New reality in Lower Puna, May 8, 2018

It has been several days now since the first fissure opened up in Leilani Estates. Since then ten fissures have started spew lava, lava bombs, and sulfur dioxide. Houses burned down by the lava, people had to evacuate last minute and are now living in shelters or with friends.
The air quality was really awful the last few days and on top of that Kilauea caldera started to have explosive events with spewing ash into the air.
We still have hundreds of earthquakes every day but most of them are on the smaller side between 3.3 and 4.6.
Since so many people are displaced and need literally everything, Ikaika Marzo, co-owner of Kalapana Cultural Tours, started to set up a donation hub and information center at the corner of Highway 132 and Highway 130. And since I didn't have a job as a lava tour guide at the moment, I decided to volunteer.

Pu'uhonua o Puna, or simply THE HUB is an amazing place with wonderful people. They provide meals three times a day, food, clothing, toiletries, information. All is volunteer work and people are grateful to have this opportunity.

Plume from Leilani eruption as seen from THE HUB parking lot

A lot of goods like water, dog, and cat food, clothing, tents, tarps were donated and then sorted by volunteers and handed out. TV stations interviewed people, geologists provided information. It was a wonderful way to see the Puna community come together as a big ohana to help.

Ikaika Marzo with Governor Ige

I also met the governor

it's busy at THE HUB

Such an amazing community. When it started to pour one day and we needed more tarps, we send out help messages for tarp donations. A bit later dozens of tarps showed up and we could secure the tents and all the donations.

Each time when it was time to eat, everyone gathered, volunteers and Punatics who came for help, and we would hold hands and say a pule (prayer). 

News Coverage of THE HUB

The Big Quake, May 4, 2018

We had small earthquakes the entire night. Continuous shaking, vibrating, rattling. Some were really small, some bigger. The shaking woke me up a few times that night. It was pretty annoying.
I guess this is what happens when you live in a volcanically active zone and lava intrusion is causing the rocks to breaks and creating all these earthquakes.
While having a late breakfast and checking updates of the volcano on my computer, an earthquake occurred. It was quite big and my first thought was that it was more than a 5.0.
Pretty crazy.
Soon enough USGS confirmed it as a 5.4.
My house is on post and pier, so it shook quite a bit.
An hour later we had another earthquake, this time it was way different. It was violent. It didn't come in waves. This was a real seismic quake. I had to hold on my table, everything was shaking violently without stopping. Pictures fell down the wall, cups from my counter. It went on and on and felt as if it was lasting for at least 25 seconds.
It was crazy. I lost power and when it was over the first thought I had was "wow!!! I guess this was the biggest earthquake I ever experienced!!"
I went outside and walked around the house, checking for damages. The water in my catchment tank was sloshing back and forth for at least 20 minutes.
Power was out for at least 1.5 hours, it was hard to get any information about what happened as cell service was also almost non-existent.
After a while, I learned it was a 6.9 earthquake that shook the entire Big Island of Hawai'i and even caused a little bit of damage in Hilo.
It was unbelievable. It was the first time I ever had experienced such a big earthquake. Hundreds of small quakes followed today and in the next few days, we experienced some several thousand earthquakes between 2.5 and 5.0. The good thing about it, after a while you get used to the continuous shaking and only react when the jolts are bigger than a 4.0, lol.

Source: USGS Volcanoes earthquakes May 1-4, 2018

Everything changed: crater collapse and fissure eruption in a residential area: May 3 2018

I knew something was happening soon with our beloved Puna district soon. The volcano was acting weird, with the crater collapse of Pu'u O'o on April 30 and a massive earthquake swarm moving down the East Rift Zone. Lava was on the move and it was moving to the Lower East Rift Zone. If there would be a new active breakout down there it would mean all of Lower Puna could be in jeopardy. And the lava lake in Halema'uma'u crater was dropping like crazy. In Leilani Estates in the Lower East Rift Zone cracks had appeared in the roads and were widening, the smell of sulfur was there plus steam coming out of the cracks. Not a good sign at all.
My friend Janice and I decided to visit Lower Puna this morning and enjoy all of our beloved places like Poho'iki and Ahalanui Warm Ponds. We had no clue what would happen today.
We were a bit late for sunrise because Pohoiki Road was closed but finally managed to get there just in time.
The sky lit up like crazy, blood red and extremely intense. It was almost unreal.

We were super excited and enjoyed the view. The sun was up quickly and the light was gone. We went a bit to Pohoiki boat ramp and I ventured off a bit to the hot pond. Such a great spot to soak in and relax.

We also stopped at a few other spots along the Red Road. This stretch of road here in Puna is so amazing with all its tree tunnels and secret spots. Just like paradise.

A bit later we went to visit Janice's property in Kalapana Gardens. Since the crater collapse of Pu'u O'o a few days ago almost everything down there was shut down and local traffic only. I missed my old days of hiking out to the lava from here. We checked the property and also talked a bit to one of the neighbors who barely finished building their house.
All of a sudden we had a pretty good sized earthquake. I reminded me of the one I experienced last year out on the lava field. Less than a few minutes later a huge pink ash cloud was rising into the sky.
It was just wow!!!
I just used my iPhone to record a few video clips. They went viral later that day and were in the news all over the world.

I guess it was my enthusiastic Wow, lol. Definitely pretty exciting and the pink ash cloud was really awesome to see. A few smaller earthquakes followed a bit later.
I was barely at home later that day when I heard the news that lava was erupting in Leinani Estates. A fissure had opened in the middle of a residential area on Mohala St, triggering evacuations. Hard to believe that it was really happening. It was a crazy day and no one knew how long the eruption would last.