Alfred Lee’s family has called Pahoa home for a long time. ADVERTISING Alfred Lee’s family has called Pahoa home for a long time. Five generations, in fact, have resided on the same property off Pahoa Village Road. It’s where he
Alfred Lee’s family has called Pahoa home for a long time.
Five generations, in fact, have resided on the same property off Pahoa Village Road. It’s where he was raised and where he resides till this day.
“Everything I got is right here,” said Lee, 62.
But that could soon change.
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists are predicting that the June 27 lava flow, now about 1.6 miles uphill from his home, will cut through his land.
When remains unclear since the flow’s rate of advance continues to change. It could be weeks or months.
What geologists are nearly certain of is where it will go. And, according to HVO’s projection, Lee’s home would be almost in the middle of the path.
But he said he is not spending too much time worrying.
“When it comes it comes,” Lee said. “What are you going to do?”
And when it does, he’ll be ready.
Lee said he packed most of his belongings into a shipping container that sits on a trailer on his property. He plans to move it out just before lava inches onto his land.
“We’ll sit down and wait and watch,” he said. “We might have a barbecue” on the lava, Lee joked.
As he pointed up the hillside, he added, “When I see lava coming over there, then I’ll think about moving.”
Lee is also not worried about where he will go. His son in Leilani Estates offered Lee and his wife a place to stay.
But what Lee does wonder is how long he’ll have to live with nothing in his house but a mattress on the floor, an ice box and stove.
“If you look at Kalapana, it took nine years” for lava to inundate the community, he said.
“I might be living from a container for nine years.”
His home is not the only one Madame Pele might pay a visit.
Just down the street, housemates Augie Partida and Kat Cazimero are also expecting a front-row seat to one of the planet’s most awe-inspiring forces.
Both say they have places to stay should the flow march through the area.
A positive thinker by nature, Partida, 70, said his focus is not on the worst-case scenario.
But if lava does come through the property, which hosts a large backyard with a garden and tilapia pond, he said he sees it as just part of the cycle of life here.
“If she runs through here, in the long run … it kind of acts like a fertilizer,” said Partida, who maintains the home’s garden.
“If you wait 50 to 60 years” plants will return.
Cazimero, 58, said it has been a bit stressful not knowing when the lava could reach the house.
Initially, geologist projected the flow could reach Pahoa on Sept. 24, but adjustments have been to the forecast several times as the flow rate changes.
“It’s been pressure but it’s been good,” she said.
“I prepared almost in a panic.”
Cazimero said much of her belongings have been in storage, which she also shares with seven other people, in Pahoa for the past year.
She’s concerned the storage facility could also be hit by lava. What to do with all her belongings there is her biggest worry.
“There’s no storage in Hilo,” she said.
Cazimero said she might buy her own storage container and keep it on a friend’s property.
“We got to come up with something like that,” she said. “I’m worried about people not being able to store their things.”
Cazimero said she is also worried about others who could be left isolated by the lava flow. But she expects the community to come together like it did after Tropical Storm Iselle last August.
“The amount of community support was outstanding,” Cazimero said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune- herald.com.
