Puna residents find refuge north

KAILUA-KONA — Alexis Lee recalls vividly the two earthquakes that shook her Kalapana Seaview Estates home the day the eruptions started.

“I was in our kitchen when the glasses started falling and breaking and we ran outside,” Lee said. “That’s when we started panic packing.”

She was in and out of her home the following days. By May 8, Lee, who suffers from a lung condition, said she was forced to wear a gas mask inside the house.

“My friends told me I had to get out of there,” she said.

About 2,000 residents have been displaced since the lava flows began in Leilani Estates on May 3. While three shelters in Puna have opened, people continue to seek haven in the north to ease their respiratory ailments.

Lee took the advice of her friends and a group of them ended up getting a camping permit for Spencer Beach Park by Kawaihae on May 9.

“We had no idea that other people had the same idea,” she said. “When we go there, there were people from Leilani, Black sands, Kaimu, Pohoiki. They were there to get away from the bad air.”

The number of campers fluctuated between 50 and 70 people. The group included families with young children and seniors.

“Everyone knew it wasn’t going to be a forever place. They were just there to escape the air and figure out what’s next,” Lee said. “The best place to be was on the other side of the island where people could rest. People were pretty shell-shocked.”

Last week, the group was asked to leave the beach after complaints of no available space by individuals who had obtained camping permits.

“The county, by saying shelters are the only solution, is not the case,” Lee said. “We’re not criminals. We’re just people who needed a space.”

Since Saturday, the campers from Puna dispersed to various areas. A Waimea woman invited a handful to camp on her property. She said they all have one thing in common: respiratory issues.

“No one asked them why they left the Pahoa shelter,” the woman said. “Now that they have stability they can start to work.”

Wishing only to be identified as Dayna, she said she gave the Puna refugees the space out of her heart.

“A lot of us local people just do it. I don’t look for recognition. I don’t need it,” she said.

The Waimea woman said it’s not just her who is helping.

“I could never do it without my Lord or without my family,” she said. “We’re gonna make it work.”

While Puna residents have left their communities, county officials say the air quality in Pahoa and surrounding areas is safe.

Hawaii County Managing Director Wil Okabe said there are sulfur dioxide monitors all over the sites. If it were unsafe for people to be in the area, they would have evacuated from Pahoa or Keaau.

“We won’t be irresponsible to put them in that area,” Okabe said.

Okabe added the whole of Puna has not been evacuated. Public school is still happening.

“We still have people in Leilani Estates. We have a mandatory evacuation and they’re living next to the fissures where lava is spitting out,” Okabe said.

If the S02 levels do reach a dangerous level the county is prepared to look at other sites for shelters. As of now, however, that is not the case.

“The whole island is not a shelter,” Okabe said.

Okabe said the county is sympathetic and empathetic to people evacuating.

“Some of them lost everything they own,” he said. “It hurts me to know what these people are going through. I think we have to go the extra mile — the county has to go the extra mile.”

Okabe added there’s no question some people are more easily affected by the S02 levels in the air. Those more sensitive to it are children, seniors and those with asthma.

At this point, however, Okabe said, it doesn’t matter what side of the island a person is on. The vog is everywhere and it’s affecting everyone, with or without diagnosed respiratory issues.