Hawaii County Civil Defense officials began advising residents from Kapoho to Kalapana to make evacuation preparations for the first time Friday as they wait for the next phase of the lower Puna eruption to begin.
With limited access points to an area populated by several thousand people, Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno said officials are preparing to deliver supplies by air or sea to communities that could become isolated, depending on where the next fissures form.
“If this activity continues, there will be additional road closures,” he said.
Kapoho resident Deb Waterman said she was preparing to evacuate after cracks were found on Highway 132 at about the 4-mile marker.
Civil Defense confirmed the cracks but noted they were not steaming. There was no mandatory evacuation as of Friday evening.
“We’ve been watching it happen in Leilani (Estates),” Waterman said. “And we’ve been hoping and praying for those guys. It’s just a very helpless and hopeless situation here.”
Traffic already is prohibited on Highway 130, the only main road in and out of lower Puna, from Malama Street to Kamaili Road, and Pohoiki Road from Highway 132 to Highway 137.
Meanwhile, the state announced Friday that Gov. David Ige’s Presidential Disaster Declaration request was granted. That means federal assistance will be available to cover damaged or destroyed public facilities. The state also will receive a hazard mitigation grant.
As of Friday evening, no fissures were spewing lava, though gas emissions remained high.
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists say magma continues to intrude downrift from Leilani Estates, where the eruption has been concentrated since it started May 3, to the northeast. Based on earthquakes and ground deformation, the tip of the spear is estimated to be around Noni Farms Road near Highway 132, also known as Kapoho Road.
Additional breakouts of lava could sever that road and might threaten other routes.
Depending on activity, Government Beach Road could be used as an evacuation route, and Magno said the county is making sure the Railroad Avenue emergency route, created in 2014 when lava was threatening Pahoa, is ready for use.
He said the state Department of Transportation and county Department of Public Works are both planning to make Highway 130 accessible for evacuations. The highway is closed due to large ground cracks that formed near Alaili Road as a result of the ongoing volcanic activity.
Magno said the plan is to cover the cracks with material, perhaps similarly to what was done to cracks on Pohoiki Road shortly before the eruption started.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 3,101 people in the Kalapana-Kapoho census tract, which includes Leilani Estates, and an additonal 7,573 in the Pahoa tract.
Magno said the county is preparing for the possibility of 2,000 people being isolated.
Steve Brantley, deputy scientist-in-charge at HVO, said sensors continue to detect uplift in the ground downrift of Leilani. He said fissures could form uprift of the subdivision as well.
“It’s ready to erupt,” he said. “The system is charged.”
The eruption has formed 15 fissures in Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens. Both are under mandatory evacuations, though some residents have stayed. The eruption has destroyed 36 structures, all in Leilani, and covered 116 acres with lava.
So far, the magma that reached the surface appears to be leftover molten rock from a 1955 rift zone eruption, geologists say. Brantley said fresher magma would be hotter and could flow more easily on the surface.
HVO geologists are taking samples of the lava to better understand what’s going on underneath.
A collapse of the Pu‘u ‘O‘o crater, located on the East Rift Zone near Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, preceded the magma intrusion that is causing the eruption.
Tina Neal, HVO scientist-in-charge, said there doesn’t appear to be any lava activity at Pu‘u ‘O‘o, the site of a nearly constant eruption that started in 1983.
Puna Geothermal Venture, a geothermal power plant near the eruption activity, is shutdown.
In a statement, PGV said plant personnel are on site around the clock and are supplying portable air monitors to first responders in the area.
“Safety has been and always will be PGV’s top priority and we are sparing no resources to ensure the safety of our employees and the surrounding communities,” the statement read.
Civil Defense officials say they are trying to get equipment flown in from the mainland to fill geothermal wells with water to prevent any unabated gas releases that might be caused by the eruption. The wells are currently not in use.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.