Loading ...The village of Pahoa on the Big Island of Hawaii remains threatened by approaching lava flows. The latest USGS flow map is here:
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The lower right corner pink area was the older flow that stopped within blocks of crossing the village road downtown. Now a new breakout ‘finger’ has diverged to the north and appears to be following a gully along the blue dotted line toward the Pahoa Marketplace at the north edge of town. This is where Highway 130 diverges to the right as the Pahoa Bypass road. This highway serves the entire SouthEast corner of the island, and if cut by lava will isolate a big chunk of the island and thousands of residents.
The far south end of Hwy 130 ends at the 1990 lava flow across Kalapana village. County crews have been working for months to cut a new road across about 10 miles of fresh lava rock to reconnect 130 to “Chain of Craters Road” at the Hawaii Volcanos National park. It is expected to be complete within a week or two and opened as a gravel road. This will provide a 60 mile detour around the Pahoa lava flow for southern residents to get to Hilo, the nearest large city on that side of the island.
USGS says the marketplace could be overrun by lava in about 5 days.
