Based on TV coverage, you might think that the volcanic eruption on the Big Island of Hawaii is a major natural disaster. Video of what looks like giant rivers of lava are destroying houses, swallowing up cars and meeting the ocean to produce clouds of toxic fumes. It looks like hell on earth has been unleashed and that residents of the island are battling for their lives.
In reality, life on the Big Island has been relatively unaffected by the latest Kilauea eruption. To put things in perspective, the area affected by the lava flows is just a couple of square miles in what was already a relatively-remote area. The Puna district–site of the destroyed houses and the swallowed car–has just a couple hundred residents, since it wasn’t that long ago (geologically speaking) that these same types of lava flows went through the area.
But what about the clouds of toxic fumes? Don’t those threaten the lives of everyone living in Hawaii? Well, that has been greatly overstated as well. The Big Island is divided by two of the largest mountains in the world. Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa both rise more than 10,000 feet above the surface of the ocean–and they prevent wind currents from sweeping much of anything produced by Kilauea (which comes off the southern flank of Mauna Loa) into the populated areas of Hilo or Kailua-Kona.
The main threat to Hawaii from the eruption is that “doomsday” coverage by our friends in TV News will dissuade people from traveling to the islands. It should be noted that the 2 main airports on the Big Island are still in full operation. Aside from the couple of sub-divisions in Puna that I mentioned before, nobody has evacuated. If you were sitting on the beach in Kona today you would have no idea that there was an eruption going on–because you wouldn’t be able to see the plumes or smell the sulfur. The only place you can’t go is Volcanoes National Park–which is the biggest tourist draw on the island–and is certainly hurting the local economy.
No photo better illustrates what is really going on on the Big Island than that of golfers playing with a giant ash plume behind them last week:
Do these look like guys that are fearing for their lives? And I would note those are Natives playing in the picture–not ignorant tourists who don’t know any better.
So don’t feel guilty about being mesmerized by the video of glowing hot lava flowing in all directions or the column of gray ash billowing into the sky. It’s not nearly as bad as it looks–or as reporters competing for air time for their stories are making it out to be.
Aloha and mahalo.
