Big Isle debates
eruption planning

Some residents worry that
Mauna Loa lava someday could
hit South Kona and Kau

HILO » Hawaii County has no detailed plan to deal with any eruption of Mauna Loa that might threaten the South Kona or Kau districts on the Big Island.

Despite the danger, residents and government officials disagree on whether a plan is needed.

Scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory have said Mauna Loa is slowly building toward an eruption, although there are no signs that it will take place soon.

Historically, lava on the steeply sloping west side of Mauna Loa has flowed from an outbreak point nearly two miles high to the sea in 2 1/2 hours. The warning time from instruments and observations before that flow in 1950 was just over one hour.

Lava could instead flow toward Hilo, but gradually sloping ground there means a preparation time of weeks instead of hours.

The 1950 flow destroyed a post office, a gas station and "several" homes, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said. That flow took place during the night, from 10:23 p.m. June 1 to the sea at 1:05 a.m. June 2.

Other flows also destroyed property, although no lives were lost.

Mayor Harry Kim, who wrote the Hawaii County Civil Defense manual for Mauna Loa when he headed Civil Defense, says the lack of mention of South Kona and Kau in the manual doesn't matter.

The procedure will be to follow guidance from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and then to respond, if necessary, by large-scale evacuations such as clearing people from all 1,100 homes in the huge Ocean View community, he said.

But observatory head Jim Kauahikaua said the ability of the observatory to supply information fast enough is increasingly difficult as more people move into hazardous areas.

Ocean View is the worst-case scenario in terms of minimal warning time, Kim said.

Part of the 4-mile-wide, 5-mile-long subdivision sits on top of Mauna Loa's southwest rift zone, meaning an eruption could theoretically break out inside the community.

If a nighttime glow were more distant, residents might not know if it threatened them.

"I could see a glow on the mountain perhaps, but I wouldn't equate that with coming at me," said Don Irwin, who served nine years as an Ocean View community association officer.

"There is no official plan out there for a lava flow," he said.

Bob Barry, another Ocean View resident, said he realized Ocean View needed a plan that its own residents could control, so he is writing one that he'll propose to community agencies.

Civil Defense staffer Neil Gyotoku said Ocean View has warning sirens, originally meant to warn of nuclear attack. If they are sounded, residents are supposed to turn on their radios for Civil Defense messages.

"There's no radio here," Barry said. One or two stations sometimes reach Ocean View, but reception isn't reliable.

In 1950, three flows in South Kona crossed the Hawaii Belt Highway, the only road through the area.

One flowed just 2,000 feet north of where the 335-lot Kona Paradise subdivision was later created.

One resident there said he is worried by the lack of planning.

"I don't see people from the municipality (the county) being very concerned," he said.

The man didn't want his name used lest he suffer the anger of his neighbors, busy selling their homes at huge profits in the hot real estate market. Their concern is not a lava flow but bad news that might end the boom, he said.

Besides the 1950 flow, a 1926 flow destroyed 12 houses and a church at Hoopuloa, a 1919 Mauna Loa flow destroyed some ranch houses at Alika, and two 1907 flows went through the area that later became Ocean View.

Although the South Kona and Kau areas are considered lightly populated, there are 22 subdivisions there and the 2000 census showed 4,000 households.

During the 1990 destruction of Kalapana by Kilauea lava, Civil Defense had a map showing where every home was.

County Planning Director Chris Yuen said that for the much larger South Kona and Kau areas, computerized information is available in property tax records, but none of it is plotted on maps.

If lava comes without warning or Civil Defense guidance, residents have to evacuate on their own. "Which way do you drive?" the volcano observatory asked in a 2000 Volcano Watch column. They recommended south to Naalehu.

Gyotoku said Civil Defense will have information fast. Two fire department helicopters, one in Hilo and one north of Kona, can be in Kau in 40 minutes, he said. Police can drive subdivision streets warning residents with "penetrator" loudspeakers.

"We understand there is a short fuse of three hours maybe," Gyotoku said. "At the top of Ocean View, maybe less than an hour."