Kilauea Destroys 8 Homes; Lava Oozes Seaward

Eight homes were destroyed and at least five others threatened Thursday by a seven-mile river of glowing hot lava from Kilauea Volcano that severed a highway and inched toward the ocean near this coastal community.

Hawaiian elders in the area have said the eruption would not end until the lava reaches the sea. Police in Hilo, the county seat on the east coast of Hawaii Island, said the southernmost lobe of the lava flow was 450 feet from the water.

The last time lava from Kilauea reached the sea was in 1974, several miles west of the current flow. The current eruption began in 1983.

‘Still Going Strong’

“The eruption is still going strong,” said Tom Wright, scientist in charge of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. “There is no change in our instrument readings.”

The forward edge of the flowing molten rock split into four lobes, Wright said, with the most active moving west along the coastal Kalapana Highway.

The glowing flow, covered with a thin black crust of cooled lava, reached the highway Wednesday and its more than 2,000-degree temperature set the asphalt on fire.

The area sounded like a war zone with methane gas explosions caused by overheated organic material being destroyed by the lava, county Civil Defense officials said.

60 People Evacuate

The lava was pouring from a vent on the volcano’s eastern flank at a rate of about 500,000 cubic meters, or 650,000 cubic yards, a day, Wright said.

About 60 people were evacuated Wednesday from 17 homes in the Kapaahu Homestead area east of here before the lava reached the homes, police said.

The only injury reported was to a firefighter who lost part of his finger while coupling hoses to spray water to cool the creeping molten rock, police said.

There was no estimate of damage to the mostly older homes.

Police set up roadblocks in the area to keep sightseers away.

Cuts Residents Off

Residents of the Royal Gardens subdivision west of here were stranded when the lava crossed the coastal Kalapana Highway. Their only access to neighboring towns on the other side of the flow was a long, circuitous route through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

In addition to the eight homes, the lava destroyed a shack and a tool shed that was built in the last century and was noted for its interior walls that were papered with newspapers from the era of Queen Liliuokalani, according to longtime residents.