Hawaii County’s Civil Defense chief said he will continue to assess whether road restrictions should be lifted as the June 27 lava flow remains calm near Pahoa.
Hawaii County’s Civil Defense chief said he will continue to assess whether road restrictions should be lifted as the June 27 lava flow remains calm near Pahoa.
“We’ll definitely be looking at it over the next few days whether any safety concerns have been addressed,” said Darryl Oliveira, adding that the road restrictions would be lifted “as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Apa‘a Street and Pahoa Village Road between Apa‘a Street and Post Office Road remain closed to nonresidents due to the lava threat.
He said he doesn’t want to reopen the roads and then have to close them again if surface flows return in or near Pahoa.
Oliveira said surface flows were 4 to 5 miles upslope of Apa‘a Street on Wednesday.
Steve Brantley, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory acting scientist-in-charge, said it still remains to be seen whether the breakouts will continue upslope and when the flow’s lava tube will fill again near town.
Brantley said the closest surface flow to Pahoa was along a ground crack system near an abandoned geothermal test well.
“At this point it’s clear that lava reoccupied the lava tube of the June 27 flow as far as that location,” he said.
The next community meeting regarding the flow will be held at 6:30 p.m. today at Pahoa High School Cafeteria.