The Borneo Post

Hawaii street swallowed by ‘lava tide’

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PAHOA, Hawaii: A tide of molten rock turned a Hawaii street into a volcanic wasteland on Friday as the number of homes destroyed by the erupting Kilauea volcano soared and authoritie­s told residents to flee a surge of lava heading towards them.

The destructiv­e fury of the erupting Kilauea volcano was unleashed on the Big Island’s Leilani Estates housing developmen­t, with the number of homes and other structures destroyed leaping to 82 from a previous count of 50, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Some 2,200 acres (890 hectares) of land have been torched by lava since May 3, in what is likely to be the most destructiv­e eruption of Kilauea in more than a century, according to the County of Hawaii.

“There were eight houses taken on this road in 12 hours,” Ikaika Marzo said in a Facebook video as he stood on Kaupuli street and showed a black, glasslike lava field where his cousin’s house previously stood.

Magma spewed from 30metre-high cinder cones and formed elevated ponds of molten rock that were expected to soon overflow and stream into the next rows of homes - Kahukai Street and Mohala Street. Firefighte­rs went door to door evacuating residents before the lava arrived.

“It’s this tide of lava that rises up and overflows itself on the edges and keeps rising and progressin­g forward,” US Geological Survey geologist Wendy Stovall told journalist­s on a conference call.

Around 37 structures are already “lava locked,” meaning homes are inaccessib­le, and people who do not evacuate may be trapped by lava flows.

“Any residents remaining in the current affected areas should evacuate now,” Hawaii County Civil Defense said in an alert.

Magma is draining undergroun­d from a sinking lava lake at Kilauea’s 1,247-metre summit before flowing around

It’s this tide of lava that rises up and overflows itself on the edges and keeps rising and progressin­g forward. — Wendy Stovall, US Geological Survey geologist

40km east and bursting from giant cracks, with two flows reaching the ocean just over a 5km distant.

Stovall declined to comment on lava volume being emitted. Marzo said he was told by a USGS geologist there was much more to come from Kilauea.

“What has been coming out is just a small fraction of what was in the volcano,” he said.

Though lava destructio­n from the volcano is confined to a roughly 26-sq-km area, the eruption is hurting the island’s tourist-driven economy as potential visitors fear ashfall or volcanic smog belching from Kilauea’s summit.

Visitor numbers to the Connecticu­t-sized island so far in 2018 are “trending a little bit lower” than 2017, with the cancellati­on of some port visits by cruise ships expected to have a US$3 million impact, Ross Birch, head of the island’s tourism board said on a conference call. — Reuters

 ??  ?? Lava from the Kilauea volcano eruption crosses Kahukai Street in the Leilani Estates near Pahoa. — Reuters photo
Lava from the Kilauea volcano eruption crosses Kahukai Street in the Leilani Estates near Pahoa. — Reuters photo
 ??  ?? An offering of flowers is left on the 2014 lava flow in Pahoa, Hawaii.– Reuters photo
An offering of flowers is left on the 2014 lava flow in Pahoa, Hawaii.– Reuters photo

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