A magnitude-5.5 earthquake rattled Hawaii's Kilauea volcano Tuesday as the home of Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim was added to the inventory of destruction wrought by the searing lava ushering havoc into nearby Big Island communities.
Kim's home in the Vacationland neighborhood is one likely dozens of homes destoryed overnight, Hawaii County Civil Defense said Tuesday. The devastation will inflate the already confirmed 117 homes that have been destroyed since Kilauea began erupting May 3.
"Harry had a premonition this was going to happen," Janet Snyder, spokeswoman of the Hawaii County Civil Defense, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. "Vacationland is almost totally destroyed."
Tuesday's quake, the latest in a series to rock the surging volcano, spewed ash a mile into the air. Some areas may have experienced "strong shaking," but no tsunami was triggered, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
Lava is entering the water at the Vacationland tidepools and has inundated most of the subdivision, the Hawaii Volcano Observatory reported after a flyover Tuesday. To the north, lava covered all but the northern part of lots in Kapoho Beach, the observatory said.
Thousands of residents of the Big Island's Puna district have evacuated since the eruptions began. Residents of Leilani Estates were ordered out weeks ago, and Kapoho Beach and Vacationland were evacuated amid fears that residents would be unreachable for rescue teams.
Most of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park remains closed because of a series of damaging earthquakes, corrosive volcanic ash and explosions from Halema‘uma‘u, the summit crater of Kilauea.
“Unlike lava, which you can see coming and avoid, we cannot see or predict earthquakes," Park Superintendent Cindy Orlando said. "Nor can we foresee a summit explosion. But both threats continue."
The area is seeing increasing damage to its natural beauty. Kapoho Bay, near the Big Island's eastern tip, was filled with lava extending almost three-quarters of a mile from shore, the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement. That raises the threat from laze, a toxic mixture of hydrochloric acid formed by lava vaporizing seawater.
At the Malama Kī Forest Reserve, forest managers reported that up to half the 1,514 acres have been "impacted" by the eruptions. The forest served as habitat to sub-populations of native birds, including Hawaiian honeycreepers, the Hawai‘i 'amakihi and ‘apapane.
The loss of forest habitat because of lava inundation and defoliation could mean these "sub-populations of wildlife may no longer persist, rapidly decline or become further fragmented and/or contract in range," forestry official Steve Bergfeld warned.
In the Puʻu Makaʻala Natural Area Reserve, higher up on the slopes of Kilauea, staff involved in the recovery of the endangered Hawaiian crow, the ‘alala, closely monitored birds released in the area.
"Staff on-site in the release area are prepared to recapture birds and transport them if needed,” project manager Jackie Levita-Gaudioso said.