|
The declaration frees up federal money to help
protect local communities from the lava flow, which began moving
toward homes on the big island of Hawaii on June 27 and is
threatening Pahoa village.
The leading edge of the flow has paused about 185 yards from
Pahoa Village Road, the main thoroughfare through the town of
about 800 residents at the site of an old sugar plantation.
No homes have been destroyed and no injuries have been reported.
The flow remained active as of Monday but it had not advanced
since last Thursday, a County of Hawaii Civil Defense message
said. The statement added that elections would go ahead on
Tuesday at polling stations in the area.
The U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said a
finger of lava on Monday was trudging downslope, parallel to a
larger flow that crossed onto a residential property last week
before stalling.
Kilauea has erupted continuously from its Pu'u O'o vent since
1983. The last home destroyed by lava on the Big Island was at
the Royal Gardens subdivision in Kalapana in 2012.
On Sunday, two Hawaii residents were charged with trespassing
after police found the man and woman snapping pictures within
five feet of a slow-moving river of molten lava, police said.
The office of Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii on Monday
said the representative had been called up to serve as a
military police captain alongside some 80 National Guard members
already in the area.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Additional reporting by Curtis
Skinner in San Francisco and Karin Stanton in Kailua-Kona,
Hawaii; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
