jets, cargo aircraft and a 747 commercial plane, in shelters.

Only a single flight from Anchorage to Juneau was among the flights affected by the Mount Redoubt eruption, but it was a crucial one for the Legislature.

Ten lawmakers in the 40-member House of Representatives and six in the 20-member Senate were absent Monday. Many cited grounded aircraft and flight cancellations as the reason for their absence.

The affected Juneau flight, Alaska Airlines flight 62, was expected to carry numerous legislators back to the capital. Many had spent the weekend holding constituent meetings in their Anchorage-area districts.

An Anchorage Daily News reporter, on his way to Juneau to cover the session, also was delayed.

The plane that was to travel to Juneau, a Boeing 737, was in Fairbanks when the volcano erupted, said Marianne Lindsey, director of communications for the airline. Unwilling to fly near potentially dangerous ash clouds, Alaska Airlines flew the plane to Juneau without passengers, a process called "ferrying."

"We first held the plane in Fairbanks, and then ferried it out of the area of the ash," Lindsey said.

Among the legislative actions canceled Monday were a House Resources Committee discussion of cruise ship waste discharges and a Senate floor session on federal economic stimulus funding.

Most of the numerous canceled flights were flying north and west of Anchorage, toward Bethel, Kotzebue and Prudhoe Bay.

"Those are the highest hit markets," he said.

One other Juneau flight was affected, Lindsay said. A northbound flight that originated in Seattle ended in Juneau, rather than continuing north.

Alaska Airlines expects to resume flights today, and has been attempting to rebook passengers who missed flights.

"We've had quite a logistical situation going on today," Lindsay said.

Residents who had been bracing for the eruption for weeks were relieved that its impact was not more severe.

"It's been looming in the background here for a month and a half or so," said Capt. Tim Morgan, of the Talkeetna Fire Department. "Finally it's here and it's another day at the office."

Mount Redoubt has erupted several times before, most notably for five months in late 1989 through 1990, when its ash turned off the engines of a KLM jet in mid-flight. The plane dropped two miles before its crew could reactivate the engines.

Chris Waythomas, a geologist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory, said that Redoubt is only one of a number of active volcanoes in the central and western part of the state that can wreak havoc on air travel. One that erupted in the Aleutian Islands last year spread enough ash to shut down flights for one day.

"Any of the 42 active volcanoes ... could cause problems," Waythomas said. "They sit below some heavily traveled north Pacific air routes."

The jagged particles that comprise ash from volcanoes such as Mount Redoubt do more than shred machinery. They can tear into eyes and skin and cause breathing problems.

In much of the affected region, residents awoke to a typical March morning - gray skies and pure white snow on the ground. They had to look carefully to see the fallout from the eruption.

"You can see it the air, like a distant forest fire," said Reinhard Grenz, owner of the Denali Outpost in Trapper Creek, about 200 miles from Redoubt. "There's a dusting on our deck, a trace."

Elsewhere the impact was more noticeable. In Skwentna, the ash covered trees and blackened the snow. A sulfurous smell lingered in the crisp spring air. Families huddled indoors, unable to use their snowmobiles, and ran their generators intermittently to try to preserve the motors.

"It's covered everything up," said Katie Child, 18, as she huddled with her family inside the Skwentna Roadhouse.

More than large commercial flights were grounded. Rural Alaskans depend on flights between hamlets, as do tourists. At Talkeetna Air Taxi, workers stayed inside their offices. The planes were covered, computers were bagged to protect from the ash and workers were worrying about two parties they were supposed to pick up Monday morning who are now stranded.

Sandra Loomis, the company's manager, said both groups consisted of "savvy, experienced backcountry travelers." One pair of climbers from Colorado was stranded in the southern peaks of the Alaska range, she said, and a party of four was stranded at a hut on the side of Mount McKinley.

Loomis said the climbers were only a couple of days' walk from Skwentna and the group on Mount McKinley already had reported having adequate supplies to last longer. "I'm just glad it's happening now and not when we're really busy," Loomis said. In the summer, there could be hundreds of people in the Bush counting on flights out, she said.

"We wonder how long this thing is going to burp up these ashes," said Kathleen Huston, owner of a bed and breakfast in Willow. "We want this thing to get its indigestion over with so we can go on vacation in a few days. It cancels all the airplanes, and we've got plans."

• Juneau Empire reporter Pat Forgey contributed to this story.