President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration Monday in response to the June 27 lava flow, a move that authorizes federal reimbursement of state and county relief efforts.
President Barack Obama signed a disaster declaration Monday in response to the June 27 lava flow, a move that authorizes federal reimbursement of state and county relief efforts.
Eligible projects under the declaration can receive 75 percent federal reimbursement with a 25 percent match from the state or Hawaii County.
The county has spent more than $6 million on emergency expenditures related to the lava flow, according to Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s request for federal assistance.
An additional $16 million was estimated to be needed in response to the ongoing disaster, which continues to threaten Pahoa homes.
Most of the funds so far have been spent on building alternate routes along Railroad Avenue, Government Beach Road and Chain of Craters Road should lava cross Highway 130 and reach the sea.
State efforts that could be reimbursed include measures to accommodate about 900 schoolchildren who have to take classes elsewhere because of the flow, and to support additional air quality monitoring.
Work on the Chain of Craters alternate route is ongoing. Brandon Gonzalez, county deputy Public Works director, said crews working on both ends are expected to finish rough grading the roadway in three days.
Additional work needs to be done to make it a driveable surface.
Meanwhile, the flow’s front remained stalled Monday about 480 feet from Pahoa Village Road.
Darryl Oliveira, county Civil Defense administrator, told reporters Monday there was “very little change since yesterday,” with some surface breakouts and widening near the front.
Most of the activity was located 2 miles upslope, where a lobe was advancing slowly to the north, northeast.
“It appears that most of the activity is uplsope,” Oliveira said. “We’re waiting to see if it turns and run parallel to the current flow or if it’s going to continue to move more northward and then turn.”
The stalled flow front is located on the property of Alfred Lee, while the orchard belonging to his neighbor, Melvin Sugimoto, continues to be slowly consumed.
“It’s kind of in the bush right now,” Lee said Monday, referring to small breakouts near the flow’s front.
“It’s pretty hard to predict, this lava flow,” he added. “It flows and it will stop and it will stay like that.”
Both men have built berms to try to protect their homes.
A photo taken Monday by Ena Media Hawaii showed a berm extending along the flow’s edge on Sugimoto’s property. A woman who answered the phone at his residence declined to comment.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.