06-25-2009, 12:11 PM
quote:Aloha mgeary
Originally posted by mgeary
I've got to say that the tone of this thread, "Why would one live in an area..." wasn't very encouraging.
In starting this thread it was never my intent to encourage or discourage. Of course for Puna to be as populated as it is there has got to be a lot of people with a lot of different takes on the question. For myself, the whole lava zone this or that has never been an issue, though I never bought land nor lived in the most threatened areas, zones 1 and 2 etc., I have never applied any standard such as volcanic vulnerability to my decisions on where to live. I suppose if I were to have been inspired to live in one of those zones I would have given it more consideration. But just by the pure nature of my attractions it's always been lava zone 3 for me. I have however seen a lot of takes on the issue and thought it was a good one for discussion, especially as recently where I live (to answer StillHope's question, on Mauna Loa north of Volcano Village) has been impacted in a way that is making the idilic life that my family originally bought into, built, and have put down more roots than we would ever want to uproot, on the verge of untenable. With the opening of the new vent in Halemaumau at the summit of Kilauea, where we live is in a zone that the gases are so bad on Kona wind days that one literally has to wear a gas mask to go outside. This is not a situation we would buy into, but it is one we are deeply rooted in and now have to ask ourselves how realistic staying here is.
And, btw... I have a lifetime of experience with Kilauea, and having made my living documenting it's eruptions since 1985, I am deeply aware of both it's beauty and it's dangers. In 1990, when Kalapana was being overrun by lava, I was involved in such a way that I was there daily and able to get to know a lot of the impacted people, and share in their, for what was to most, crisis.
I witnessed everything from people that stated that they never knew that they were living on a volcano, literally one lady was completely blown away to learn that her house which was going to be overrun by lava within the next 24 hours was built on a volcano. On the other end of the spectrum there was a couple that sat on their lanai making leis that as the lava crossed their yard they placed on the doorstep and, leaving all they owned inside the house, walked away without any sense of loss at all.
I saw people jack up their homes and have them driven away. I saw families in mourning, where the whole clan came from all over the world and sat for days and nights in prayer practically begging god to spare them. I talked with Hawaiians that recounted their family history that went farther back than the last flows that came through the area (approx. 700 years ago), and saw no loss at all, just new opportunities. I saw the members of the Mauna Kea Church decide to leave it to god, I saw the Painted Church jacked up and taken away.
So it is not without a sense of at least a few of the perspectives that I asked the original question. I am sorry if I asked it in a way that would lead anyone to think I had a specific, and by your tone I figure you took it as a negative, perspective. Quite the opposite in fact. We (my wife and I) still dream of, hope to, be able to buy land in the Kalapana area before too many more years go by.