Hawaii volcano claims 31 homes
‘Heartbreaking,’ official says of lava flow in neighborhood
PAHOA, Hawaii — The number of homes destroyed by Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano jumped to 31 on Sunday as scientists reported lava spewing more than 200 feet into the air.
Some of the more than 1,700 people who had evacuated prepared for the possibility they may not return for quite some time.
Hawaii officials said the decimated homes were in the Leilani Estates subdivision, where molten rock, toxic gas and steam have been bursting through openings in the ground created by the volcano. Officials updated the number of lost homes after an aerial survey of the subdivision.
“That number could change,” Hawaii County spokesman Janet Snyder said. “This is heartbreaking.”
Amber Makuakane, 37, a teacher and single mother of two, said her three-bedroom house in Leilani Estates was destroyed by lava.
The dwelling was across from a fissure that opened Friday, when “there was some steam rising from all parts of the yard, but everything looked fine,” Makuakane said.
On Saturday morning, she received alerts from her security system that motion sensors throughout the house had been triggered. She later confirmed that lava had covered her property.
“They don’t really understand,” she said about her children.
“My son keeps asking me, ‘Mommy when are we going to go home?’”
Lava has spread around 387,500 square feet surrounding the most active fissure, though the rate of movement is slow.
There was no indication when the lava might stop or how far it might spread.
“There’s more magma in the system to be erupted. As long as that supply is there, the eruption will continue,” U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist Wendy Stovall said.
Cherie McArthur wondered what would become of her macadamia nut farm in Lanipuna Gardens, another evacuated neighborhood near Leilani Estates. One of the year’s first harvests had been planned for this weekend.
“If we lose our farm, we don’t know where we’re going to go. You lose your income and you lose your home at the same time,” said McArthur, who’s had the farm for about 20 years. “All you can do is pray and hope and try to get all the information you can.”
About 240 people and 90 pets spent Saturday night at shelters, the American Red Cross said.
Officials let some residents return briefly Sunday to fetch pets, medicine and documents.
Gary McMillan said his home is about 3,000 feet from one of the fissures in Leilani Estates. He monitored remote cameras set up in his home and said it was still intact.
He’s living out of his van with his wife at the nearby community center and constantly thinks about things they left behind, but understands why authorities evacuated residents.
“I was a critical care nurse for 37 years, so I understand the health implications and the dangers involved,” McMillan said.
The number of lava-venting fissures in the neighborhood grew overnight from eight to as many as 10, Stovall said, though some have quieted at various points.
Regardless, scientists expect fissures to keep spewing.
The lava could eventually be channeled to one powerful vent while others go dormant, as has happened in some previous Hawaii eruptions, Stovall said.
Kilauea has been continuously erupting since 1983 and is one of the world’s most active volcanoes.
In 2014, lava burned a house and smothered a cemetery as it approached Pahoa, the town closest to Leilani Estates.
But this flow stalled just before it reached Pahoa’s main road.
Information for this article was contributed by Jennifer Peltz, Sophia Yan, Marco Garcia, Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Sophia Yan, Mark Thiessen, Haven Daley and Gillian Flaccus of The Associated Press.