In the last few weeks an additional eight people have been cited for loitering in a restricted area in the lower East Rift Zone – seven of them in the last 24 hours.
According to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, their enforcement officers cited three people Monday night, standing on hardened lava near Railroad Avenue and Papaya Farms Road in lower Puna.
Officers indicate the people were about sixty feet from the active lava channel. Cited were 49-year old Malaika Maphalala, 41-year old Ralph Unger and 18-year old Kumsa Maphalala, all of Pahoa.
Then early this morning a USGS field crew using a drone to map the lava flow reported to police that they’d spotted an unauthorized drone circling fissure No. 88 and then flying back toward Lava Tree State Park. County police and DLNR officers searched the area around the park and didn’t find anyone.
Checks on Forest Road and in Nanawale Estates turned up a vehicle in front of a barricade. Officers ticketed the vehicle for obstructing traffic and numerous equipment infractions.
Later, four people were cited inside two barricaded areas for loitering in a disaster zone and a drone in the possession of one individual was confiscated.
Those cited were David and Sunnee Bishop, both 40 and of Hong Kong, 42-year old Burke Holbrook and 43-year old Nancy Holbrook, both of Honolulu.
On July 15, 27-year old Aaron Spicer of New Hampshire was cited after allegedly circumventing a checkpoint on Highway 132 on motorcycle. He allegedly went past several coned-off closed roads and a cement barricade to enter Lava Tree State Park. Officers say that in addition to the loitering citation, Spicer was ticketed for having an expired safety check.
Since the beginning of the current eruption in early May, about nearly 90 people have been cited. Under an emergency proclamation from Governor Ige, potential fines and jail time for anyone convicted of loitering in the eruption zone could be as high as $5,000 and a year in jail.