Posted on: Friday, August 31, 2001

Lava flow threatens to cover road again

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

KALAPANA, Hawai'i — A breakaway lava flow is threatening to devour a road opened two weeks ago to allow visitors a closer look at Kilauea lava as it enters the ocean at Kalapana.

Big Island Mayor Harry Kim yesterday ordered the road closed on the advice of volcanologists at Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

Civil Defense Administrator Bill Davis said the county is still assessing conditions and hasn't decided how long the road will remain closed.

Arnold Okamura, deputy scientist in charge at the observatory, described the flow as a 12- to 18-foot-wide finger of lava that could cross over the existing roadway sometime today.

"It's moving a little faster than some of the others," he said.

County crews worked for two weeks to re-establish an unpaved section of Highway 130 that was overrun by lava from Kilauea's Pu'u 'O'o.

Thousands of vehicles have gone into the new access area since the road was opened two weeks ago.

There were only two minor incidents during that time: a woman who fell and broke her ankle and had to be rescued by a Fire Department helicopter and a car that was broken into.

Since the eruption started in January 1983, it has moved back and forth on an east-west line, destroying homes, historic sites and major national park features, including a 13th century heiau.