After first erupting on Thursday, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has continued to send molten magma up through the eight fissures that have now opened up in the ground in a part of Hawaii that is home to several ritzy neighborhoods, including the tony Leilani Estates, where residents have been forced to flee as the eruptions, as well as several powerful earthquakes, have destroyed power lines and disrupted and left parts of the surrounding area without water.

One area resident summed up the neighborhood’s plight in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.

“This is as bad as it gets,” said John Bennett, 61, a resident of the Leilani Estates neighborhood forced to evacuate. “We can’t go back in yet. I feel lost. I don’t know what to think. I’ve never been in this situation before.”

The estimated 1,800 people who live in the affected area have sought temporary respite in government shelters. Others have moved in friends on other islands. 

At least nine house have been destroyed in Leilani Estates a the fissures have continued to spew lava through the lower Puna subdivision, according to the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

Some have said they don’t know whether the pets that they left behind will survive the natural disaster, according to the Washington Post.

Bennett, the man quoted above, said the eruption took him by surprise. He first learned what was happening when he came home Thursday and noticed that a fissure had opened up in his front yard.

Bennett’s wife Roberta, an assistant librarian at Kamehameha Schools on the island of Hawaii, was away on Oahu when the magma started flowing, but she quickly flew back with their son Keoni, 29. The family stayed in the house until Friday, when they were forced to leave because of the magma flows.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…