Workers bulldoze emergency escape route through Hawaii lava field as flows threaten roads

[riversedge]

Source: USA Today




Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY Published 12:05 p.m. ET May 31, 2018 | Updated 1:53 p.m. ET May 31, 2018



Contractors on Hawaii's Big Island have begun bulldozing an emergency evacuation route through an old lava flow over fears the ongoing eruption could trap thousands of people by destroying existing roads.

Highlighting the urgency, authorities on Thursday morning called for new evacuations of the Vacationland coastal area as lava approached, warning of possible inundation.

To create the new evacuation route, workers are removing cold, hardened lava from a section of Chain of Craters road, which runs from the coast up the flank of the volcano Kilauea through Volcanoes National Park. The road – initially built in 1965 – has been repeatedly covered by lava flows, including the ones that destroyed the town of Kalapana in 1990.

Re-opening the road would give residents in the town of Pahoa, the Leilani Estates and coastal areas a new escape route if the current flow continues to block and threaten roads. The primary escape routes are to the northeast. The new road would provide a southwestern evacuation route.

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Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/05/31/hawaii-volcano-bulldozing-emergency-evacuation-route-lava/659222002/

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I do hope all families are playing it safe.

Link to tweet

[BumRushDaShow]

1. "The road - initially built in 1965 - has been repeatedly covered by lava flows"

Yikes. I guess that at least offers some route out assuming that newly uncovered road manages to be missed this go-around.

[csziggy]

5. The road they are clearing is far away from the current lava flows.

Well southwest of the current flows. It's been partially cleared before since some tourist concessions and lava viewing areas are along it.

If you look at this map: https://hawaiicountygis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=3428cd9282ff431c865eb32761793078 The current flows are shown in orange. The road they are re-opening is to the southwest of the road in green and not shown on the map. The old lava flows are in gray. On Google Map View most of the Chain of Craters Road does not show either, but it does on the aerial views.

I just "drove" it on Google Street View. Their current views are from May 2017 and the road was pretty open then, through there were gates at either end, probably because it goes through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

There are also some houses there - maybe built on property that was privately owned and had residences before the earlier lava flow.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. The issue is that this road is still within the main "field" of the volcano

and has apparently been covered/blocked for 41 of its 53 years, so the potential is there. The portion being uncovered is the part near the coast where outflows tend to eventually go anyway. The road does go through the National park and the park has been closed while this is ongoing (the gates you saw) - but this is basically being done as an "emergency route" and not really for through-traffic. They don't know where a new fissure might open up while the volcano is actively erupting, so again, the hope is that this portion of the road escapes the current event despite the fact that historically, it is frequently impacted.

[csziggy]

8. It is just a temporary emergency escape route

They aren't intending to pave it and make it permanent. They just need another route out for the people who have been staying whose other escape routes are 130 and 132, both of which are being threatened by the current lava flow.

The series of new vents that now go through Leilani Estates probably mean that area and the areas downstream of them will not be viable place to live again. There are a lot of people who are going to have to relocate for at least a few years if not permanently. But as I saw on my Google Street "drive" there are houses on the lava flow in the National Park - I wonder how long they waited to build those?

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Right. Just what I wrote.

this is basically being done as an "emergency route" and not really for through-traffic.

Just hoping that since the area has been so active for so many years, that this little route "out" can remain clear until the volcano settles down.

The big issue in that state in general is the high cost of everything, including housing, so that area is (for obvious reasons) the cheapest around. And you will always have folks who are willing to "take their chances". Just like building on a flood plain or near an earthquake fault or along an ocean coast figuring that catastrophic events are "once in a hundred years" or "once in 50 years" or whatever.

[dembotoz]

2. if this was in puerto rico would the feds send a teenager with a snowblower?

[wasupaloopa]

3. I was there a couple of years ago. The blocked road is

a tourist attraction now.

[YOHABLO]

4. I bet that it's a beautiful place to live. But sometimes we build our homes in the wrong places.

I wonder if these folks who live there have to carry volcano insurance ... separately?

[Cha]

6. Mahalo for this latest on the lava

flow crisis, rivers.

[Hekate]

10. Just a reminder that the Big Island is 4,000 sq mi, and the current eruptions cover 3 sq miles

DFW posted a graphic from a friend who lives there that said it all, and I thought I bookmarked the thing so I'd have the link, but so far no luck.