The ocean entry is in a rough patch of the coastline between the old Waikupanaha lava-viewing area and Foxes Landing in Kalapana Gardens. Steam can be seen rising from the distant lava entry point today.
Expansion and inflation of the entire new flow plain has mostly paused; less brush fires, lava breakouts or threats to more homes. This could all change quickly and become re-energized, but for now the residents in the community of Kalapana Gardens are getting a much needed reprieve from Pele’s recent display awesome power and ability to change her palette at will; a palette known to us as The Big Island.
Deflationof the magma beneath Kilauea Volcano by the USGS/HVO recording monitors is yet another indication that our Volcano Goddess may be resting a bit after such an incredible outpouring.
Gentle rain showers are also cooling things down along the steaming coastal shores this morning; adding to the feeling of reprieve from this past week of intense heat and fires.
Witnessing Gary’s property and home being claimed by lava continues to affect me; it was such an extraordinary event in so many ways. So I will post just these two images for today:
Above: Gary and a neighbor friend watching the smoke and fumes broiling up behind his home as advancing lava speads steadily towards it on July 24th at 4:00 PM ~ Below, twelve hours later at 4:00 AM July 25th, Gary and another close friend watch as Gary's home goes up in lava-ignited flames:
[EDIT JULY 26TH, 2010: Hawaii News Now, our local Oahu TV News station has been covering this story, using portions of the movie clips of the event I sent them. They have linked the news story HERE. They also posted other news clips and raw viseo of the event in their Video section on the linked site above.]
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We are SURE it WAS hard to watch. We feel (through the lens of you camera) as we are sitting right there in the photo above. However, we are sure no one can be feeling what Gary is right now.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this with us all.
Leigh, Thanks for the compelling coverage of this event. When I walked this ground I thought "it is entirely up to Pele." I do hope that some of the kipuka does survive this phase but once again "it is entirely up to Pele."
ReplyDeleteMike
Aloha Leigh,
ReplyDeleteOMG... this is some of the best documentation of Pele that I've seen. It's so REAL. I love real. :-) You actually feel like you are there. These are fantastic Leigh! Mahalo and Aloha. Meg :-)
Amazing!
ReplyDeleteAnd I am wondering why he did not design his house so he could truck it away when the lava was coming.
to tigerbody1, we own the cedar octogon home out there with the blue roof. We built it so we could take it down, but we have added to it so much that it would be expensive to move. It is just not feasible. and where would we put it? The cost would be prohibitive. Wish we could though.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for reporting on this and all the lava updates in general. I was lucky to meet Gary and a few friends last October in the flows and we had breakfast at his home. It's painful to see what happened. I wish him all the best, and also best luck to other Kalapana residents.
ReplyDelete