A slow-moving flood of lava destroyed hundreds of homes in the southeast area of Big Island, turning what had been a scenic bay dotted with beach homes, lush greens and turquoise waters, into a dark slab of steam and lava.
By Tuesday morning, the lava had completely filled Kapoho Bay -- shocking residents and frequent visitors who realized that their beloved bay was gone. It was where vacationers enjoyed tide pools, snorkeling and picnics, reported CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now.
As of the morning of June 5, the fissure 8 lava flow front had completely filled Kapoho Bay.
"It's incredibly saddening," Jason Hills, who makes a yearly visit, told the station. "Kapoho Bay was just a little calm water gem where people could play, swim, hang out in the tide pools. It was green and beautiful, great trade winds, and now it's just a big hunk of lava rock."
A satellite image from 2016 shows Kapoho Bay on the island of Hawaii before the Kilauea volcano erupted, and an image taken on June 4, 2018 with lava spilling into the bay.
So far, it was unclear how many homes have been affected, but Hawaii Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno said it was fair to say it was hundreds. The lava pushed into beach lots in Kapoho, which has about 350 homes and Vacationland, which has about 150. This doesn't mean all homes were affected, but authorities will have to count and match the areas with property maps.
About 80% of the homes are believed to be vacation homes, Magno told reporters Tuesday.
Lava from one of the fissures entered Kapoho Bay late Sunday or early Monday, forcing billowing clouds of steam into the atmosphere as hot lava hit the cool water of the Pacific Ocean. Fissure 8 was very active overnight into Tuesday, producing large amounts of lava that destroyed homes. The lava flow extended 0.8 miles from the shore.
"It's a slow-moving flood. Nothing stops it and the direction it goes," Magno said of the lava flow. "It continues its march to the ocean."
Helicopter overflight on June 4, showed lava from fissure 8 entering the ocean at Kapoho Bay.
At least 12,000 earthquakes on Hawaii's Big Island in the last 30 days
Hawaii County Civil Defense authorities also warned about laze, a nasty mashup of lava and haze that sends hydrochloric acid and volcanic glass particles into the air. The large laze plume was blowing inland along the coastline and the agency warned residents to avoid the area.
At least 117 homes have been destroyed since lava began flowing, Magno said, but this doesn't include those affected in Kapoho and Vacationland.
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Entire Hawaii neighborhood vanishes as lava gushes in
This satellite image provided by Digital Globe captured June 5, 2018, shows lava flows on most of Kapoho Bay in Hawaii. Lava from the Kilauea volcano destroyed hundreds of homes in a mostly rural area on the Big Island of Hawaii overnight. It's the largest number of destroyed homes since the eruption began last month. (Satellite Image ©2018 DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via AP)
Associated Press
This image taken from video on Monday, June 4, 2018, and provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows lava from a fissure flowing into the ocean at Kapoho Bay at Kapoho on the island of Hawaii. After overrunning the town overnight and destroying hundreds of homes, the lava flowed into the shallow bay and had nearly filled it. (U.S. Geological Survey via AP)
Associated Press
This image taken from video on Monday, June 4, 2018 and provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows lava from a fissure flowing into the ocean at Kapoho Bay at the town of Kapoho on the island of Hawaii. See the structure at lower left for scale. The flow front was about a half-mile wide, with lava building a delta a few hundred yards into the bay. Hundreds of homes were destroyed overnight. (U.S. Geological Survey via AP)
Associated Press
This photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows an early-morning view of Halema'uma'u Crater and the KÄ«lauea Caldera from the KÄ«lauea overlook at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the island of Hawaii, Tuesday, June 5, 2018. Heavy steam dominates the view, and strong winds are blowing the plume to the southwest. (U.S. Geological Survey via AP)
Associated Press
This satellite image provided by Digital Globe captured June 5, 2018, shows Kilauea summit crater in Hawaii. Lava from the Kilauea volcano destroyed hundreds of homes in a mostly rural area on the Big Island of Hawaii overnight. It's the largest number of destroyed homes since the eruption began last month. A spokeswoman for Hawaii County says an exact count of destroyed homes has yet to be determined. (Satellite Image ©2018 DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via AP)
Associated Press
This satellite image provided by Digital Globe captured June 3, 2018, shows advancing lava flows as they approach Kapoho Bay in Hawaii. Lava from the Kilauea volcano destroyed hundreds of homes in a mostly rural area on the Big Island of Hawaii overnight. It's the largest number of destroyed homes since the eruption began last month. A spokeswoman for Hawaii County says an exact count of destroyed homes has yet to be determined. (Satellite Image ©2018 DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via AP)
Associated Press
This satellite image provided by Digital Globe captured June 5, 2018, shows lava flows on most of Kapoho Bay in Hawaii. Lava from the Kilauea volcano destroyed hundreds of homes in a mostly rural area on the Big Island of Hawaii overnight. It's the largest number of destroyed homes since the eruption began last month. (Satellite Image ©2018 DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via AP)
Associated Press
This image taken from video on Monday, June 4, 2018, and provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows lava from a fissure flowing into the ocean at Kapoho Bay at Kapoho on the island of Hawaii. After overrunning the town overnight and destroying hundreds of homes, the lava flowed into the shallow bay and had nearly filled it. (U.S. Geological Survey via AP)
Associated Press
By CALEB JONES
HONOLULU -- A neighborhood called Vacationland on Hawaii's Big Island had disappeared by Wednesday as lava poured into two oceanfront subdivisions, smothering hundreds of homes and filling an ocean bay, turning it into new land that now juts into the sea.
Molten rock entirely covered Vacationland and only a few buildings remained in the nearby Kapoho subdivision, officials with the U.S. Geological Survey said.
"The bay is completely filled in and the shoreline is at least 0.8 miles out from its original location," said Geological Survey geologist Wendy Stovall. "Vacationland is gone, there is no evidence of any properties there at all. On the northern end of that, there are just a few homes in the (Kapoho) beach lots area."
Resident Mark Johnson is hopeful that his home on a citrus farm is one of those still standing. His ocean-view property sits on a ridge near the base of Kapoho crater, and he thinks the lava could have missed it.
"Basically we are up on that hill, so we're still OK right now," Johnson said.
But he has resigned himself to the possibility that he could lose his beloved farm, which he can't access even if lava doesn't cover it. The property isn't far from a crater lake that the approaching flow vaporized days before entering his neighborhood.
"I'm kind of at peace, actually," Johnson said of potentially losing his home of 28 years. "I feel that I've had a really great experience."
County officials said the two subdivisions have 279 homes, and most are feared destroyed from the most recent lava flows in the low-laying area.
"Over the course of essentially two days, that entire area was covered by lava," Stovall said.
Molten rock from the erupting Kilauea volcano already has destroyed at least 117 homes in the Lanipuna Gardens and Leilani Estates neighborhoods where lava surfaced more than a month ago. The total number of homes destroyed in the eruption stands at about 400.
Scientists are still recording vigorous volcanic activity. While only one crack in the ground is spewing molten rock and the height of fountaining lava has decreased in recent days, "it's still really impossible to tell," when it will end, Stovall said.
The lava inundation is among the most destructive and costly in volcano property loss in U.S. history. While no one has been killed and only one lava-related injury has been reported, the number of destroyed homes dwarfs other recent American eruptions.
It comes as a volcano erupted in Guatemala on Sunday and left 99 dead and nearly 200 missing.
In Hawaii, previous eruptions have destroyed small towns, but nothing on the scale of this outbreak. Lava flows destroyed homes and other buildings in the same area in 1955 and 1960, but the town of Kapoho was less densely populated at that time.
Between 1983 and 2014, a Kilauea eruption razed homes in and around the town of Kalapana. Over the course of about eight months in 1990, 214 homes were destroyed in that area. One home was lost in a separate 2014 lava flow in the commercial hub of Pahoa.
Even major explosive eruptions like that of Washington state's Mount St. Helens in 1980 didn't result in the same number of homes lost. That volcano and others in the region that have had recent eruptions are very remote with few people living nearby.
At Kilauea's summit, increased earthquake activity has led to explosive eruptions, some of which have shot rock and ash high into the air.
"We expect larger explosions will continue at the summit," Stovall said Wednesday.
Jessica Ferracane, spokeswoman for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, was on the summit Wednesday and said three "sizable" earthquakes hit in the two hours she was there.
"It's a beautiful blue day, but it really seems eerie up there, lots and lots of ash covering areas near Jagger Museum and the earthquakes really make things seem very unsettled," she said.