On Monday morning, the active front of the June 27 lava flow appeared to be entering a critical area 2.3 miles upslope of Highway 130 and Pahoa Village Road.
On Monday morning, the active front of the June 27 lava flow appeared to be entering a critical area 2.3 miles upslope of Highway 130 and Pahoa Village Road.
After moving about 250 yards in 24 hours, by 9 a.m. the front had reached a corridor where it could move in two very different directions as defined by the area’s topography — it could move farther north, passing to the south of the Ainaloa subdivision, or it could follow a path of steepest descent that could ultimately lead it through the Pahoa Marketplace.
“It is nearing that area where the two paths of steepest descent converge,” said Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira during an 11 a.m. media briefing. “We’ll just have to wait and see. That area is also pretty flat, so we’re expecting the flow will spread out, and that’s what we’re seeing, its not advancing and it’s widening.”
The corridor where the two pathways run parallel extends for about a quarter-mile before the two paths head in their separate directions, he said.
“It may be the middle of the week before we see it exiting that area,” Oliveira said. “And that will give us an idea of what behavior it (the flow) will be exhibiting. It might be Wednesday before we see any kind of indication.”
Smoke conditions were moderate in the morning in the immediate area of the flow, with a light wind from the southwest blowing the smoke in a north-northeast direction. There was quite a bit of burning along the edges of the active flow, but regular rains were keeping any brush fires at bay, Oliveira added.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.