Lava flow as wide as three football pitches cuts off eastern Hawaii
RESIDENTS holding out in their homes on the eastern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island were evacuated just hours before lava from the Kilauea volcano cut off road access to the area.
National Guard troops, police and firemen ushered homeowners out before a stream of lava as wide as three football fields flowed over a highway near a junction at Kapoho, a community rebuilt after an eruption in 1960.
The lava flow left Kapoho and the adjacent development of Vacationland cut off from the rest of the island by road, according to the Hawaii County Civil Defense (CCD) agency.
Nearly a dozen people chose to stay, ignoring warnings that it was their last chance to evacuate, authorities said. The area now has no power, cell reception, landlines or county water.
The lava also destroyed a freshwater lake, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported. It said a fire department overflight found “the lava filled the lake and apparently evaporated all the water”.
Authorities had been urging residents to leave before lava spewing from a volcanic fissure at the foot of Kilauea reached the area. The final phase of the evacuation was carried out early on Saturday, Janet Snyder, a CCD spokesman, told Reuters. An estimated 500 people live in the Kapoho area.
Another 2,000 have been evacuated from Leilani Estates further west, where dozens of homes have been devoured or cut off by lava since May 3. “We’re waiting for Pele to make the decision,” said Steve Kirkpatrick, a retired mailman and 14-year resident of Leilani Estates, referring to the volcano goddess of Hawaiian myth. Toxic sulphur dioxide gas emissions have created an additional hazard. So too have airborne volcanic glass fibres, called “Pele’s hair”.
But the summit has quietened in the past few days, as tons of rubble from the interior walls of the crater have fallen into the void and plugged it. Scientists are unsure whether the blockage will end eruptions or lead to a build-up of pressure that causes a much bigger explosion.