Hawaii lava flow is slow gentle yet unrelenting

Raw: Hawaii Lava Approaching Village Road

 

 

PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess, moves gradually and persistently as she deposits lava across the Big Island of Hawaii. People in the small town lying in its path say the lava will reshape the community yard by yard as it slides toward the ocean.

 

"She is so gentle, but so unrelenting. She is just slow and steady," said Jamila Dandini, a retiree who stopped at a coffee shop down the road from where scientists have forecast the lava will likely cross.

Lava from a vent at Kilauea volcano has been sliding northeast toward the ocean since June. Last month, scientists said it was two weeks away from hitting the main road in Pahoa, a small town of about 950 residents. The lava slowed but has largely remained on course.

Late Wednesday, it was about 225 yards away from Pahoa Village Road, which goes through the commercial center of the Big Island's rural, mostly agricultural community of Puna, Hawaii County civil defense officials said. It was traveling about 5 to 10 yards an hour.

The languid pace has given residents time to pack their valuables and get out of the way. But it's been agonizing for those wondering whether the lava might change directions and head for them and stressful for those trying to figure out how they will cope once the lava blocks the town's only roads.

"It's like slow torture. It speeds up, it slows down. It speeds up, it slows down," said Paul Utes, who owns the Black Rock Cafe. "It's not like any other event where it comes and goes and it gets over with and you can move on."

Utes' restaurant is not in the predicted path, though it's just a few hundred yards south of where the lava will likely cross the main road.

But he worries this could change. Even if the cafe is spared, he doesn't know how traffic will be diverted once the flow crosses the road, how his vendors will supply his restaurant and what his customers will do.

For the time being, business is up because more locals and tourists have been streaming into town hoping to get a glimpse of the molten rock.

"The anxiety building up is kind of hard to deal with," Utes said.

The lava brought changes that are starting to have an effect.