Two weeks on, Hawaii residents look for ‘normalcy’ amid ash, lava

PAHOA

(Hawaii): Two weeks after fountains of lava and poisonous gas from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano forced hundreds of people to flee their homes in the middle of the night, things were only getting worse for residents on Friday after another eruption.

As Kilauea oozed lava from 22 fissures on its eastern flank, residents of Pahoa on the Big Island, some wearing ash masks, hunkered down in shelters and waited for an expected resumption of major eruptions.

The first evacuations came before dawn on May 3, when the volcano began its current cycle of eruptions and earthquakes.

“We’re all trying to establish or find some normalcy in our lives knowing that we’re on an active volcano that’s very active right now,” said Cindy Hartman, a dietician at Hilo Medical Center.

She packed up and left her home in the Kalapana-Seaview neighbourhood on Sunday, after a fissure opened just two miles (3.2 km) from the last road out.

Hartman has been staying with a friend but is looking for temporary housing, faced with the possibility that lava could flow for months. Old-timers have reminded her that a similar event in 1955 lasted for 88 days.

Four people were rescued by helicopter after a fast moving lava flow crossed Pohoiki Road, one of the main arteries in and out of the area, isolating about 40 homes.

Full story @ timesofoman.com/world