Oozing Hawaiian lava flows destroy hundreds more homes

Hundreds of additional homes were destroyed overnight in Hawaii as searing lava oozed into a rural area filled with vacation houses, including one belonging to Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim.

The full extent of destruction was still coming into focus Tuesday, but Janet Snyder, a spokeswoman for Hawaii County, told the Associated Press it was “safe to say that hundreds of homes were lost” in the Kapoho Beach Lots and Vacationland neighborhoods of the Big Island. She said Kim’s second home in the area was one of those lost.

The losses would more than double the 117 confirmed homes that have been destroyed since Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano began erupting May 3, making it the most destructive day since the eruption began.

No injuries were reported; the area had been evacuated.

A morning overflight confirmed that lava completely filled Kapoho Bay, inundated most of Vacationland and covered all but the northern part of Kapoho Beach Lots, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said.

The destruction compounded a magnitude 5.5 earthquake that rattled parts of the island.

Tuesday’s quake, the latest in a series to rock the surging volcano, spewed ash a mile into the air. Some areas may have experienced “strong shaking,” but no tsunami was triggered, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

Lava is entering the water at the Vacationland tidepools and has inundated most of the subdivision, the Hawaii Volcano Observatory reported after a flyover Tuesday. To the north, lava covered all but the northern part of lots in Kapoho Beach, the observatory said.

Thousands of residents of the Big Island’s Puna district have evacuated since the eruptions began.