lava flow destroys home

[jabe]

Now's, a good time to visit my island Hawaii, U can walk up to the edge of the lava flow and feel the heat. Great viewing at nite, just a short hike about 3/4 to a mile. It's flowing towards the ocean, inundated a home last week about 1/2 mile away from another home this week. The volcano has been erupting continuously since 1983. Don't understand why some people keep rebuilding their homes in the path of the lava??? They can not get home insurance so they lose everything. Some of them have lost their homes twice already. The lava zone land is cheap but would you gamble with mother nature, you got to be a fool if you did.

[jackellis]

Don't understand why some people keep rebuilding their homes in the path of the lava???

Same reason people keep rebuilding homes on river flood plains and in coastal areas with hurricanes.

[cabinetman]

Same reason people keep rebuilding homes on river flood plains and in coastal areas with hurricanes.

Or, in earthquake areas.
.

[Stytooner]

Cheap land may be the attraction. There is not much cheap land in hurricane prone zones that are that close to the ocean.

[herb fellows]

We were there on our honeymoon in 1983. I remember being at the bottom of a hill and seeing 3 street signs (Jack Queen and King sts) that were about 6 inches off the ground.
A local told us that there were 26 homes on that hill 3 weeks ago, all totally destroyed. Although the lava was only about 5 ft above where the street had previously been, the houses were just knocked down by the lava and buried.
You would never know they existed except for those street signs.

[jackellis]

Or, in earthquake areas.

I don't think there's a place on earth that is completely earthquake free. Didn't they have one on the East Coast recently? Some places just have more than others. It's probably appropriate to add folks who will build smack on a fault to the list. Several cities on the east side of San Francisco Bay will be toast when the big one hits.

[ironhat]

I don't think there's a place on earth that is completely earthquake free. Didn't they have one on the East Coast recently? Some places just have more than others. It's probably appropriate to add folks who will build smack on a fault to the list. Several cities on the east side of San Francisco Bay will be toast when the big one hits.

Yes, Jack, there was one in Frederick, MD, just a few months ago. I don't recall the the rating.

[chopnhack]

When I bought my home as a young buyer some years back, had I known that I was in a flood plain, I might have reconsidered!

[LCHIEN]

I don't think there's a place on earth that is completely earthquake free. Didn't they have one on the East Coast recently? Some places just have more than others. It's probably appropriate to add folks who will build smack on a fault to the list. Several cities on the east side of San Francisco Bay will be toast when the big one hits.

the earth is always moving. Its just a matter of degree, which are measured in orders of magnitude. You never feel the small ones. They talk about the ones that are 1/1000th the strength of those that do damage; they don't mention them but there are ones that they can measure 1/1000th of those; but they can be the same size as the noise caused by 18-wheelers 14 mile away.

In the seismic business we have sensors that can easily measure accelerations of a micro-G or so.

[Bill in Buena Park]

Jabe,
When I visited the Big Island this past October (stayed in Kona), my wife and I made a day trip over to Hilo via Waimea/Parker Ranch (there's a really cool furniture shop up there of things made by a local woodworker in Koa, mango, etc.), and stopped at Acaca (sp?) Falls, visited the woodworking show in Hilo, went to the Volcano winery and Volcano state park - what an experience. After climbing through some lava tubes and visiting the old calderas, we drove down the state park road to where the old flow reaches the ocean - we could see the steam of the new flow a couple miles up the coast - but experience of being out on all that lava made my wife very nervous (it was like being on the moon), so we didn't do the hike.

Love the Big Island, and hope we can do it again soon.

[Kristofor]

My parents did the Hawaii volcanoes vacation a few years ago, but sadly not until after all of us kids were out of the house. We did hit all the big NPS parks in the lower 48 as kids so I'm not complaining, but I am looking forward to heading to Hawaii at some point...

we could see the steam of the new flow a couple miles up the coast - but experience of being out on all that lava made my wife very nervous (it was like being on the moon), so we didn't do the hike.

If you want to see something similar without the concern of an erupting vocano near by you could stop by Craters of the Moon national monument in Idaho some time. Very interesting time hiking in the lava fields.

I don't think there's a place on earth that is completely earthquake free. Didn't they have one on the East Coast recently? Some places just have more than others.

I think that's true of lots of these issues.

The floodplain maps seem to have massive changes (100-1000% size increases) when they're revisited for both costal areas and rivers. You may not have bought/built in a floodplain just because the river has been there all along.

There are a few states that won't feel any impact from a hurricane but even ones that are 500+ miles inland or more can end up with a foot of rain and flooding in unexpected areas when the conditions are right.

Houses lost to wild fires become more common in areas that previously were not as high risk when additional watering restrictions and/or tree removal prohibitions are put in place.

And the list goes on. When I stop to consider that the state I live in has been around (as a state) less than 200 years, and how few buildings from that era are still around, building in a "once every 500 year" zone doesn't sound so bad. I can see how someone decided to do that. Once. The problem is we've had multiple, 500 year level floods (or hurricanes, volcano erruptions, earthquakes, etc), in my lifetime... Knowing that, I agree that it's hard to understand how/why people re-build in those areas.

[Rand]

Here are a couple of pics I took of the Kilauea Volcano while on a Helicopter tour in 2009.

You can where the crust broke through exposing the lava tube and the hot lava hitting the ocean.

More pics from that trip here if you're curious: http://www.flickr.com/photos/randmad...7622434239488/

[jabe]

Bill
Glad U made the trip to the Big island (Hawaii) my home, you're lucky to visit during the annual wood workers show. Hope U got to sample all the wines @ the volcano winery. I don't blame your wife for being nervous walking on the cooled crusted lava. We had couple incidents where it caved in, people fell and died. Those accidents usually happened @ nite. Lots of pictures of the flow on utube or go to: kitv.com, search lava flow.

Great pictures Rand.

We see the lava, ocean our 2 big mountains Mauna Loa & Mauna Kea everyday so we tend to forget how awesome it is, thanks for wake up call guys....Jimmy