The June 27 lava flow front appeared to be between six and 10 hours away from impacting its first home in Pahoa, according to an 11:30 a.m. media update by Hawaii County Civil Defense.
“The lava was 100 yards from the property (at seen during an 11 a.m. overflight), and now, likely, its closer,” said Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira.
The home sits at the end of a several-hundred-yards-long driveway off of Pahoa Village Road at the intersection with Apa’a Street, he said, and the property includes a number of other structures further down hill. The property houses some heavy construction equipment and a small anthurium flower business.
“The folks living there are already gone,” Oliveira said. “On this property, it’s a couple, and we stopped in with them yesterday, and they have completed packing and movement as of this morning. The gentleman of the household said he had taken everything they needed to take, and if they come back at all, it may be to salvage some of the exotic plants they have on the landscape.”
He added that Civil Defense will continue to work with homeowners to provide them the opportunity to
On Sunday evening, an increase in the flow rate of the lava caused Civil Defense officials to trigger an evacuation notice for the area. As a result, Pahoa Village Road between Apa’a Street and Post Office Road was closed to through traffic and non-residents in order to clear the way for evacuating residents.
A morning overflight by Civil Defense showed that the lava had advanced about 275 yards since Sunday morning. The flow front was observed to be about 600 yards from Pahoa Village Road.
By about 11:15 a.m., the front was within 580 yards of the thoroughfare, added Janet Babb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
“Over the past 24 hours it has advanced 220 yards, and during the last four hours field crews have measured the rate of advancement picking up,” she said. “It’s following the path of steepest descent.”
As of 7:30 a.m., the flow front appeared to be about 110 yards wide.
Throughout the evening, geologists — working in teams of two or three for safety reasons — continually walked alongside the front, taking measurements and updating its progress.
“They were doing mapping ahead of the flow, looking for slight changes in the topography. Even suble variations can affect which way the lava travels,” Babb said.
Oliveira added that aerial observations showed another lobe of lava heading in the southeast direction, almost perpindicular to the flow, and a very narrow finger coming off in the northeast direction.
“That narrow finger may run parallel with the original advancing flow front in the same path,” he said.
Civil Defense and its Community Emergency Response Team visited late Sunday evening with homeowners in the 40-50 households within two primary sectors identified as being the first in Pahoa to possibly be impacted by the flow, warning residents of the increased speed and changes to the flow.
Already, many have packed up and moved on to other locations, although no one had yet checked into the emergency shelter set up by the Red Cross at Sure Foundation Church, 16-1592 Pohaku Circle in Keaau, he said.
That was likely due to the fact that residents had already had time to find alternative housing, either with friends, family or elsewhere, Oliveira said.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
