HONOLULU: Lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano destroyed hundreds more homes overnight, overtaking two oceanfront communities where residents were advised to evacuate last week, officials said Tuesday.
No injuries were reported as most residents heeded the advice to leave.
The latest lost homes were in addition to at least 117 others that were previously reported by officials since lava began spilling last month from cracks in the ground in a mostly rural district of the Big Island.
“We don’t have an estimate yet, but safe to say that hundreds of homes were lost in Kapoho Beach Lots and Vacationland last night,” Janet Snyder, a spokeswoman for Hawaii County, said Tuesday.
A morning overflight confirmed that lava had completely filled Kapoho Bay, inundated most of Vacationland and covered all but the northern part of Kapoho Beach Lots, scientists with the US Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said.
Lava claimed Big Island Mayor Harry Kim’s second home in Vacationland, Snyder said.
County Managing Director Wil Okabe said his own vacation home in Kapoho Beach Lots was threatened. Okabe described the area as a mix of vacation rentals and year-round residences.
“For us it’s more of a vacation area, but for those who live there permanently, they’re trying to figure out where they’re going to be living,” he said. Kim and Okabe live in Hilo, the county’s seat, which is more than an hour drive from the Kapoho area.
One shelter was full Tuesday, officials said.
Gov. David Ige signed a second supplemental emergency proclamation Tuesday that gives the county more options for shelters and sets criminal penalties for violating emergency rules, such as failing to evacuate and interfering with emergency workers.
Lava claimed Harry Pomerleau’s home in Vacationland.
“It’s a necessary evil. It’s not our land. It belongs to Pele,” he said, referring to the Hawaiian volcano goddess. “I have to imagine. she knows what she’s doing.”
Kapoho resident Mark Johnson was coming to terms with the possibility of losing his home and 5-acre citrus farm.
“I’m really kind of at peace actually,” he said. “I’ve had 28 years of wonderful experience down there in Kapoho.”
Johnson and Pomerleau evacuated last week when authorities with bullhorns arrived at 1 a.m. saying it was time to get their things and leave.
They didn’t expect the lava flow to head their way.
“God only knows what it’s going to do next,” Johnson said.
He wants to return if lava spares his home on a ridge overlooking the ocean. But it’s unclear how long it would take to re-open access to the area, he said.
Pomerleau said all of the vacation homes he did handyman work for are gone.
Thousands of people in the Puna area had to evacuate after the first fissure opened May 3. Officials issued mandatory orders for residents of Leilani Estates, and those in Kapoho Beach and Vacationland were advised to leave last Friday or risk being trapped and unreachable by emergency crews.
Homes in Kapoho Beach Lots and Vacationland are on smaller lots and closer together than those in other parts of the Puna district. Okabe estimated there are several hundred homes in each of the two subdivisions.
Those who live or vacation in the area were mourning the loss of popular tide-pools where kids enjoyed swimming.
“That coastline is really important to us— a place where we spent time with our family,” said Franny Brewer who lives in upper Puna.
She reminisced about taking her daughter to swim in the ocean for the first time in a local swimming spot known as Champagne Ponds.
“I’ve been crying a lot,” she said. “It’s hard because obviously a lot of people have lost a lot more than just a beautiful place to visit and memories.”
Lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano destroys oceanfront communities
Lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano destroys oceanfront communities
Trump sues the BBC for defamation over editing of January 6 speech, seeks up to $10 billion in damages
- A BBC spokesperson told Reuters earlier on Monday that it had “no further contact from President Trump’s lawyers at this point
- The BBC is funded through a mandatory license fee on all TV viewers, which UK lawyers say could make any payout to Trump politically fraught
WASHING: President Donald Trump sued the BBC on Monday for defamation over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he directed supporters to storm the US Capitol, opening an international front in his fight against media coverage he deems untrue or unfair. Trump accused Britain’s publicly owned broadcaster of defaming him by splicing together parts of a January 6, 2021 speech, including one section where he told supporters to march on the Capitol and another where he said “fight like hell.” It omitted a section in which he called for peaceful protest.
Trump’s lawsuit alleges the BBC defamed him and violated a Florida law that bars deceptive and unfair trade practices. He is seeking $5 billion in damages for each of the lawsuit’s two counts. The BBC has apologized to Trump, admitted an error of judgment and acknowledged that the edit gave the mistaken impression that he had made a direct call for violent action. But it has said there is no legal basis to sue.
Trump, in his lawsuit filed Monday in Miami federal court, said the BBC despite its apology “has made no showing of actual remorse for its wrongdoing nor meaningful institutional changes to prevent future journalistic abuses.”
The BBC is funded through a mandatory license fee on all TV viewers, which UK lawyers say could make any payout to Trump politically fraught.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said in a statement the BBC “has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda.”
A BBC spokesperson told Reuters earlier on Monday that it had “no further contact from President Trump’s lawyers at this point. Our position remains the same.” The broadcaster did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the lawsuit was filed.
CRISIS LED TO RESIGNATIONS
Facing one of the biggest crises in its 103-year history, the BBC has said it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary on any of its platforms.
The dispute over the clip, featured on the BBC’s “Panorama” documentary show shortly before the 2024 presidential election, sparked a public relations crisis for the broadcaster, leading to the resignations of its two most senior officials.
Trump’s lawyers say the BBC caused him overwhelming reputational and financial harm.
The documentary drew scrutiny after the leak of a BBC memo by an external standards adviser that raised concerns about how it was edited, part of a wider investigation of political bias at the publicly funded broadcaster.
The documentary was not broadcast in the United States.
Trump may have sued in the US because defamation claims in Britain must be brought within a year of publication, a window that has closed for the “Panorama” episode.
To overcome the US Constitution’s legal protections for free speech and the press, Trump will need to prove not only that the edit was false and defamatory but also that the BBC knowingly misled viewers or acted recklessly.
The broadcaster could argue that the documentary was substantially true and its editing decisions did not create a false impression, legal experts said. It could also claim the program did not damage Trump’s reputation.
Other media have settled with Trump, including CBS and ABC when Trump sued them following his comeback win in the November 2024 election.
Trump has filed lawsuits against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and a newspaper in Iowa, all three of which have denied wrongdoing. The attack on the US Capitol in January 2021 was aimed at blocking Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential win over Trump in the 2020 US election.
