Crews started building two alternate routes Thursday as a lava flow continued its advance toward Pahoa and Highway 130.
Darryl Oliveira, Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator, said county workers began clearing, widening and leveling Government Beach Road and an abandoned stretch of Railroad Avenue between Hawaiian Beaches and Hawaiian Paradise Park.
The roads will be needed if the highway, the lifeline for lower Puna, is inundated with lava, an event that could happen in weeks if the June 27 flow continues its march.
Oliveira said the roads could become available by Sept. 24, though adjustments would be made to get the work done sooner if the flow picked up speed.
It wouldn’t be the first time a lava flow from the Pu‘u ‘O‘o-Kupaianaha eruption on Kilauea volcano’s East Rift Zone threatened a main road or communities since it began in 1983.
A 7-mile stretch of Chain of Craters Road, which could be reopened as another alternate route, has been covered by past flows from the eruption, which previously claimed the town of Kalapana and Royal Gardens subdivision.
As the lower Puna population has increased during the last few decades, so has the traffic.
More than 7,000 vehicles use the highway near Pahoa each day and the flow has the potential to isolate a huge swath of land that includes Leilani, Kalapana Seaview and Nanawale estates, as well as homes in and around other communities, such as Kapoho and Pohoiki, without alternate routes.
Homes downslope from the flow in Hawaiian Beaches and Hawaiian Shores also are potentially threatened.
On Wednesday, things took a turn for the worse as the flow, which emerged from Pu‘u ‘O‘o on June 27, moved to the northeast, a direction that could take it through the northwest corner of Kaohe Homesteads and possibly the center of Pahoa village.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory estimates lava could reach Pahoa Village Road in about two weeks.
“Given the current trajectory of the flow as of today, the downhill path would put it more in the center of Pahoa,” said Janet Babb, HVO geologist, on Thursday.
“Where the lava flow goes tomorrow could change things.”
As of Thursday morning, the flow was about 0.4 miles from Kaohe. It’s been moving at an average rate of 460 yards (0.26 miles) per day since Saturday.
At that rate, the flow could reach the edge of the neighborhood, consisting of about 30 to 40 farm lots, this weekend if not today. Predicting the flow’s path and speed, though, remains a challenge.
Oliveira said the county was considering an evacuation notice, but he noted there didn’t appear to be homes in that part of the neighborhood that could be immediately threatened.
“I don’t want to say Kaohe is completely out of the woods,” he said. “The topography is so undefined. It could turn east.”
If houses do catch fire because of the lava, Oliveira said the county will allow residents to watch the event for emotional closure as well as document it for insurance purposes. The neighborhood remains off limits to nonresidents.
Kaohe resident Rene Siracusa said her main concern was getting her animals to safety.
“Little by little, I’m still moving my stuff,” she said. “The bottom line is, it’s all stuff and stuff can be left behind.”
Siracusa said she planned to stay with friends, but noted they also live in Puna and might be affected by lava covering the highway.
She said some of her neighbors already relocated. When they will be able to return, if their homes are spared, remains unclear.
“I don’t know how long it’s going to be,” Siracusa said. “And none of us do.”
A lava flow informational fair is scheduled for 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at the Pahoa High School cafeteria.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
