When a Volcano goes off in Hawaii

Mauna Loa, one of the active volcanoes on the Big Island, last erupted in 1984. That was the year I moved to Hawaii. I didn't know I was supposed to be afraid. There was no sign of eruption, but there was a loud barrage of people screaming and others talking excitedly. It was the middle of the night. I woke up and instinctively wandered outside. The night sky was red....red like the blood of a bull erasing the darkness. I was half asleep and didn't understand what was going on. I went back to bed.

In the morning, the inn I was staying at was empty. What had been full to capacity the night before, was now a ghost town. Everyone was gone. No sounds of parents trying to get their kids to eat, no kids whining they were hungry, but didn't want THAT to eat. I walked around for awhile. The sky was no longer red. It was thick and grey and grimy. I wandered next door to a little store. The Japanese owner, who had on the same clothes as the day before, looked sheepish and unconcerned. It didn't seem like he had stocked his store in the past fifteen years. Not having much to pick from, I decided to eat a candy bar for breakfast. I figured the nuts in it were nutritious

When the store owner totaled my tab, he commented that the lava would move towards Hilo, and the city might have to evacuate. I started to get nervous, realizing this was big. A city having to get evacuated. Where would everyone go? I opened my candy bar and asked him why he thought the inn had emptied out. I hadn't heard anything about evacuation of the inn, and I didn't see any lava. "To the beach," he replied. :Lava no can get you at the water. It must slow there."

I couldn't believe it. An entire inn emptied out in the middle of the night. Everyone took off for the beach. By the end of the day, everyone returned. They seemed jittery and irritable. People were afraid, had trouble sleeping. A few days later we heard the news. The lava was only a few miles from Hilo. The military tried to bomb the lava to stop Hilo from turning to ash. Nothing doing. The lava continued its indomitable flow towards the doomed city. The military gave up and said evacuation was all but certain.

Finally, in desperation, the Hawaiian Kahunas gathered outside Hilo. They brought their ti lives, and offerings of gin and taro to Pele, fiery Goddess of the erupting
volcano. They prayed and sang and bowed to her. Within a short time the lava stopped.. The eruption was over. Hilo sighed a sigh of relief and went about its business.