Lava flows force more evacuations on Big Island
Small explosion at Kilauea’s summit sends ash 10,000 feet into sky
PAHOA, Hawaii — Lava creeping across roadways destroyed four homes and left dozens of others in the shadow of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano isolated Saturday, forcing more residents to plan for a possible evacuation.
Hawaii County Civil Defense said a fissure near the neighborhood of Lanipuna Gardens has been continuously erupting, releasing a slow-moving lava flow. If that lava threatens a nearby highway, more people will be told to prepare for voluntary evacuation.
On Friday, fast-moving lava crossed a road and isolated about 40 homes in a rural subdivision, forcing at least four people to be evacuated by county and National Guard helicopters.
Police, firefighters and National Guard troops were securing the area of the Big Island and stopping people from entering, Hawaii County Civil Defense reported. The homes were isolated in the area east of Lanipuna Gardens and Leilani Estates. Both neighborhoods had 40 structures, including 26 homes, destroyed over the past two weeks.
Officials said three people were still in the area but were not in imminent danger. They were advised to shelter in place and await rescue by helicopter.
County officials have been encouraging residents in the district to prepare for potential evacuations.
Edwin Montoya, who lives with his daughter on her farm near the site where lava crossed the road and cut off access, said he was at the property earlier in the day to get valuables.
“I think I’m lucky because we went there this morning and we got all the batteries out, and all the solar panels out, about $4,000 worth of equipment,” he said. “They have to evacuate the people that are trapped up there right now in the same place that we were taking pictures this morning.”
He said no one was on his property, but his neighbor had someone on his land.
“I know that the farm right next to my farm — he’s got somebody there taking care of the premises; I know he’s trapped,” Montoya said.
Montoya said the fissure that poured lava across the road opened and grew quickly.
“It was just a little crack in the ground, with a little lava coming out,” he said. “Now it’s a big crater that opened up where the small little crack in the ground was.”
Experts are uncertain about when the volcano will calm down.
The Big Island volcano released a small explosion at its summit just before midnight Saturday, sending an ash cloud 10,000 feet into the sky. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said eruptions could occur at any time.
This follows the more explosive eruption Thursday, which emitted ash thousands of feet into the sky.
“We have no way of knowing whether this is really the beginning or toward the end of this eruption,” said Tom Shea, a volcanologist at the University of Hawaii. “We’re kind of all right now in this world of uncertainty.”
It’s nearly impossible to determine when a volcano will stop erupting, “because the processes driving that fall below the surface and we can’t see them.” said volcanologist Janine Krippner of Concord University in West Virginia.
U.S. government scientists, however, are trying to pin down those signals “so we have a little better warning,” said Wendy Stovall, a volcanologist with the observatory.