Posted on 05/03/2018 11:02:04 PM PDT by Simon Green
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupted Thursday, releasing lava into a residential neighborhood and prompting mandatory evacuation orders for nearby homes.
Hawaii County said steam and lava poured out of a crack in Leilani Estates, which is near the town of Pahoa on the Big Island.
Footage shown on local television showed lava spurting into the sky from a crack in a road.
County, state and federal officials had been warning residents all week that they should be prepared to evacuate, as an eruption would give little warning.
The county has ordered evacuations for all of Leilani Estates, which according to the 2010 U.S. Census has a population of 1,500.
Nearby community centers have opened for shelter.
The U.S. Geological Survey said new ground cracks were reported Thursday afternoon. Hot vapor emerged from a crack and spattering lava began to erupt.
Scientists said areas downslope of the erupting vent were at risk of being covered by lava. Leilani Estates appeared to be at greatest risk, but scientists said new vents and outbreaks could occur and it's not possible to say where.
The eruption comes after days of earthquakes rattled the area's Puna district. A nearby school was closed due to the ongoing seismic activity and several roadways cracked under the strain of the constant temblors.
The Puu Oo crater floor began to collapse Monday, triggering a series of earthquakes and pushing the lava into new underground chambers.
The collapse caused magma to push more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) downslope toward the populated southeast coastline of the island.
USGS geologist Janet Babb said the magma crossed under Highway 130, which leads to a popular volcano access point, on Tuesday night.
Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency closed the area to visitors on Tuesday and ordered private tour companies to stop taking people into the region.
Most of Kilauea's activity has been nonexplosive, but a 1924 eruption spewed ash and 10-ton (9-metric ton) rocks into the sky, leaving one man dead.
Puu Oo's 1983 eruption resulted in lava fountains soaring over 1,500 feet high. In the decades since, the lava flow has buried dozens of square miles (kilometers) of land and destroyed many homes.
18th fissure.
Six waterspouts in a row Due to intense heat of lava in Hawaii.
Whoa. I hadn’t seen that one. Wow.
What’s really flummoxed me the last few days is how unprepared the PTB on the Big Island are to deal with this. You’d expect, after making the decision to allow people to build and live in the east rift zone, that bloody local and state gov’t would have a plan in place in case the sitch went pear-shaped. Sure doesn’t look like it to me.
I’ve looking at the history, and the property values, insurance issues... This is a large charlie foxtrot now, but it could get way bigger. I’m just stuned that the bureaucrats were so clueless and unprepared.
Per this link, 50,000 people live in the zone. Jeez louise...
http://m.hawaiinewsnow.com/hawaiinewsnow/db_330510/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=kt5hgCu8
They knew....the only preparedness was never More than evacuation....you’re not going to stop lava flows as this.
That’s surreal. You have a typical suburban scene surrounded by lava. I can almost picture somebody mowing their lawn like normal while a volcano happens all around them. I went to the Volcano National Park when I was on the Big Island. Seemed at the time quite the tourist trap and I joked that the steam you could see rising was manufactured just to create the effect of a volcano. But I guess it was real. Even if I had to pay $35 to get in and then go to the nearby Volcano winery where I had a case shipped back to the United States only to find out it was the absolutely worst wine I ever drank in my entire life. I think I paid almost $400 total between the case and then having it shipped separately.
Should have tried tomatoes. The tomatoes we had when we in Naples, Italy were the best we ever tasted. Grown around Mount Vesuvius.
N9, but you can do permits differently, mandate certain unsurance requirements, build infrastructure to better address mass evac needs, plan sheltering and other requirements better. Heck, if they’d allowed only rich folks who have the financial means to relocate to live there, they’d be better off.
BTW, reports of a 19th fissure, this one a few hundred yards long and hocking lava loogies....
https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/latest-lava-fissure-prompts-evacuations-55131966
17 fissures, not 18 or 19. If it doesn’t spew, it doesn’t count. Or something along those lines.
https://mashable.com/2018/05/14/why-hawaii-kilauea-volcano-erupt-explosively/#ns_LE7WHrqq5
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilina_Slump
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/13/us/hawaii-kilauea-volcano/index.html
L.A would have 4 hrs
High sulfur dioxide levels from fissures prompt condition-red warning for residents
Hawaii Residents Continue to Seek Building Permits in High-Risk Zones
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