Volcanic eruption turns former Newport residents’ Hawaiian dream to ashes

Many people fantasize about moving to Hawaii and living a relaxed life amid island splendor.

But some former Newport Beach residents made the fantasy a reality — until the eruption of the Kilauea volcano turned it into a nightmare.

Here are their stories:

Marty and Mindy Berry

Three weeks and three days after Marty and Mindy Berry moved from Newport Beach to Pahoa on Hawaii’s Big Island, Kilauea erupted May 3.

A month later, the Berrys had lost everything.

“It happened so fast,” Mindy Berry said. “Every day there were Blackhawk helicopters flying overhead. … Once we lost electricity and cellphone power, we knew we had to get out. That was May 29.”

The Berrys, both of whom are in their 60s and have been married 44 years, were no strangers to Hawaii. Mindy was born on Oahu, and the couple spent half their married life living on the Big Island. They once lived in Kona, 2½ hours west of Pahoa, a town of about 900 people east of Kilauea.

The Berrys, who are retired, have an adventurous nature. They’ve been involved in a variety of entrepreneurial endeavors, including restaurants, and have explored new places along the way.

“When we were first married, we arrived with two suitcases and the heart to touch people’s lives, and here we are again with two suitcases and heart,” Mindy said.

Earlier this year, the Berrys aspired for a rural setting with space where they could live off the land, far removed from cities. That place was Kapoho Farm Lots in Pahoa. It was one of the last affordable places that was reminiscent of old Hawaii.

The couple sold their Newport Beach home and moved April 9 to a 5-acre farm with the intent of having a self-sustainable lifestyle.

Then the volcano erupted.

“Initially the lava came up to the back door, and then left our home alone. We thought we made it,” Marty said. “But early the next morning, Fissure 8 came around the backside of Green Mountain and took our house.

“In some places they are reporting that the lava is 30 feet high. Lava has a way of wiping out not only homes and land but it erases your presence as well. There is no going back to the site to go through the rubble, as in a flood or fire. It is as if we were never there.”

With eruptions continuing, Kilauea had destroyed about 700 homes in all as of Friday, authorities said.

The Berrys said they suffered a total financial loss — their insurance policy hadn’t been completed.

“Yes, we did lose monetary things, our wedding pictures, my mother’s paintings, the house,” Mindy said. “But I feel like the richest woman on Earth. I’m rich in hope, faith and love. I don’t feel despair or beaten down. I have the richest husband, family, friends, not in a money way but in expressing kindness and love.”

“It’s not just our loss,” she continued. “It’s a real loss for the whole island. Everyone is grieving the loss of a very special, magical place.”

The Berrys said they have received kindness from friends and strangers, including a GoFundMe fundraising page that had raised $6,775 as of Friday.

For now, they are house-sitting in Waimea, on the north side of the Big Island, for one of many friends who have offered them shelter. At the end of this month, they will travel to Bend, Ore., to house-sit for three weeks. That’s as far into the future as they have planned.

“We are strong people and, for us, faith is our greatest anchor through all of this,” Mindy said.

Jena Watson

Single mom Jena Watson and her 16-year-old son said goodbye to friends and family in Newport Beach, including her 22-year-old son, to move some 2,400 miles across the ocean in search of a better life.

On June 26 last year they boarded a plane for Hawaii with just two suitcases, two carry-ons and two bulging backpacks.

From the first time she laid eyes on Pahoa in February 2016, Watson felt like it was home. She had discovered the town when she visited friends Ken and Lynette Tamplin, who had relocated from Newport Beach over a year earlier.

Not wanting to disrupt her son Liam, who was still in high school, she put any thoughts of moving there out of her mind.

But she was barely getting by after a kidney issue ended her job as a personal trainer. She was living in a studio apartment near Newport Harbor High School with her two sons and juggling part-time jobs. She worked in sales at a Costa Mesa women’s boutique and helped a girl with special needs twice a week.

Ultimately, the high cost of living and her desire for a less-chaotic lifestyle became catalysts for her to leave.

“Sometimes challenges push you into directions you don’t even know you’re going,” Watson said.

Everything seemed to fall into place. She had a place to stay and a business opportunity, thanks to the Tamplins, who had bought four properties in the Kopoho Beach Lots area of Pahoa. They rented Watson and Liam one of their houses. The plan was to divide the living quarters, with the upper portion to be used as a vacation rental for Watson to manage and create a sustainable living for herself.

“I felt like I had won a championship football game where someone gave me the ball and said ‘Go for it,’ ” Watson said with a laugh.

Two months later, after some design and furnishing, BoHo Beach Cottage was up and running.

Within a short time, the location was booked solid on Airbnb, receiving rave reviews. Watson even received a Superhost rating.

To supplement her income, Watson got a job as a “friend, mentor and teacher” for a 39-year-old woman with Down syndrome.

Thrilled to be working again with a special-needs client, Watson began to feel grounded. She loved her work and her new community and felt secure with her finances.

But Kilauea’s May 3 eruption, followed by a 6.9-magnitude earthquake the next day, gave Watson a sense of impending doom.

“I knew I was moving to where there was a volcano, but not an apocalypse,” she said.

The eruption spewed lava as wide as three football fields into residential subdivisions, including the Kapoho community, which had been rebuilt since Kilauea erupted nearly 60 years before.

“I always thought volcanoes erupted from the core and not opening up into fissures,” Watson said. ”Even with the helicopters and police cars that were present, no one in Kapoho thought it would come our way. We felt far enough away at over 30 miles.”

The days and weeks that followed turned into a blur for Watson, with the looming question, “Do we leave or not leave?”

The sky glowed orange at night and the air smelled like rotten eggs.

“Getting help was complicated, and we had limited resources, including water rationing of two hours in the morning and two hours at night,” Watson said. “Once the power and Wi-Fi was gone and we wouldn’t be able to hear any civil defense alerts, we knew we had to get out.”

Watson sent her son back to California to stay with his father while she remained in Hawaii. The mother of Watson’s special-needs client rented a place in Keanu for the three of them so Watson could continue working with her daughter.

Watson went back and forth for a couple of weeks on her days off to check on her home and gather belongings until it was no longer accessible except by helicopter. It was still standing as of Friday.

When asked to respond to the frequently asked question, “Why would anyone live near a volcano?” Watson said, “If I wasn’t living here, I would ask the same question.”

“Nowhere on the planet can anyone escape natural disasters,” she said. “My heart called and I was there. I’m happy that I lived the 10 happiest months of my life in the shadow of a volcano. Life here is real — not plastic, not packaged, beautiful and peaceful … beyond anywhere.”

“I’ve grappled with how this dream could come true in such a powerful way and then dissolve before my eyes,” she added. “If my dream could come true once, then that is proof that it can happen again. I’m just not sure what that dream will look like.”

Ken and Lynette Tamplin

The Tamplins had lived in the Kapoho Beach Lots subdivision since 2014. They owned four properties, three with homes, including Watson’s rental. They were about to build on the fourth lot, which is now under lava.

The couple returned to the mainland June 7. In a Facebook post that day, Ken Tamplin wrote: “This realization just came to me: We will be boarding a plane in a couple hours to evacuate the island. … I went from having three very well-furnished homes and an ocean-view lot ready to build on, etc., to one suitcase I am about to take on a plane that has two pairs of pants, some underwear, three shirts, a belt, a toothbrush and a laptop. ...

“God is in control. He is still on the throne. But it’s quite sobering to think of spending a lifetime of working so hard for some kind of retirement and watch it vanish in a couple days. It also helps remind me of not leaning my ladder against the wrong wall.”

He indicated he probably wouldn’t post more on the subject, and the Tamplins were unavailable for further comment.

SUSAN HOFFMAN is a contributor to Times Community News.