Lava Land Part 7: Kilauea Eruption

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

Owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers

From the street in front of our house.

It has been a long week. Last Sunday seems so long ago.  Post Mother's Day week is traditionally slow in the flower business but this week was alarmingly slow.  I am attributing this to the media's sensationalizing of the lava flow, as if something as at once spectacular and terrible as this current one needs additional publicizing.

As well, it has been very hard to focus on anything besides it as my mind keeps coming back to the same few topics, which include:

Where is the lava and what is it doing now?

Who is in the neighborhood today and where did everyone go?

When is the water going to be on/off? 

When is my heartbeat going to return to normal?

May 19 Pohoiki Boat Ramp

Today I have banned myself from social media after realizing how compulsive I have become. Today my phone is just a phone and for communicating one on one.  My daughter has asked for another blog post though.  Is blogging social media?  

Our water was off for 36 hours this week but I reminded myself it was a small hardship compared to what those who have lost homes now face.

Our community yoga class, for which I am so grateful, especially during this time, has dwindled from 10 to 4 people due to logistics and evacuations. We who remain are finding community and peace through our practice and through sharing our stories and worries before and after class. Yoga is about finding balance and peace through the movements combined with breathing and I find I need it now more than ever.

May 19 near Champagne Pond

We have continued our daily rides to view and photograph the eruption, by bike during the day and by truck at night  We use the pictures to both appease and astound those who don't live here.  My mother-in-law needs constant reassurance that we are stlll okay and we will continue to send her daily photos as proof we are still safe.

I was relieved to hear the news of the lava reaching the ocean this morning.  I am trying to imagine the earth's release and this eruption coming to an end.   

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

Owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers

Kilauea Eruption Part 6: Coping

May 14-15

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

It is a challenge, but I think we are doing okay living in the now and facing our fears about the lava flow.  I continue to work each morning at my flower business and write each afternoon and my husband continues to maintain and beautify the landscapes around our neighborhood.

Our senses are heightened-each moment seems more meaningful and our hearts are probably beating a bit faster than normal with the knowledge that miles away lava is exploding from the earth (we hear it).  

We took another bike ride to view the lava today around noon.  It looked less explosive than last night.  We needed to see it with our own eyes and not through the eyes of a lava chaser seeking to become  an internet star.  It stops us from continuously watching footage for hours on end.  

My husband seems positively energized by this development in our lives, washing windows that have long needed washing and planting new tropical flowers around our property to grow, hopefully for years to come and show Pele we are worthy of caring for her aina.

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

Kilauea Eruption Part 5: Mother's Day

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

Yesterday I was in Hilo promoting  my book and while I’d been reluctant to leave my Kapoho home, fearing the unknown, I was happy I didn’t cancel because it was fun and I needed the distraction.  Honestly, it was like a mini vacation.

We were shaken awake last night just past midnight by the biggest earthquake we've felt thus far.  Happy Mother’s Day!  I was scared awake and in a moment of weakness thought, “I want to get away from all of this.”  I shouted for my husband across the hall.  He’d fallen asleep watching a show and his reassuring words and calming presence helped me relax enough to sleep.

My husband has made this Mother’s Day an adventure.  This morning we rode mountain bikes along Highway 137 to a place halfway between “4 Corners” and Pohoiki Beach Park where people have lately been stopping to view the lava plumes.  Large trucks filled with manure and packing foam from the evacuating papaya and orchid farms whooshed past us, forcing us to the extreme sides of the road.  We saw that the eruption is much closer than a few days ago and we heard the explosions of lava! 

This is what is happening in our neighborhood right now: Former politically opposed members of our community road association are now working together to solve our water shortage problem.  People are using our community blog to communicate and it is serving to placate fear. We now know who is left and there are not many of us, but we have put aside our differences to offer help to each other should the need arise.

We noticed our Hawaiian neighbors made an offering for Pele of ti leaves and alcohol on their property and today we did the same. We texted one of them a picture to make sure we were doing it properly and she said,”Remove the red ti leaves, use only green and sprinkle Hawaiian salt all around.” 

I am grateful to my husband for giving me a memorable adventure this Mother’s Day, which also included stand up paddle boarding, dog walking and pancakes with strawberries.  My kids are absent and yes, I’ve missed them today but I feel good knowing they are safe, happy and relatively stress free now that finals are over.   Their phone calls and posts on social media have made me feel cherished and that is what this day is about, gratitude for our mothers.  I’ve felt my own mother is smiling down on me all day today.  For her the glass was always half full and that is what I am going for right now.

Kapoho, we are staying. 

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers

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.

Lava Land Part 3: Kilauea Eruption

It’s oddly peaceful here in Kapoho, only miles away from the explosive fountains of lava.  The only sounds are birds.  Not one car went by until 7:30 a.m., highly unusual in our neighborhood of mainly retirees that get up with the sun.  Our neighborhood is empty and all but the most adventurous tourists have gone home or to other parts of our beautiful island.  

We are at a loss for what to do with our time. Does cleaning or fixing the house even make sense right now with the future so uncertain?  We are still checking in with news websites and social media but are also actively trying to conquer our anxiety and bring it down to a healthier level.  Cooking makes more sense than cleaning, and baking brings comfort, so I have decided to make a batch of buttermilk blueberry muffins to share with the few remaining neighbors. Once I am able to focus on the recipe, and it takes a few minutes before I can commit to it, the fragrance of the cinnamon and nutmeg instantly calms me.

 Our suitcases are next to the bed.  Yesterday I left mine open and dropped items into it throughout the day.  I am sure it is a weird assortment of clothes that don’t go together, because I am having a hard time committing to serious packing.  Our many photo albums, memories of our 25 years in Hawaii, are in boxes near the front door.  Other than those and our important papers, we are ready to go if it comes to that.  I will, as well, be taking my jewelry and the Sabbath candles, though thankfully there is no need to sew the jewels into my clothing as my Eastern European ancestors had to when fleeing from persecution.  As I type this  I realize that no matter what happens we will be okay, more than okay actually, since we have the support of our family and the many relatives and friends that have reached out over the past few days.

Lava Land Part 2: 2018 Kilauea Eruption

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

Luna on the 1959 Kapoho Lava Flow 

    This morning my husband and I were reminded that the beauty of Kapoho grew out of a similar eruption as the one now happening in Leilani.  This morning we went for a walk to the ocean on land that was formed as a result of the 1959 Kapoho lava flow.  That eruption began in much the same way.  

Ironically for a few weeks now I have been reading “Kapoho: Memoir of a Modern Pompeii” by Frances H. Kakugawa.  There is a chapter called “Once there was a Kapoho.”  Kakugawa writes about her grandmother standing on her lanai seeing “shapes like Rorschach inkblots in red, shooting up into the sky more than ten miles away.” She shouts to her son,  “I can see the lava so clearly from here Tashika mon.”  “She didn’t know that what she was calling ‘spectacular’ was going to cover her house in less than twelve hours.”

University Pond and Beyond

I took many pictures and videos as we walked to send to our children who are away at college but wishing to be home with us during this uncertain time.  As expected, they are having a difficult time remaining focused on studying for their finals, instead preoccupied with worrying about us, out home and their friends who have had to evacuate.  

The picture that tugged at my heart most was that of a coconut palm planted when they were keiki and now provides shade as a mature tree.  As hard as I try to live in the now, fear of the unknown comes creeping in....

I will have to try harder.

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

A Novel of Murder and Mystery on the Big Island

SaveSave

Lava Land

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

Leilani Estates Lava Outbreak

It’s been a strange few days in lava land.  It began with Kilauea Volcano’s Halema’uma’u lava lake collapsing, then draining. This was followed by multiple earthquakes felt hourly by residents of Puna, Hilo, Waimea and even Kona.  Some of our friends experienced constant rumbling, saying it was “as if a river of lava flowed beneath my feet” and cracks began appearing in the road of Leilani Estates community.  Discussing it after yoga class only yesterday, my friends and I felt uneasy, sensing a buildup to something bigger.  Later on that day, most incredibly, we were watching lava fountains live on Facebook, glued to our phones and computers. Ikaika Marzo, my son’s former volleyball coach,  a well known local musician and Hawaiian cultural tour leader, documented the breakout of lava broadcasting live and exclaiming, “Lava is coming out of the ground! Ash is in the air!”  His early rough videos were at first the only news we could get of the outbreak and we as nearby residents were grateful for any news of the eruption.

Ikaika Marzo

Twenty-five years ago after an adventurous ten day vacation, we chose the Big Island as the place we wanted to live and raise a family.  It took us three more years in Los Angeles to make it back, this time permanently after a friend reached out with a job in the floral industry.  It’s funny how we never once considered the possibility of this happening.  My older, wiser self would have been more cautious,I think but in a way I feel like the island chose us and that having showed her we were worthy of staying, allowed us to manifest our dreams for both family and home.

Now I pray for family,  friends and for our beautiful island, keeping the hope that our favorite spots will remain as they are.  I am thankful to Madame Pele for allowing us to experience all of it and hope for the strength to deal with whatever comes.  

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

A Novel of Murder and Mystery on the Big Island

SaveSave