LOS ANGELES: The US state of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted Thursday, causing lava to spew out of ground fissures in residential areas and prompting thousands of people to seek shelter.
The Pacific island state’s governor David Ige signed an emergency proclamation releasing disaster funds to the Big Island in the eruption’s wake, as local news footage showed streams of lava snaking through forested areas near Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes in the world.
The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency reported “steam and lava emissions from a crack in Leilani Subdivision in the area of Mohala Street” following the eruption, prompting a mandatory evacuation of some 1,700 people.
“White, hot vapor and blue fume emanated from an area of cracking in the eastern part of the subdivision,” the US Geological Survey said. The area has about 770 structures.
Local community centers in the broader district, home to some 10,000 people, were open to residents impacted by the threat, Hawaii’s emergency management agency said.
USGS authorities of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory unit were both on the ground and headed into the air to assess the eruption, which followed hundreds of small earthquakes in recent days and began around 4:45p local time (0245 GMT Friday), according to the agency.
Earlier, at 10:30am, a larger 5.0-magnitude earthquake south of the Puu Oo volcanic cone triggered rockfalls and potential collapse into a crater on the volcano, according to USGS.
Using his drone, area resident Jeremiah Osuna captured video footage of the red-hot lava flow, which he described as the opening of a “fire curtain” that left him feeling “shock and awe.”
“It was like if you put a bunch of rocks into a dryer and turned it on — a lot of earth and pressure and fire just moving around,” said.
After the eruption, authorities warned that “lava inundation,” fire, smoke and additional earthquakes could follow.
The Civil Defense Agency urged those under mandatory evacuation orders to stay away, as fire authorities were detecting “extremely high levels of dangerous sulfur dioxide gas” in the zone.
Governor Ige activated the archipelago state’s National Guard troops, and told residents to pay heed to official warnings.
In his emergency declaration the governor noted the current flow was showing similar characteristics to a 1960 eruption in the Kapoho area that “caused significant damage to public and private property in the lower Puna region” of the county.
Geologist Janet Babb of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said that scientists had been following an “intrusion of magma” down the rift zone since Monday afternoon in anticipation of a possible eruption.
She said activity from that particular fissure had stopped, but warned additional eruptions could occur and urged Hawaiians to following advice from authorities.
Yvonne Baur, a lava tour guide, was visiting a friend in a neighborhood of houses scattered across a barren lava flow field when the 5.0 tremor struck — and called the pinkish-grey plume that followed “exciting.”
But Baur calls a less hazardous zone of the region home and — despite her enthusiasm for eruptions — said she “would never build or buy a house” in such high risk areas.
“I want to be close, but not too close.”
US Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was mobilizing resources, as well as monitoring for forest fires, power outages and water supply issues.
Hawaii Island, or the Big Island, is the largest of the eight main islands that comprise the Pacific US state, an archipelago that includes hundreds of smaller volcanic islands. The affected area is part of the Big Island’s East Rift Zone.
Big Island resident Janice Wei, who moved to Hawaii from California — known for its high earthquake risk — said the eruption was almost a “relief.”
“We’ve been waiting for big movement from the crater, after so many small earthquakes,” she said.
“The Hawaiians and local people have lived here forever,” she said. “You know what’s going on; we have warning systems.”
“Everybody should be prepared.”
Thousands flee as Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano eruption hits residential areas
Thousands flee as Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano eruption hits residential areas
Trump warns Maduro against playing ‘tough’ as US escalates pressure campaign on Venezuela
- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday fired back at Donald Trump, who has ordered US naval forces to blockade the South American country's oil wealth, saying the US president would be "better off" focusing on domestic issues rather than threatenin
- The Defense Department, under Trump’s orders, continues its campaign of attacks on smaller vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that it alleges are carrying drugs to the United States and beyond
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump on Monday delivered a new warning to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the US Coast Guard steps up efforts to interdict oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Republican administration’s escalating pressure campaign on the government in Caracas.
Trump was surrounded by his top national security aides, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as he suggested that he remains ready to further escalate his four-month pressure campaign on the Maduro government, which began with the stated purpose of stemming the flow of illegal drugs from the South American nation but has developed into something more amorphous.
“If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’ll ever be able to play tough,” Trump said of Maduro as he took a break from his Florida holiday vacation to announce plans for the Navy to build a new, large warship.
Trump levied his latest threat as the US Coast Guard on Monday continued for a second day to chase a sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration describes as part of a “dark fleet” Venezuela is using to evade US sanctions. The tanker, according to the White House, is flying under a false flag and is under a US judicial seizure order.
“It’s moving along and we’ll end up getting it,” Trump said.
It is the third tanker pursued by the Coast Guard, which on Saturday seized a Panama-flagged vessel called Centuries that US officials said was part of the Venezuelan shadow fleet.
The Coast Guard, with assistance from the Navy, seized a sanctioned tanker called Skipper on Dec. 10, also part of the shadow fleet of tankers that the US says operates on the fringes of the law to move sanctioned cargo. That ship was registered in Panama.
Trump, after that first seizure, said the US would carry out a “blockade” of Venezuela. Trump has repeatedly said that Maduro’s days in power are numbered.
Last week, Trump demanded that Venezuela return assets that it seized from US oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a blockade against sanctioned oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Coast Guard, said in a Monday appearance on “Fox & Friends” that the targeting of tankers is intended to send “a message around the world that the illegal activity that Maduro is participating in cannot stand, he needs to be gone, and that we will stand up for our people.”
Russian diplomats evacuate families from Caracas
Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry started evacuating the families of diplomats from Venezuela, according to a European intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
The official told The Associated Press the evacuations include women and children and began on Friday, adding that Russian Foreign Ministry officials are assessing the situation in Venezuela in “very grim tones.” The ministry said in an X posting that it was not evacuating the embassy but did not address queries about whether it was evacuating the families of diplomats.
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yván Gil on Monday said he spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, who he said expressed Russia’s support for Venezuela against Trump’s declared blockade of sanctioned oil tankers.
“We reviewed the aggressions and flagrant violations of international law that have been committed in the Caribbean: attacks against vessels and extrajudicial executions, and the unlawful acts of piracy carried out by the United States government,” Gil said in a statement.
The scene on a Venezuelan beach near a refinery
While US forces targeted the vessels in international waters over the weekend, a tanker that’s considered part of the shadow fleet was spotted moving between Venezuelan refineries, including one about three hours west of the capital, Caracas.
The tanker remained at the refinery in El Palito through Sunday, when families went to the town’s beach to relax with children now on break from school.
Music played on loudspeakers as people swam and surfed with the tanker in the background. Families and groups of teenagers enjoyed themselves, but Manuel Salazar, who has parked cars at the beach for more than three decades, noticed differences from years past, when the country’s oil-dependent economy was in better shape and the energy industry produced at least double the current 1 million barrels per day.
“Up to nine or 10 tankers would wait out there in the bay. One would leave, another would come in,” Salazar, 68, said. “Now, look, one.”
The tanker in El Palito has been identified by Transparencia Venezuela, an independent watchdog promoting government accountability, to be part of the shadow fleet.
Area residents on Sunday recalled when tankers would sound their horns at midnight New Year’s Eve, while some would even send up fireworks to celebrate the holiday.
“Before, during vacations, they’d have barbecues; now all you see is bread with bologna,” Salazar said of Venezuelan families spending the holiday at the beach next to the refinery. “Things are expensive. Food prices keep going up and up every day.”
Venezuela’s ruling party-controlled National Assembly on Monday gave initial approval to a measure that would criminalize a broad range of activities that could be linked to the seizure of oil tankers.
Lawmaker Giuseppe Alessandrello, who introduced the bill, said people could be fined and imprisoned for up to 20 years for promoting, requesting, supporting, financing or participating in “acts of piracy, blockades or other international illegal acts against” commercial entities operating with the South American country.
The Defense Department, under Trump’s orders, continues its campaign of attacks on smaller vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that it alleges are carrying drugs to the United States and beyond.
At least 104 people have been killed in 28 known strikes since early September. The strikes have faced scrutiny from US lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has offered scant evidence that its targets are indeed drug smugglers and that the fatal strikes amount to extrajudicial killings.
