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In Hawaii, Kilauea Volcano Erupts, Spewing Lava and Gases Near Homes

PAHOA, Hawaii — Fresh volcanic eruptions on the southern end of the island of Hawaii after a series of tremors left residents displaced and frightened as the authorities evacuated the state’s largest park on Friday and worked to keep people out of two subdivisions that had been evacuated.

Following days of small earthquakes, a more powerful one with a magnitude of 6.9 hit the south flank of the volcano at 12:33 p.m. Hawaii time. There was no tsunami expected, according to a statement from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, but “many areas may have experienced strong shaking.”

That earthquake, which set off rock slides on park trails, forced park officials to close down and evacuate Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which encompasses 333,000 acres — 13 percent of the Big Island’s total area. Closing the park is a rare occurrence, Jessica Ferracane, a spokeswoman for the park, said on Friday afternoon.

About 2,600 visitors were being evacuated from the park, Ms. Ferracane said. “It’s a double cruise ship day,” she said, adding that there were people camping in the backcountry. More than two million people visited the park in 2017, the year after its centennial. The park will remain closed until it is deemed safe to reopen, officials said in a Facebook post on Saturday.

Officials said that there had been no reports of injuries or death, but by Friday afternoon, two homes had been surrounded by lava and officials were warning of dangerous gases.

Lava began bubbling up through a new crack in the Kilauea volcano on Thursday evening, but the lava flows, at least as of Friday morning in Hawaii, had been small, said Dr. Charles Mandeville, coordinator of the Volcano Hazards Program at the United States Geological Survey headquarters in Reston, Va.

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In all, the volcano had at least three new fissures as of Friday afternoon, but Dr. Mandeville cautioned that the detected increase in earthquakes, most of which had been small, meant more eruptions were likely.

“It’s far from over,” Dr. Mandeville said in an earlier interview.

By Friday, nearly everybody had been evacuated from the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens subdivisions, the areas where the volcano had erupted, said Mayor Harry Kim of Hawaii County, in a news conference streamed on Facebook. Officials had opened two community centers to shelter people who fled their homes.

By 8 a.m. in Hawaii, the cracks were still spewing sulfur dioxide gas and debris, but the lava flows had not gone far.

The county’s fire department reported that “extremely high levels of dangerous sulfur dioxide gas” had been detected in the evacuation areas, according to a release from the state’s Emergency Management Agency. The Hawaii Police Department said on Friday it had closed access to the two subdivisions “due to hazardous air quality and unstable lava conditions.”

When a volcano erupts, gases often shoot out, including sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, which can be poisonous, and carbon dioxide, which can cause asphyxiation.

Chris Elliott Rodrigues, 40, who was sheltering at Pahoa Community Center after fleeing from his neighborhood, Hawaiian Acres, said: “I’ve been watching what’s going on, the sulfur smell at my place was so strong.”

“I hope the lava activity keeps up,” said Mr. Rodrigues, who worked at Lava Ocean Adventures. “I want to go back to work.”

Several schools were closed on Friday, and temporary flight restrictions were put in place for most of the lower Puna District, where the evacuated communities were located, according to a spokesman from the state’s Emergency Management Agency.

There are approximately 1,500 homes in the area, the spokesman said. The Red Cross reported 66 people in two shelters overnight, he added.

“I never thought I’d ever be faced with this, I’m just shellshocked,” said Carl Yoshimoto, 69. He was sheltering at Pahoa Community Center with his two dogs, Sako and Suki, and his partner since Thursday afternoon. Their house is in Leilani Estates.

“As soon as I heard the order to evacuate, I grabbed important paperwork, medications, my wallet — we were out of the house within a half an hour.”

Maddy Welch, 19, who works at Kalapana Bike rentals and lives in Leilani Estates with her mother, had set up a tent and a space at Pahoa Community Center with her two dogs, a goose and her friend, Taylor. “I woke up around 1:30 in the morning to earthquakes,” she said. “My mom didn’t want to leave. I told her there are two vehicles leaving this driveway — I hope you’ll be in one of them because we can’t come back.”

“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” she went on. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

On Thursday evening lava spilled from the crack in the volcano for about an hour and a half, leaving a large smear in a residential area of bushes and trees. Photos and drone footage showed a line of glowing orange slicing through green yards and white vapor and fumes rising above the trees. Gov. David Ige issued an emergency proclamation that made state funding faster to access, and he called up the National Guard to help emergency workers with evacuation efforts.

Kilauea is the youngest of five volcanoes that make up the island of Hawaii, and lies on the island’s south. Dr. Mandeville said the signal that there might be more activity was the little earthquakes, which happen when magma moves against rock, in this case, two miles under the earth’s surface. “That’s where the plumbing system is,” he said.

It remained to be seen how much damage the structures in the evacuation areas have sustained from the eruptions and the earthquakes.

Dan Jacobs, 47, who has spent the last six months building his house in Leilani Estates, was standing behind Pahoa Village Museum, a downtown hangout. “I invested all my money here, and I probably won’t have anything to show for it in about a month’s time,” he said. “You should see the floors I built, they’re so beautiful, it’s about halfway done.”

Past volcanic eruptions, some that occurred decades ago, have caused lasting damage to parts of the region.

An eruption from the Pu’u ’O’o cone of Kilauea in 1983 has continued to flow, destroying houses in the Royal Gardens subdivision. In 1990 more than 100 homes in the Kalapana community were destroyed by lava flow.

An eruption from Kilauea in 2014 flowed down the surface of the volcano and burned a house in Pahoa. Now residents worry that more structures could be threatened in the area, which is one of the fastest-growing in the state.

“Living on a volcano, everybody has got pretty thick skin. They know the risk,” said Ryan Finlay, who lives in Pahoa and runs an online trade school. “Lava for the most part has flown to the ocean the last 30 years. Everybody gets in a comfort zone. The last couple weeks, everything changed.”


Living in paradise comes with a price.

Post: #2

That's crazy to imagine walking along in the woods, or sitting in your back yard, and all the sudden have the ground split open and have molten rock start oozing out!

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Yeah, sorry I was making light of this. Hope you are yours are okay, Kona.

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He's on Oahu I believe...different island

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I just assumed he lived in a volcano lair and this was all part of his master plan.

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Kona must have 'interfered' with virgin sacrifice in the island and jetted on his boat.

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(05-05-2018 12:26 PM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  He's on Oahu I believe...different island

I know, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know anyone in the vicinity.

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(05-05-2018 12:47 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  

(05-05-2018 12:26 PM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  He's on Oahu I believe...different island

I know, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know anyone in the vicinity.

First off, thank you all for the kind words, and the messages. I'm a-ok.

Second, I think its time we had a serious talk about climate change. If this doesn't prove its real, I don't know what will.

If you look at the map, my neighborhood is at the western tip of Oahu, on the north side of the island. Then, my work is on,the opposite southern side at the tip you,see there.

This morning, from that tip, I went about 27 miles south, in a straight line, and holy smokes, that's where the volcano haze was starting. If I would have gone maybe another .5 miles, it would have been like night time.

I'm,back on the North Shore now, and it stinks bad. My windshield got black (and bright yellow which I think is straight sulphur) all over it.

If anyones spent some time in Hawaii you know that a quarter inch of rain in the morning somehow snarls traffic for 24 hours following. A hurricanes warning shuts the island down. I can't imagine what its like on the big island. Must be nuts over there.

Aloha!

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It's good that you are ok and stay safe, but global warming (don't call it their updated terminology if the warming does not work out) is bullshit.

Volcano activity is always a danger - just unknown when it can happen. Most volcanoes are underwater - just a few of them blowing up create more CO2 than humanity produces in several years. Pompeii had nothing to do with fucking global warming in Roman times.

It's always a risk living in certain areas - at least we have some modicum of better survival chances due to some warning systems and tech which can help us find safety fast.

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The magma hotspot creating those islands is in the exact same place it's always been, the continental crust is moving over it southeast. It will continue to create more islands in this pattern it just takes millions of years. The island itself is a volcano, it's not like it's something separate.

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By the way, for those of you who haven't visited that part of Hawaii...volcanoes national park...it's one of the wonders of the world.

Add to your bucket list.

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Praying for Kona's lawn.

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KONA 2018!

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That's wild, stay safe brother!

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What kind of boat do you run out there?

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(05-05-2018 06:26 PM)Jetset Wrote:  Praying for Kona's lawn.

Praying for Kona's boat. Stay safe!

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(05-05-2018 10:31 PM)porscheguy Wrote:  What kind of boat do you run out there?

Today was in a seaswirl 3301 that I love. All around is somewhat flat right now so ran it pretty hard.

Regarding the volcano, my house is about 190 miles from it, but damn the air is freaking gross here.

Aloha!

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What kind of boat do you run out there?

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Seeing the eruptions and lava flows in Hawai'i is amazing and crazy. They're happening in higher numbers and severity around the world.

To understand what's happening and why, search for videos and books by John Casey ("Upheaval!" being the most recent and well-documented) and David Diley. Also search for 'Grand Solar Minimum' and YouTube channel by that name along with Adapt 2030.

All this has happened before, and will happen again. Winter is coming.

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Volcanic eruptions are part and parcel of living in the age of the ever-becoming Polynesian ethno state.

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(05-06-2018 02:11 AM)TooFineAPoint Wrote:  Volcanic eruptions are part and parcel of living in the age of the ever-becoming Polynesian ethno state.

Our game tomorrow is cancelled because of the volcano. We were supposed to play the Jews.

Aloha!

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Hope it all calms down.

Technology will solve the danger of living in volcano or earthquake regions, but we are not there yet. This is far beyond the monorail in terms of tech.

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(05-05-2018 12:26 PM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  He's on Oahu I believe...different island

You missed the apostrophe in O'ahu.

It might not seem like a big deal but it's highly offensive to the Hawaiian Irish who's slave ancestors settled the island in 328 BC after being emancipated from Portuguese rule by the King of Greece.

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(05-06-2018 12:30 AM)porscheguy Wrote:  What kind of boat do you run out there?

Keep asking this. It is a good way to keep Kona occupied.

It gets his mind off white nationalists.

And onto the magma hegemony.