My folks are well upslope, in Keaau, so they’re fine.

I don’t think water will be a problem. The county will truck it in to whoever needs it, but most everyone outside of the village center is on catchment anyway.

People do tend to be pretty blas there but the thing about lava is it’s a pretty contained disaster. Anything directly in the path is fucked, but 100 feet to either side and you’re just toasty warm.

The worst thing for the area will be if Highway 130 is cut. The commuter traffic to and from Hilo is terrible on the best day. If everyone has to go around through HPP (or even worse if the flow goes all the way to the sea and the only way out is Chain of Craters Road up through Volcanoes National Park) it’s going to be a nightmare.

What they ought to do if they have to is make Railroad Avenue one-way inbound and Government Beach road one-way outbound in the mornings then switch for the evening commute. That might help. Some.

Of course, breakout flows are unpredictable. The whole thing could stop tomorrow and that’d be the end of it.