hawaii lava reaches and burns down $ 200k home

[Liberal_in_LA]

A relative of the home's owners, who live on the mainland, arhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2829361/Lava-flow-volcano-incinerates-home-Hawaiis-Big-Island.html

d at the site to watch the house burn, officials said. That family member drove from another part of the island about two hours away and used an iPhone to take video of the house burning.

The county estimates the value of the home at about $200,000, Oliveira said. 


The 800 residents that reside at the base of Kilauea Volcano were warned of a potential evacuation when it erupted in late June.

Around 50 families in the lava's projected path abandoned their homes. 

The flow entered Puna on October 26 and engulfed a cemetery. 

On Sunday, officials suspected the lava had come to a complete and final standstill 480 feet from the main street that runs through the town, which remains closed.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I hope they got their belongings out...

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. they moved out months ago

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Oh, good. Thanks. n/t

[Warpy]

4. It was a rental house

Absentee owners from the mainland were traveling in to watch it burn down. Tenant has been gone for some time.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

5. If that house is worth $200K,

I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. It was probably more the land value than the house...

[NYC_SKP]

7. Wow, it really traveled some distance to get all the way to the transfer station.

Looks like a northeastward flow, and it's some distance to that house on Cemetery Road across from the transfer station.

The main drag is only another half mile, maybe less, in the same direction.

Crap!

[Cha]

8. Wow! Damn.. hope whomever had insurance!

"The flow entered Puna on October 26 and engulfed a cemetery"

My son had property on Hilo for awhile and it was going to be a good investment until the things started changing as they are wont to do.. but, he was still able to sell it.. only not at what it would have been the previous year.

Mahalo Liberal in LA

[AgingAmerican]

15. Hilo is the prettiest town I've ever been to

nt

[LostInAnomie]

9. Speaking out of ignorance here...

... but why can't they just dig a trench or a deep hole to keep the lava away from the houses?

[Cha]

10. I found this LIA

"So, not much can be done to stop a lava flow. There were attempts in the 1930-40s to bomb lava flows in Hawai`i to divert them or stop the flow, but that was, not surprisingly, unsuccessful. In very rare cases, lava flows have been diverted by setting up barriers, such as was done around Etna in Italy, or by pumping millions of liters of seawater on the lava flow to cool the flow front and change the direction of flow like was successfully done at Heimay in Iceland. However, beyond this, lava flows can be one of the most costly volcanic hazards in terms of property damage – not only will they destroy your home, but it will be buried and capped by hardened lava, so even soils take decades to recover. Yet, people still choose to build their homes on the slopes of Kilauea, knowing full well that the land they build on was once an active lava flow and more likely than not, these lava will return again to add to the Big Island."

MOre..
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/07/28/lava-flows-you-cant-stop-you-c/

[DFW]

11. Too much lava, too little trench

It's easier to explain if you've been there to see it. Pele ALWAYS has more lava than the Islanders could ever dig trenches. It's like digging a swimming pool to save your beach house from a Tsunami.

[LostInAnomie]

12. How fast does it move?

[Ex Lurker]

13. Fortunately, not very fast

they've had weeks to prepare. Other volcanic areas of the world are not so fortunate.

[DFW]

14. That's Mother Nature's whim

I've seen it up close, though, and it's a slow, steady creep. You think you have a eye on it until you realize the soles of your shoes are melting, and it's time to get the hell away.

[malaise]

16. Just watched this on the news

Damn!