We can use this thread for updates. Some cool photos at the link from previous days.
https://weather.com/news/news/2018-05-02-hawaii-kilauea-volcano-activity
https://weather.com/news/news/2018-05-02-hawaii-kilauea-volcano-activity
Hawaii's Big Island was rocked early Thursday morning by an explosive eruption at the Kilauea Volcano, which sent ash and debris shooting some 30,000 feet into the air and prompted emergency officials to urge everyone near the peak to shelter in place.
"Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reports that an Explosive Eruption at Kilauea's Summit has occurred," said Hawaii County Civil Defense in a Facebook post. "The resulting ash plume will cover the surrounding area. The wind will carry the plume toward the southeast."
The message also instructed drivers to pull off the road and wait until conditions improved.
[....]
To the east of the main crater, authorities were also monitoring a series of fissures that have claimed several homes and are threatening to move into additional residential areas. This would make new evacuations necessary, officials also said.
Those evacuations would impact residents in the Puna area, where at least 20 fissures have sent lava shooting into the air at various times over the past two weeks, Hawaii Army National Guard commander Brig. Gen. Kenneth Hara told the Associated Press. The evacuations would become necessary if lava covered important highways and threatened to keep those residents from getting out of the area, he also said.
In the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens neighborhoods, where most of the 1,800 people forced to evacuate reside, lava has destroyed 37 structures, 28 of which were homes, according to officials.
[....]
"It sounds like a war zone," resident Lisa Rios told Hawaii News Now. "The sounds of the eruption were very eerie."
The 17th fissure stretched hundreds of yards in length near Halekamahina Loop Road, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said. With cracks forming in Highway 132, which has been used for evacuating hundreds of residents, officials worry that an additional fissure could shut down the roadway.
"In the military we like to have two ways to exit out of a dangerous situation," Maj. Jeff Hickman, public affairs officer with the Hawaii National Guard, told Hawaii News Now. "If that road does get cut off, we do start to plan for a mass evacuation. It is a dangerous situation. We're trying to plan for the worst."
Residents near the fissures have been warned that dangerously high levels of sulfur dioxide are emerging from several vents, and vulnerable residents could be sickened.
Air quality was "condition red" for areas of southeastern Lanipuna Gardens and nearby farm lots, according to an alert sent to those residents Monday afternoon.
[....]
Officials are allowing evacuees to return to their homes to check on their belongings and said residents would be able to go back to their homes every day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. until further notice.
Updated estimates say the eruptions could cost the island $5 million in cancellations by tourists from May through July, Big Island tourism board executive director Ross Birch told the AP.
