Hawaii volcano sends another ash cloud high into the air

But the land doesn’t really belong to them – it belongs to the goddess Pele, considered sacred by native Hawaiians, Pacarro said. Smith tells NPR her home is safe for now, and yet it is close enough that her bedroom glows orange at nighttime.

Hawaii County has ordered about 2,000 people to evacuate from Leilani Estates and surrounding neighborhoods from the Big Island since the eruption began.

It has been three weeks since the Kilauea volcano erupted, sending a smoldering flow of lava into residential areas and forcing thousands of residents from their homes, and the danger has not passed. “There are lava flows that are going to the east from that vent, and they’re reaching about 1,300 feet away from the source”. Pacarro joined him in 2004 and now the family lives together with their two children.

All he felt was searing, excruciating pain.”I don’t know if I was in shock”, Clinton said.

“Residents in the affected area should be prepared to take leave of the area with little notice due to gas or lava inundation”, the bulletin said.

“We’re hoping it doesn’t”. “We’re [filling] any gaps they may have in their information as the disaster is evolving”. State and federal officials have been planning to reopen that route, which extends from Kalapana to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, but construction has not yet begun on that project.

Kilauea, the volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island that’s been erupting since May 3, is visible from space – and astronauts have been helping with the emergency response.

It’s just the latest hazard from a weeks-old eruption that has so far generated earthquakes and featured gushing molten rock, giant ash plumes and sulfur dioxide. If lava gets in the wells at the plant, it can release hydrogen sulfide, a unsafe gas.

The plant has capacity to produce 38 megawatts of electricity, providing roughly one-quarter of the Big Island’s daily energy demand. On this occasion, however, it watched the glow from a region of fissures from the Kīlauea volcanic eruption, which is now causing havoc for locals.

Friend and Pacarro are resigned to the possibility of lasting damage to their home.

Janet Snyder, spokeswoman for Hawaii island Mayor Harry Kim, said the Sea Stallions can ferry up to 43 people out of the area at a time.

“He’s kind of accepted it already”, Carton says. I couldn’t pass out. “As long as we have each other that’s the most important thing”, Pacarro said.