After a collapse shut down the Kaumana Caves park on Saturday, Hawaii County Parks and Recreation doesn’t yet know if or when the cave will reopen.
The Hilo cave — a lava tube created by a Mauna Loa lava flow in 1881 — suffered a partial collapse on Saturday, and while nobody was injured, the entire cave has been cordoned off and closed to the public.
Parks and Recreation Director Maurice Messina said Monday that “a community member” had discovered that some boulders had fallen near the tube’s entrance and notified authorities, which eventually led to Mayor Mitch Roth deciding to close the cave pending an assessment of the tube’s stability.
That assessment process has no time frame as of yet, Messina said.
“We’ll be going through our normal bid process,” Messina said, adding that the cost of such a study is also as yet unknown.
Once a team reviews the cave’s stability, Messina said, then officials can determine whether the cave can be reopened or repaired. Until then, public access to the tube is strictly prohibited for people’s safety.
Messina said Parks and Rec does not have estimates for the cave’s average daily visitor rate. However, the cave is a well-known tourist attraction, drawing a steady flow of visitors each day.
“There’s always a lot of people coming and parking here,” said Hilo resident Corey Matsu, who lives close to the cave and was visiting the site Monday.
“I took my granddaughter here and she was fascinated by it,” Matsu went on. “I wanted to come back here with her, but now this happened, and I don’t know if we’ll be able to.”
Messina said he knows of no other such collapses in the cave’s history. However, the Thurston Lava Tube in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was temporarily closed last year following a shift in the tube’s ceiling. The tube was reopened to the public after 18 days.
Messina said the county apologizes for the inconvenience to disappointed visitors, but urged people to heed warnings posted around the cave’s entrance and not approach the tube.
He said that while visiting the site over the weekend, he saw visitors circumventing the fence to try and enter the cave, which has led him to consider more secure measures.
“It’s like I had to say to them, ‘It’s for your own safety,’” Messina said. “It’s disheartening that people are disregarding the county warnings.”
Messina said he isn’t sure if the county will impose penalties on people found to be violating the prohibition against cave access.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
