Rattled Hawaiians flee volcano’s roaring fury
Aday after the most active volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii erupted, fountains of lava gushed out of the ground Friday on the eastern side of the island, where residents fled from threats of fires and “extremely high levels of dangerous” sulphur dioxide gas.
Kilauea erupted Thursday, sending white, billowing clouds of steam and volcanic ash into the sky and prompting emergency officials to order mandatory evacuations. Friday, authorities continued to warn residents to stay out of the area as molten rock shot high into the air from cracks in the ground in Leilani Estates, a subdivision in the Puna district.
The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said there was “active volcanic fountaining” in the neighbourhood, meaning the lava was springing up from ground fractures; reports indicated it was shooting 30 metres into the sky. The U. S. Geological Survey said at least three fissure vents have opened in the subdivision so far — and that more outbreaks are likely to occur along the rift zone.
At least two homes in the subdivision caught fire, Hawaii News Now reported.
As Kilauea roared to life, the deafening sound of grinding rocks echoed in the air and fiery red- orange lava could be seen spurting from the ground.
“It sounded like there were rocks in a dryer that were being tumbled around,” said Jeremiah Osuna, who lives near Leilani Estates. “You could hear the power of it pushing out of the ground.”
Emergency officials reported dangerously high levels of sulphur dioxide in the evacuation area and warned: “Elderly, young, and people with respiratory issues need to comply with the manda- tory evacuation order and leave the area.” Residents in Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens were ordered to evacuate to two nearby community centres serving as shelters, and the state’s Department of Education announced that several schools would be closed due to “volcanic activity.”
A state of emergency was issued by the County of Hawaii’s acting mayor, and Gov. David Ige issued an emergency proclamation and activated Hawaii’s National Guard to help with evacuations. Less than an hour after the eruption began Thursday, wailing warning sirens joined the cacophony, said Maija Stenback, a resident of Leilani Estates.
As dramatic as the sights and sounds were, the eruption and lava flow pose little threat to peoples’ lives, thanks to a monitoring and alert system in place for years.
“It’s been handled very well,” Stenback said. “Civil Defense has been saying they can’t predict it, but there’s a good possibility, so they made everybody very aware that this could happen. You know, pack a bag and be ready to leave.”
Kilauea is the youngest and most active volcano on Hawaii Island, according to USGS. The eruption from the volcano came hours after a 5.0- magnitude earthquake jolted the island on Thursday morning. Since Monday, the area has been rattled by at least 600 smaller quakes generated by magma flow from Kilauea, said Janet Babb, a geologist with the Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory.
“Earthquakes were happening every 10 minutes, it seems like. That was kind of unsettling,” said Osuna, adding that it was “nerveracking” not knowing exactly where the eruption would occur.
The event has been building for several days, Babb said, and the tremors were a sign that magma could break through the surface at any time.
Thursday’s strong earthquake, which struck at about 10:30 a.m. local time, caused “rockfalls and possibly addi- tional collapse into the Pu’u Oo crater on Kilauea,” and sent a large plume of ash into the air, the USGS reported.
The collapse began Monday as magma, which supported the crater, moved out and down the rift zone, triggering the quakes, Babb said.
When Stenback got a call from her son that the volcano had started erupting, it felt “unreal,” she said.
It wasn’t until she and her daughter saw lava coming up through the ground that she believed it.
“Once you see it, then you know it’s really happening,” said Stenback. She added that she even hesitated to pack because she didn’t think the eruption would occur.
But after seeing and film- ing the lava, Stenback said she and her daughter hightailed it home to prepare to evacuate.
On Twitter, one person wrote, “OMG my island is on fire” and included a video of lava gushing from the middle of a road.
Since 1983, Kilauea has erupted almost continuously, many times forcing nearby communities to evacuate.
Geologists said the current seismic activities around Puna most closely resemble the events that precipitated a 1955 eruption, according to Hawaii News Now. That eruption lasted about three months and left almost 4,000 acres of land covered in lava, the news site reported.