Big Island Mayor Issues Mandatory Evacuation Orders Due to Kilauea Volcano Eruption
The latest volcanic activity of Hawaii's Kilauea prompted authorities to issue an order for the immediate evacuation of all residents by Friday morning in an area on Leilani Estates or face possible arrest.
Reuters revealed that Big Island mayor Harry Kim announced that approximately 17 blocks of lava-hit Leilani Estates subdivision will be off-limits indefinitely and ordered that all remaining residents in the residential area should vacate their properties within 24 hours or they will be arrested.
According to the report, the mandatory evacuation zone is now situated a bit bigger compared to the area under the voluntary evacuation zone.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The report also mentioned that the new evacuation order was declared one day after the police arrested a 62-year-old resident of the subdivision who shot a handgun at a younger man from the same community because he allegedly believed that the latter was a looter or an intruder.
However, Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman David Mace told the publication that the mandatory evacuation order was already decided by the Hawaii County Civil Defense authority before the incident.
At the moment, around 2,000 residents living in and around Leilani Estates had been displaced in evacuation centers at the beginning of the latest eruption of Mt. Kilauea. However, the report claimed that the number of evacuees might have reached around 2,500 individuals on Wednesday after the local authorities escorted residents living in the Kapoho area nearby after a lava flow showed signs of blocking a key access road.
Meanwhile, Fox News reported that the mandatory evacuation order allows the county to have a bigger enforcement authority.
The spokesperson from FEMA who also spoke with the online news agency reiterated that the new evacuation order should be strictly followed.
"There are no plans to go into the restricted area after 12:06 p.m. Friday and search for anyone who might still be there," the spokesperson stated. "But anyone found in the area after that time could be subject to arrest," the spokesperson went on to say.
FEMA also added that choosing to ignore the mandatory evacuation order can put anyone at risk. "Refusing to evacuate may put you, your family and first responders in danger," the county agency also said. "Heed warnings from Civil Defense officials and stay alert," they added.
The lava started to come out of fissures within the residential area of Big Island in early May. According to Forbes, lava continued to flow multiple times towards the ocean located in the southern part of the island. This caused the release of a dangerous steam known as "laze," which came with hydrochloric acid and fine glass particles.
Despite the continuous activity that already lasted for a month, geologists claimed that they are still unsure how long will the eruptions last.
"There's no sign we're getting that anything is going to slow down at the moment," volcanologist Wendy Stovall from the US Geological Survey said in front of the reporters during a conference call on Thursday. "We don't see any changes occurring," she went on to say.
However, while Kilauea continuously erupts, Hawaii Tourism Authority president and CEO George Szigeti told CNN that Hawaii is still open for business since only 10 square miles of the Big Island has been affected by the volcanic activity.
