President Barack Obama declared a slow-moving lava flow from the Pu'u O'o vent of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii to be a major disaster, and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts, the White House said in a Monday statement.
The lava flow is encroaching on Pahoa, a rural town on Hawaii’s Big Island, threatening to destroy a major road in the already-isolated town at the site of an old sugar plantation. The leading edge of the flow has paused about 185 yards from Pahoa Village Road, the main thoroughfare, Reuters reported. The smoldering lava is a little more than 300 feet away from a home in the town, Hawaii News Now said.
The leading edge of the lava flow is just 35 yards wide, but breakouts have expanded it to more than 500 yards wide near Apa’a Street, the Weather Channel reported.