Lava creeps toward road on Hawaii’s Big Island

A growing lava stream threatening homes and inching closer to a rural road on Hawaii’s Big Island oozed forward in fits and starts this week, frustrating some residents but giving officials a window of time to prepare. The narrow, leading edge of the lava flow was just 200 metres from the one-lane country road, which has been closed, on Friday night. The lava sped up over the past few days, from Thursday morning to Friday, but it slowed again Friday morning, officials said. The flow’s fitful nature is taking a toll on some Big Island residents, who got a brief reprieve from the advancing molten stream only to have to raise their guard again.

This stop-and-go - it’s going to be very frustrating for our residents. It raises the anxiety level. It raises the concern.

Darryl Oliveira, director of Hawaii County Civil Defense

Hawaii County Civil Defense crews are planning to go door-to-door Saturday to about a dozen homes to find out how many people might need shelter if the eruption continues, and to find any obstacles like abandoned cars or hazards that could be in the lava’s path. Oliveira said he would give residents three to five days’ notice before an evacuation order, and he stressed that the community is not yet at that point. No evacuations have been ordered, and the residents of a home that is nearest to the flow already have left voluntarily.