Community shows that it’s possible to live with lava

Watch the video above: As the Hawaii National Guard prepared to deploy troops to a town at risk of being cut off by a lava flow, the residents of Kalapana remained calm on Thursday, saying the volcanic activity was a fact of life on the Pacific archipelago.

PAHOA, Hawaii – Not far from the Hawaii town of Pahoa that is being menaced by a stream of lava from Kilauea volcano, there’s another community that was almost entirely swallowed by the molten rock nearly 30 years ago.

Today, a few dozen recently built homes sit on Kalapana’s rolling black fields – offering a glimpse of life after lava.

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“It’s like nothing else. It’s the newest land on Earth,” said Hank Powers, a 47-year-old tour guide who is building a house on 10 hectares of Kalapana lava fields.

Their example may be of little comfort to nearly 1,000 residents of Pahoa, who are watching as lava threatens to set fire to homes and split their town in half. As of late Thursday, the lava was 146 metres from Pahoa Village Road.

But Kalapana’s residents show how some adaptability can make living with lava possible, albeit in some extreme conditions.

Powers said he moved in after getting accustomed to lava while taking people to view it as a tour guide. He’s lived in Montana, Colorado and elsewhere in Hawaii, but he declares Kalapana’s windy black plains his favourite.

The 47-year-old said he would be excited if lava returned. He’s also prepared: he built his house so it could be loaded on a truck and moved away from a fresh flow if necessary.

Inexpensive real estate is a draw for some. A 700.-sq. metre lot in Kalapana Gardens sells for $5,000-$8,000, according to Bill Parecki of Savio Realty in Pahoa. The average price of a home in the area is just over $55,000.

That’s a fraction of what a home costs in Leilani Estates, a subdivision closer to Pahoa, where the average price is $207,000.

Ed Elarth, a 51-year-old who makes stone carvings and shell necklaces, said the new land has an energy that has made him feel healthier and younger since he moved in three years ago.

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Life is rustic. People rely on solar and wind to power their homes, capture rain in a tank to wash with and truck in drinking water. Most people use composting toilets.

“A lot of people come out here and they can’t handle it. It just drives them nuts,” said Elarth. “Pele’s got a way of weeding out the ones that don’t belong here,” he said, referring to the Hawaiian volcano goddess.

All of Hawaii’s islands were formed by lava that emerged from a hotspot in the Pacific Ocean where magma has been poking through the earth’s crust for millions of years.

Powers said he could move his house to another spot on his 24 acres in Kalapana if another flow came. Or to a different lot he owns nearby. But he vows he would return after the new flow built more land.

“I’d just bring it back later. It would just be a little higher up,” he said.