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PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) – A year after a volcano located on the Big Island of Hawaii dumped lava and gases in one of the largest and most destructive eruptions of its history, people who lost their homes and their farms in the aftermath of the disaster still struggle for darling island lifestyle.
More than 700 houses were destroyed during the historic eruption and most people will never return to their lands.
In four months, Kilauea spewed enough lava to fill 320,000 Olympic-sized pools, burying an area more than half that of Manhattan in 24 meters of now-hardened lava. The molten rock has reduced the landmarks, streets and neighborhoods to a vast field of blackened rocks and volcanic bursts.
But the disaster, which, according to county officials, will cost about $ 800 million, is not just about people and places on the way to the lava.
Dozens of nearby houses have been spared and still remain empty, cut by the surrounding flows, damaged by debris suspended in the air or downwind of cracks that continue to emit toxic gases.
The mayor of Big Island, Harry Kim, lost a house during the eruption and said that people are just starting to deal with the devastation.
"As humans, we want the normal to come back," Kim said. "In a volcanic eruption, all you know is no longer there."
The longtime mayor said that many foreigners were wondering why anyone would want to live on the side of an active volcano.
"It is and it was a very nice place to live in. It was special," Kim said. "It's not just a home, it's a way of life here."
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THE FINAL POWERS OF THE FATHER
Tisha Montoya and her family, who lived off the network on several acres downstream of the eruption, are among those whose lives have changed forever.
They had a big house and several cabins, as well as greenhouses, pavilions and pastures. Montoya harvested different types of exotic fruits and had a garden of pineapple, sheep, chickens, ducks, rabbits and guinea pigs.
On May 4, the day after the start of the eruption, she was evacuated when an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 violently shook the family's purple octagonal house. The lava flowed new cracks in the nearby neighborhood of Leilani Estates, and poisonous gases flooded the air.
His father, Edwin Montoya, stayed to look after animals. He hoped the whole family could come back soon.
Edwin's children begged him to leave while lava was heading for their property in the next few weeks. But he was determined to save the animals and he was ready to die doing it.
"If it explodes and I'm there at that time, I'm 76 years old, I've had a good life, and if I have to go, I want to go," he said. said Edwin Montoya at the Associated Press. Can. "I love Hawaii, and that's where I want to stay for the rest of my life."
As the lava approached, Edwin stopped taking care of the animals to evacuate them. He left the day before the arrival of a lava river and cut the farm in half. The molten rock finally took away almost all the structures, including the house and all the small hen houses built by Edwin.
The lava stopped flowing the first week of September. Edwin died less than a week later.
"It was very stressful to evacuate 100 animals from here," said Tisha at the AP of her father's death.
He woke her one night because it was hard to breathe. "We did not go to the hospital," she said. "He passed and then they said later that it was a heart attack."
All the roads leading to the family farm are now cut off and are only accessible by a two hour hike through the thick jungle.
Tisha came back last week.
"It was the most special place in the whole country," she said, pausing to pray near the lava wall covering her house. "So we buried him here as he wished, his ashes, anyway, are sprinkled there, at the edge, where the lava meets the green."
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END OF THE ROUTE
Mark and Jennifer Bishop's home was located at the top of a ridge at Leilani Estates, their terrace overlooking the house of friends in a valley.
The epicenter of the 2018 eruption – one of the more than 20 places where the ground has opened and unleashed massive explosions of molten rock – is now in their backyard before.
The eruption point, known as Fissure 8, created a dominant cone that pumped so much lava that it filled the valley in front of their property and flowed about 13 km from the ocean.
"We were on the ridge, now we're halfway up the hill," Bishop Mark said last week, looking up at the massive cone.
In total, lava striking the ocean has created nearly 2.6 square kilometers of new land, including a new black sand beach.
The bishops share their time between Big Island and Harmony, Minnesota, where they own a business that offers picturesque cave tours.
They were in Minnesota at the start of the eruption. They watched the reports and the aerial video as the lava escaped from the ground near their home. A friend called one day to tell them that the lava was directed directly to their house.
The red-heated fluid heated on their property and stopped about 6 meters from the house. Theirs is now the last house on the street.
"We feel really lucky that our house has not been taken," Bishop said. "All our northern neighbors are gone for a width of one and a half kilometers."
Debris from the nearby eruption has infiltrated the bishop's home and caused significant damage, but the couple began replacing furniture and appliances and recently returned.
"Our plans are to stay here, to continue working at home and to make the necessary repairs, and to try to regain a normal life," said Bishop Mark.
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TOXIC GASES
Mark Figley bought his four-bedroom Leilani Estates home in 2016. A retired engineer who left Alaska to settle in Hawaii, he planned to spend his golden years at working in his wood repair shop and repairing old cars.
Now, he said, the big craftsman-style house with its vaulted ceilings and meticulously designed details is a total loss, even though it was spared when the lava stopped in the front yard.
Gases and debris from a series of street kicks have caused significant damage to his home. But that's not why he had to buy a new home while continuing to pay the $ 500,000 mortgage on his now empty dream home.
"The main reason I can not live here is because of the quality of the air," he said.
The prevailing winds bring volcanic gases to his home in Leilani Estates, located in a small valley where fumes accumulate and accumulate in his home.
"If I'm here for 15 minutes, I'll have a lot of headache," Figley said. "This is not a livable circumstance for me."
Thus, for the moment, the house on the edge of a lava flow remains vacant while Figley settles in his new Big Island home, located a little further from the Kilauea volcano.
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Follow Caleb Jones, Associated Press correspondent, on Instagram and Twitter: @CalebAP
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