Lava Land Part 4: Kilauea Eruption May 9-11

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

May 9, 2018 

I left my Kapoho community for the first time since the eruption began and realized life has continued with business as usual on other parts of the island.   I had some anxiety as I drove up the hill to Pahoa and my fear had to do with not being able to get back once I left.  I debated with myself over the need to bring a suitcase with extra clothing ‘just in case’ and decided against it.

I was on my way to my first meeting of the Mystery Writers of Hawaii Island group, since I’ve just published my first book, “Blood on the Orchids”.  I had looked forward to this for weeks but worried I would find it hard to be present and “normal”.  

On the drive home from Hilo,  I passed the distribution center set up for food and necessities for displaced people in Pahoa and felt grateful I didn’t need to stop.  I entered Lava Trees area from the highway and came to the fork in the road where there is now a blockade prohibiting cars from using Pohoiki Road in the direction of Leilani.  It was strange seeing the many cars going up and down the hill now that this was the access road now for all of lower Puna.

********************

 May 10, 2018

Over the past few days we have taken many walks around our neighborhood and on the Kapoho lava flow reminiscing.    I’m trying to document the many different colors of hibiscus.  We walked into the yard of an empty vacation rental formerly known as “Peggy’s Place” and said, “Here is where we got married”.  From there we walked to University Pond, where we swam early in the morning on the day of our wedding and where our children first learned to bodyboard its gentle waves.   April 2019 will be our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary and only a month ago year we said we would commemorate it somehow at the spot we were married.  Time will tell.

May 11, 2018

The happy sounds of birds chirping in the early morning reassures me that all is well for now.  The birdsong chases away my nerves from last night’s earthquakes.  My island friends and I check in with each other daily now and ask questions like,”Are you still in your home?”

My daughter tells me that the koi in a friend’s fish pond in Black Sands subdivision are dying, a sign that the area is no longer habitable for humans either. Our longtime friends have voluntarily evacuated due to poor air quality near the top of Kamailii Road in Opihikao.  One will stay in Hilo, near her work and her husband will stay in his office in Pahoa until they arrange something more permanent.  

Our neighborhood is slowly becoming a temporary home for refugees of the lava flow aided by the generosity of vacation rental owners.  Some have lost their homes and some have evacuated with the state of their homes unknown.  

A young woman my daughter’s age, whom I’ve known since keiki days posted a video this morning of a song she’d just written about the lava flow. Listening to it moved me and the tears that have been building up for days finally begin to flow.