Advertisement

Hawaii volcano erupts, forces 1,500 to flee homes as lava bubbles up

Click to play video: 'Stunning video shows lava rising from massive crack caused by Hawaii volcano eruption'
Stunning video shows lava rising from massive crack caused by Hawaii volcano eruption
WATCH ABOVE: Stunning video shows lava rising from massive crack caused by Hawaii volcano eruption – May 4, 2018

Nearly 1,500 residents were ordered to evacuate from their volcano-side homes after Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano erupted, sending molten lava to chew its way through forest land and bubble up on paved streets.

The volcano erupted Thursday and officials couldn’t predict how long it will last, prompting Hawaii’s governor to activate the National Guard to help with evacuations and provide security to about 770 structures left empty when residents sought shelter.

WATCH: Hawaii man feels heat rising from massive crack in road caused by volcano eruption

Click to play video: '‘You can feel the heat’: Man shows massive crack in road after Hawaii volcano eruption'
‘You can feel the heat’: Man shows massive crack in road after Hawaii volcano eruption
Story continues below advertisement

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Hawaii County officials said steam and lava poured out of a crack in Leilani Estates, which is near the town of Pahoa on the Big Island.

Footage shown on local television showed lava spurting into the sky from a crack in a road. Aerial drone footage showed a line of lava snaking through a forest.

Lava emerges from the ground after Kilauea Volcano erupted, on Hawaii’s Big Island May 3, 2018, in this still image taken from video obtained from social media. eremiah Osuna/via REUTERS

Resident Jeremiah Osuna captured drone footage of the lava burning through the trees, a scene he described as a “curtain of fire.”

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

“It sounded like if you were to put a bunch of rocks into a dryer and turn it on as high as you could. You could just smell sulfur and burning trees and underbrush and stuff,” he told Honolulu television station KHON.

Story continues below advertisement

Asta Miklius, a geophysicist with the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that there is no way to know exactly how long the eruption will continue.

“One of the parameters is going to be whether the summit magma reservoir starts to drain in response to this event, and that has not happened yet,” Miklius said. “There is quite a bit of magma in the system. . It won’t be just an hours-long eruption probably, but how long it will last will depend on whether the summit magma reservoir gets involved. And so we are watching that very, very closely.”

County, state and federal officials had been warning residents all week that they should be prepared to evacuate, as an eruption would give little warning. Officials at the U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday raised the volcano’s alert level to warning status, the highest possible, meaning a hazardous eruption is imminent, underway or suspected.

Story continues below advertisement
An aerial view taken during a Paradise Helicopters flight over the area shows smoke rising from the Pu’u ‘O’o crater on the Hawaii island. The crater’s floor collapsed on May 1 and is since then continuing to erode its walls and generating huge explosions of ashes. EPA/BRUCE OMORI

Nearby community centers have opened for shelter.

Ranson Yoneda, the recreation director for a Pahoa community center, was readying the gymnasium for evacuees after it was selected as a Red Cross evacuation center.

He said the people who arrived first were hungry for information.

“They just want to know what’s going on because they were told it’s a mandatory evacuation,” he said by telephone.

The U.S. Geological Survey said new ground cracks were reported Thursday afternoon. Hot vapor emerged from a crack and spattering lava began to erupt.

Scientists said areas downslope of the erupting vent were at risk of being covered by lava. Leilani Estates appeared to be at greatest risk, but scientists said new vents and outbreaks could occur and it’s not possible to say where.

Story continues below advertisement

The eruption comes after days of earthquakes rattled the area’s Puna district. A nearby school was closed due to the ongoing seismic activity and several roadways cracked under the strain of the constant temblors. A magnitude 5.0 earthquake was recorded hours before the eruption began Thursday.

WATCH: Hawaiian residents capture huge plumes of smoke, ash rise after volcano eruption

Click to play video: 'Hawaiian residents capture huge plumes of smoke, ash rise after volcano eruption'
Hawaiian residents capture huge plumes of smoke, ash rise after volcano eruption

The Puu Oo crater floor began to collapse Monday, triggering a series of earthquakes and pushing the lava into new underground chambers.

The collapse caused magma to push more than 16 kilometers downslope toward the populated southeast coastline of the island.

USGS geologist Janet Babb said the magma crossed under Highway 130, which leads to a popular volcano access point, on Tuesday night.

Story continues below advertisement

Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency closed the area to visitors on Tuesday and ordered private tour companies to stop taking people into the region.

Most of Kilauea’s activity has been nonexplosive, but a 1924 eruption spewed ash and 10-ton (9-metric ton) rocks into the sky, leaving one man dead.

Puu Oo’s 1983 eruption resulted in lava fountains soaring over 457 metres high. In the decades since, the lava flow has buried dozens of square miles of land and destroyed many homes

Sponsored content

AdChoices