Lava Land Part 10: Kilauea Eruption

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"
Owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers

Kapoho Bay May 29

After an impassioned plea from local surf shop owner Jeff Hunt, on behalf of the community, our beloved beach park known to locals as Pohoiki, was opened on Memorial Day for the day.  We drove up and saw the packed parking lot after passing through a National Guard checkpoint.  Fortunately, we had identification placards and gained entry with no trouble.  Others, meaning residents of the surrounding lower Puna communities, stood on long lines for placards at the Pahoa Community Center.  I walked on the ancient coastline path, called the ala Kahakai trail,  to 2nd Bay to watch my son catch waves.  I sat on a log swing and watched the surfers, enjoying the breeze.

I overheard someone say, “What are the kids and moms going to do this summer if the beach isn’t open?” 

My favorite lifeguard said, “If today goes well… we’ll see.”

Photo Courtesy Brad Lewis

Everyday chores seem unnecessary but we must carry on with only what is most essential for living.  My husband said, “Neither of us are normal now.  We are different versions of ourselves.”  

Not always a better version, I think, remembering some arguments we’ve had recently that we would not have had under normal circumstances.  I’m sure people wonder why we live here after seeing us face a series of extreme events the past few years, which include a hurricane and another volcanic eruption.

Because I can’t focus, I take my dog for a walk.  Most of the homes I pass are empty now,  some being second and third homes or vacation rentals.  One ambitious owner has continued building throughout this lava event. I’m sure people wonder why we live here with the destruction of our home by weather or lava always present.

Photo Courtesy Brad Lewis

The event we’ve anticipated for days has come to pass and we lost power and phone service simultaneously this afternoon.  I experienced momentary panic to being cut off from the world.  We turned on the radio and heard nothing about the lava, no emergency broadcast.  My husband got out the generator, which had been in its box since the days of Hurricane Iselle.  I was at a loss for what to do while my husband banged around, moving the refrigerator to plug in the cords. I was scared to look at the mess behind it. The house is silent now, but not for long.  The generator is unnervingly loud and made my heart beat faster and not in a good way.  My dog Luna doesn’t like the noise either.  We are in a new phase of this crisis and are now camping in our home.

**The above was written only hours before we were ordered by Civil Defense to evacuate in the middle of the night.  After dazedly packing our cars, we joined the caravan of evacuees driving on the newly paved, formerly dirt Beach Road along the Puna coast, through the neighboring community of Hawaiian Beaches.  We have safely landed at the home of our good friends.  More soon.

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"
Owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers

Lava Land Part 9: Kilauea Eruption

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"
Owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers

Photo by Brad Lewis

Topics on my mind for the past few days are the uncertainty of life and the meaning of community.

The definition of community is much broader than a group of people living in proximity of each other.  Community is when this group works together,  advocates and supports each other- especially through difficult circumstances.  I have lived in my Kapoho subdivision for 25 years and only now have we become a community in the true sense of the word. I am proud of my community for a few reasons right now, but especially for organizing a water delivery system, that has through the purchase of miniature water towers, allowed us to live more comfortably during this emergency. We have water for four hours each day and we have now organized our lives around this schedule.

Photo by Brad Lewis

Plans and goals for living are good but I’ve realized we can never know what lies ahead no matter how carefully we plan.   “Go with the flow”,  was a saying used often when the town of Pahoa was in the path of the lava a few years ago.  It now sounds trite but is still incredibly relevant.  I am coming around to the idea that we need plans for different outcomes with regards to our personal situation and proximity to the eruption.  We continue to edit our belongings, giving away what might be useful to those who have already lost their homes.

Photo by Brad Lewis

We, meaning most of the population of the Big Island, are becoming amateur volcanologists and we trade new information with whomever we are with. I’ve learned that black sand beaches are formed when hot lava explodes into tiny fragments upon reaching the water.   I was thinking about this as we walked this morning by a small black/olivine sand beach on the Kapoho lava flow.  It’s Memorial weekend and usually there is a tent city of people camping on the flow by Champagne Pond for this holiday, but there was not one car, not one other person besides my husband and I and we were out there for one and a half hours.  As we swam we could see in the distance the enormous cloud made by lava entering the ocean.  On the plus side, without the crowds, the entire Champagne Pond area is cleaner than it has been in many years.

No matter what we are doing these past weeks, we can never forget what is happening just miles away, because we can see it, we hear the helicopters and our lives are changed. Often we  don’t know which highway is open until we arrive at the checkpoint.   It is not war and lives have not been lost, but homes, heirlooms and dreams have been destroyed.  

Please let it end soon.

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

Owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers

Lava Land Part 8: Kilauea Eruption

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

Owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers

 

 Photo taken at an undisclosed location

We are no longer allowed to view the lava from the highway that fronts our community.  Psychologically this is difficult  because having a daily view of the lava has been a reassurance that it is still far enough away that we and our homes are out of danger.   The National Guard has set up a barrier.  Now we spend our time trying to find another good viewpoint.  Last night I fell down a small hill while climbing over some rocks and foliage to a place where we could get a good view. I am fine.  Just some small kine scrapes and bruises.  The picture I got was worth it.

Kapoho Bay

I am avoiding watching footage showing the rivers of lava, which mostly is the same footage being shown over and over. While it is addicting to watch because the lava is so terribly beautiful, it distracts me from what is happening right now and my responsibilities.

Yesterday my husband cleaned the closet that used to hold all the photo albums, which are now in front of the armoire near our door ready to go if we need to evacuate, and found many games that we no longer play.  Later on in the week, we will drive to Pahoa and donate them to families that have lost everything.

My husband has a golf card that he uses as transportation for his landscape maintenance business.  It has broken down and for a few days now, with the roads only open to local traffic, he walks from job to job pushing his lawnmower and carrying his tools.  Yes, he does own a truck but this keeps it simple, until the roads are open to the public again.  I did stifle a giggle though as iI saw him today with the mower on, mowing the neighbors' roadside grass as he made his way home.

Night view from same spot.

The postal service has stopped delivering to our area, making it necessary to drive 15 miles roundtrip every few days and today began our water rationing with water on 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night.  We are being urged to conserve and as I took my shower tonight I was imagining the neighborhood water police judging my water usage next month.

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"

Owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers

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.

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 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.