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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, August 12, 2001

Lava-covered road to be restored

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

KALAPANA, Hawai'i — As head of the Hawai'i County Civil Defense Agency, Harry Kim tried to block access to the remote Kalapana coastline by visitors determined to watch as lava from Pu'u 'O'o flowed from underground tubes into the ocean, sending up spectacular plumes of steam.

New warning signs were placed near where a stretch of Highway 130 is being restored after being covered by lava. Officials are making access to the coast safer and easier.

Hugh Clark • The Honolulu Advertiser

Now, as mayor, Kim has directed county crews to restore a lava-covered road to make it easier and safer to reach the area.

Dixie Kaetsu, Hawai'i County's managing director, said Kim decided an improved roadway would reduce safety hazards and costly rescues of stranded or injured hikers drawn to the eruption's raw power and beauty.

As recently as July 22, a 38-year-old woman on an unauthorized overnight hike hurt her leg and had to be carried out on a stretcher by a fire department rescue crew.

"They were going in anyway, so we decided to try to mitigate the problems with a road passenger cars can use," she said.

State Highway 130 once allowed motorists to travel from Hilo through Kalapana and along the Chain of Craters Road, up to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and back to Hilo.

But the road was largely destroyed during repeated flows from the long-running eruption that started in January 1983 and hasn't quit of yet.

With the lava flow now outside the boundaries of the national park, closer to Kalapana than to Chain of Craters, visitors have been ignoring the barricades at the edge of the hardened pahoehoe (smooth) flow and making the six-mile roundtrip hike to the shoreline or using four-wheel-drive vehicles to go most of the way.

On Kim's orders, county public works crews began a project last week to re-establish the road over several layers of lava. Kaetsu said the end of the road and the turnaround area is located on property owned by Campbell Estate. The county received approval to grade the area and place signs on the privately held property.

The unpaved roadway will allow vehicles to cross the 2.6-mile stretch from the current barricade to a hiking trail that goes less than a mile to the flow front.

On Friday, workers were finishing off the graveled surface of the rough road and installing more than a dozen signs warning of the numerous risks of entering the area.

Janet Snyder, Kim's new public information officer, said access will be closed until after the work is finished and details of its opening are announced. Kim has scheduled a Tuesday press conference to announce the program expected to start Friday, on Admission Day.

Kaetsu said tentative plans call for allowing entry several hours a day from mid-afternoon to early evening.

The cost of the project has not been determined, said county Public Works chief Dennis Lee. The biggest costs will be materials and pay plus overtime for the 14-person crew, he said.

Fill for the roadway was provided without charge by the state from a nearby quarry. State highway engineers helped survey the route used to restore the road as closely as possible to the former state highway.

National park rangers provided advice on the signs and how to control visitors, often so excited they enter the hot, steamy area in rubber slippers and shorts, and without water.

Kaetsu said the county hopes to develop a volunteer program to explain the eruption to visitors and keep them from wandering into danger.

On Friday, O'Niel Provost, a high school teacher from Oakland, Calif., was part of a group of five hiking over the stark black lava fields toward a billowing steam plume where lava was pouring into the ocean at Kupapa'u Point.

The first-time Big Island visitor said he enjoyed his stay in Kona but was finding the Puna eruption more exciting. He thinks it's a good idea to provide better access to more people.

But Puna dentist Mike Clarke, who was leading Provost's group, said the rugged trek made the experience more special for Mainland friends and relatives he has led into the area in recent years.

Visitors with breathing or heart problems will continue to be urged to keep out of the area.

All others are asked to stay on the trail to avoid possible falls into cracks. Such stumbles have claimed some lives during the eruption.

The greater danger is at the flow front itself, where at least four people have died while standing on cooling lava benches that collapsed and dropped into the ocean.

Paul Ducasse, chief ranger at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, said more important than whether the 225,000-acre national park and adjacent lands are safe is whether visitors use common sense and follow rules meant to keep them out of harm's way.

He said that every rescue he can recall involved someone ignoring warning signs or barriers.

"They seem just caught up with their vacation. They may not think everything through," Ducasse said. "There is the thrill of the eruption, you know."

Not only tourists are at risk, officials pointed out. Three of the four who died were residents, and the fourth was accompanied by a resident.