Earthquakes, lava fissures put Hawaii’s Big Island on high alert
PAHOA, Hawaii, (Reuters) - Hawaii’s Big Island was on high alert yesterday after the Kilauea volcano spewed lava into residential areas, forcing hundreds to evacuate, and a series of earthquakes, including a powerful tremor, shook the island.
On Saturday, three more homes were reported destroyed, bringing the total to five, said Janet Snyder, a spokeswoman for the mayor of Hawaii County, as eruptions continued following a 6.9 tremor that rocked the island’s southeast corner at midday on Friday.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said at midday local time on Saturday that “eruptive activity is increasing and is expected to continue.”
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said on Saturday that several new lava fissures had opened in the Leilani Estates subdivision of Puna District, about a dozen miles (19 km) from the volcano. Not all the fissures were still active, it added.
“Until we see earthquake activity dying down and the ground stops moving, it’s likely that this activity is going to continue,” said Tina Neal, a scientist in charge at the USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory, after a community meeting attended by about 300 people on Friday.
Two evacuation centers were hastily set up in Pahoa town after lava started burbling up through fissures in the ground in neighborhoods nearby. (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy veteran who reportedly told an Indian software engineer to “get out of my country” before shooting him dead and wounding two others in a bar in Kansas last year has been sentenced to life in prison, the local prosecutor said.
Under the sentence, Adam Purinton, 52, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in March, will not be eligible for parole for 50 years, District Attorney Steve Howe said in a statement on Friday.
Johnson County District Court Judge Charles Droege also sentenced Purinton to an additional 165 months on each of two other charges stemming from the wounding of two other men, Howe said.
The February 2017 murder of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, in a bar in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe drew international attention as part of a wave of attacks across the country against blacks, Jews, Muslims and other groups following the 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who had made a crackdown on illegal immigration part of his platform.
Kuchibhotla was a legal U.S. resident as the holder of a work visa.
The Kansas City Star newspaper reported that at least one bystander said Purinton shouted “get out of my country” before opening fire on Kuchibhotla and two other men who were having after-work drinks at Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe.