Hawai’i Volcano Eruption: Kilauea’s Lesson To Preppers

I know a sure-fire way to never lose your home to a volcanic eruption… don’t live downhill from a volcano.

I’ve caught some flack from friends of mine who think my attitude towards the most recent victims of the Kilauea volcano eruption on the Big Island is mean and insensitive. That may or may not be true, but here’s what I know and why I know it. 

I was raised a military brat, and spent my formative years living on one volcanic island or another. Ask me where I call “home” and I will tell you Waimea on the Big Island. As a prepper, it’s the ONLY place on the entire island chain that I could see my self living in… but I’ll come back to that later.

In The News: Kilauea volcano eruption eats homes

The recent news about the homes destroyed in the Kilauea eruption hits people watching on the news hard, because we can all imagine the tragedy for those poor people as they watch lava slowly roll over their homes. It’s terrible.

But… here’s what the news doesn’t tell you about this volcano eruption (or if it does, it’s in very small print at the end):

• Kilauea didn’t start erupting in the last month. In fact, it has been continuously erupting since the first Reagan administration. Think about that for a minute, it’s been erupting every single day since 1983.
• Lava flows downhill.
• Living downhill of a volcano that has been erupting since 1983 is not a wise choice.
• In contrast to how many articles appear, the most recent flow event has covered about 100 acres of previously uncovered (at least on the surface) areas. 100 acres is a very, very small portion of land.

We talk about it here in this podcast:

Understanding risk when choosing where to live in paradise

Hawai’i is, in many ways, a tropical paradise (at least as close to paradise as we can get on this Earth). Having said that, it’s a paradise with a whole lot of risks that need to be accounted for, especially the Big Island.

There are five volcanoes on the big island, Kohala, Hualālai, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Kilauea.

One of these volcanoes, Kohala on the northwest section of the island, is extinct. Waimea sits at the edge of Kohala. A second volcano, Mauna Kea, is considered dormant. It last erupted in 2460 BC, and it is expected to eventually erupt again.

Hualālai is the volcano that hovers over the vacation mecca of Kailua-Kona. There are thousands of houses that are built on old lava flows laid down by Hualālai. The new Kona airport is located on top of a relatively recent lava flow. Hualālai last erupted in 1801, and is an active volcano.

Mauna Loa is the “big beast” of the island, covering over half of the island. Here’s a map from the Hawai’i Volcano Observatory that shows you when and where it’s most recent eruptions have gone… and yes, we are “due” for another. Mauna Loa tends to be quite spectacular when she blows her top.

And then… there’s Kilauea volcano on the island’s southeast side.

Pele’s Paving Co. 

According to the native islanders religion, Pele, the Goddess of Fire, lives at the summit of Kilauea in the Halemaʻumaʻu Crater. Looking down across the crater when it’s smoking and filled with a lake of lava, it’s not hard to imagine where they came up with the idea.

Kilauea tops out at over 5,000 feet, and the summit is within just a few miles of the ocean. When the volcano erupts, she paves various parts of her slopes with lava. The world’s most active volcano, Kilauea regularly expands the size of the Big Island by dumping lava into the sea… lava that has rolled over everything in it’s path.

Here’s the real problem:  

The real problem with Kilauea isn’t that it’s erupting… that’s what active volcanoes do… no, the problem is that people build their homes downhill from the most active volcano in the world. This is news to nobody. There have been 33 different eruptions from Kilauea since World War II ended (1945). Since the current eruption started January 3, 1983, that means that there were 32 eruptions between 1945 and 1983. I don’t care who you are, if that doesn’t trigger your “threat warning” then I don’t know what will.

Every single one of these houses that have been paved were built after 1945. That means that every one of them was built downhill from a volcano that they knew was erupting.

I can see people on the Kona side saying “well, it’s been over 200 years since Hualālai has erupted. It’s a risk, but Hualālai volcano does not have anywhere near the recent eruption history that Kilauea or Mauna Loa does.

A prepper’s assessment of living in paradise: 

The Big Island has several major threats that preppers need to be aware of. 

• Volcanic eruption. Anybody who lives anywhere other than Kohala on the big island has at least a chance (some areas more so than others, obviously) of Pele’s Paving Company covering their property with a few feet or a few yards of lava.
• Earthquake. Hawai’i is subject to major earthquakes, and they happen a LOT.
• Hurricane/typhoon. The island has been hit by many, many of them over the years
• Tsunami. The picture below shows a park that was the Japanese part of Hilo (the Shinmachi district) in 1946, leveling everything in sight. 156 people were killed. NOTE: Hilo is downhill of Mauna Loa, in it’s flow pattern. Opps. 
• A lack of self-sustainability. Modern life in Hawai’i requires outside resources. Period.
• Social unrest. This is something that you have had to spend a LOT of time on the islands to understand, but there are a lot of unhappy natives of Polynesian descent on the islands. If the SHTF, outsiders will likely face a threat they never knew existed.

Wrapping it up:

Volcanic eruptions in Hawai’i are a thing of beauty, but as we have stated before, lava flows downhill. 

We all make our choices, we all should accept the risks that we take. The most affordable land on the island is in the area below Kilauea… and there’s definitely a reason for it.