Lava eruptions destroy Hawaii homes
● More than 1,700 people evacuated ● Eight vents open in the ground
The number of homes destroyed by lava shooting out of openings in the ground created by Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has climbed to five.
More than 1,700 people were evacuated due to the natural disaster. Some are preparing for the possibility they may not return for quite some time.
“I have no idea how soon we can get back,” resident Todd Corrigan said.
He left his home in Leilani Estates with his wife on Friday as lava burst through the ground near their home. They spent the night on the beach in their car and have started looking for a holiday rental.
The Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory said eight vents, each several hundred metres long, have opened in the area since Thursday.
By late Saturday, emissions from the fissures had become less violent and were only steam and gas.
0 Leilani Estates resident Sam Knox watches the lava flow across the road near his home
Scientists said Kilauea was likely to release more lava through additional vents but they could not predict exactly where. However, Leilani Estates, a subdivision in the mostly rural district of Puna, is at greatest risk.
Authorities ordered more than 1,700 residents to evacuate from there and nearby Lanipuna Gardens. Hundreds of small earthquakes continued to rumble across the area on Saturday, a day after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit – the largest to strike Hawaii in more than 40 years.
Magma moving through Kilauea set off the earthquakes, said geologists, who warned of aftershocks.
Authorities said that sulphuric gas pouring out of the vents also posed a danger, particularly to the elderly and people with respiratory problems.
Hawaii County spokeswomankananiatonsaidsomeresidents may be allowed to return home briefly to get medicine or take care of pets if sulphur dioxide levels drop as a result of the calming vents.
Tesha Montoya, 45, said the threat of toxic fumes was not enough to make her family evacuate,butthetippingpoint was the earthquakes.
“I felt like the whole side of our hill was going to explode,” she said. “The earthquake was what made us start running.”
Ms Montoya, her husband and daughter do not know how long they will be away from the three-storey house they built nearly 20 years ago in a patch of “raw jungle”.
“My heart and soul’s there,” she said.
Gary Mcmillan said his home was about half a mile from one of the fissures in Leilani Estates. He monitored remote cameras set up in his home and said his property was still intact.
Kilauea has been continuously erupting since 1983 and is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. In 2014, lava burned a house and covered a cemetery as it approached Pahoa, the town closest to Leilani Estates.