Lava!

The beginning of May I was on the mainland. I was watching the news from home due to the volcanic activity on the east side. I live far from the actual lava flow so I was not very worried for myself.

When I got back I noticed that we had vog over the whole west side. Vog is a smoky haze, like smog, created by the volcano rather than car emissions. It caused various issues like coughing and mucus and headaches.

Visitors to this island know that we have a limited number of roads. Generally there is one road around the perimeter of the island and one that crosses the island. In many communities there is only one way in and out. The roads we have may not be the most efficient between two locations as it may not be the most direct route.

There are many issues in the communities effected by actual lava flows. Roads are being covered in lava or cracks are developing which shut down travel. That means that people can and are being cut off from escape routes.

Lava is also causing other issues. Because we live on a rock, many people do not bury their water lines, which may run long distances above ground. These plastic or PVC pipes are easy to break with movement or heat.

A more important issue is our tsunami sirens. Being an island in the Pacific, tsunamis are a concern, thus we have sirens (like other area might have civil defense or tornado sirens). These sirens may be solar powered or powered by solar. With lots of smoke in the air, the batteries may not charge well or they may lose electricity when power lines go down. Power has been lost in some areas already. Also, some cell phone towers have gone offline, causing many problems. Without the sirens or cellphone service, respondents have had to go door to door to have people evacuate. This is not easy as some areas need to evacuate with little or no notice. There are cases where you know lava is approaching and other cases where all of a sudden lava starts coming out of the ground with little prior notice.

I have not kept up on current counts but believe that less than 100 buildings / homes have been destroyed. The last I heard, 2,000 people had been evacuated and are staying in shelters. Residents have been donating items for those displaced. I recently made a Costco run and donated $100 worth of items such as soap, batteries, supplies and food items. Many groups have gotten together to help or donate time or goods. My own Kona Coffee Farmers Association group gathered donated Kona Coffee and sweet rolls and items which they are taking over there to serve this weekend.

It should be noted that all of this lava activity is in a small area of a large island. We are talking about 10 or 20 square miles on an island the size of Connecticut. We also have about 150,000 residents on the island (and lately our visitor counts are less than normal as people stay away). Some of the cruise ships have stopped their weekly or periodic visits.

We have noticed that some areas are having vegetation issues. Lack of sunlight or contaminants in the air are affecting leaves and growth.

Still, on most of the island, except for some smoke in the air, life goes on.