Pahoa Community Lava Meetings Suspended

Hawai’i County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira announced Tuesday during a media briefing that the Pahoa community lava Meetings will be suspended as a stall in activity allows for community members to resume normalcy.

“The meetings have been suspended temporarily. If things change we will notify the community and have a briefing but at this point we will be taking a break until further notice,” Oliveira told reporters.

Oliveira explained that the consistent minimal activity in the area continues to show no signs of threat to residents, therefore allowing for a break.

“We would like to encourage the community to take this opportunity to experience, or enjoy some normalcy in their life, as well as for our partner agencies who have been coming out on all these Thursdays to give their organizations and staff a break,” Oliveira said. “We’d like to take advantage of the situation right now where there is not a threat.”

The community meetings first began on Aug. 25 as the imminent threat of the June 27 lava flow forced community members to brace for impact. Community meetings continued until January, when the lava stalled and threat of impact decreased. At that point, Civil Defense and partnering organizations decided to have the meetings on a as-need basis, until the announcement of suspension came Tuesday.

Pahoa High School hosted the at-one-point weekly meetings at 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays in its cafeteria.

For a current update on the June 27 lava flow, view BigIslandNow.com’s daily update.