Several people have been evacuated by National Guard troops, police and firefighters after from the newly lava-threatened homes on the eastern tip of Hawaii's Big Island.
Authorities have been urging people of the area to leave since Wednesday. Now, all road access to the area has been severed by lava that spewed from a fissure at the eastern foot of Kilauea volcano.
A stream of lava as wide across as three football fields engulfed a highway on the outskirts of Kapoho.
In 1960, Kapoho was burnt to ashes following a destructive eruption of Kilauea. However, the Hawaii County Civil Defense agency reported that this time, the lava flow left Kapoho and the adjacent development of Vacationland.
County civil defence spokeswoman Janet Snyder told Reuters that the greater Kapoho area is habited by around 500 people. Though the final phases of the evacuation were carried out on Friday night and early Saturday, authorities are not sure how many residents, if any, chose to stay behind.
The evacuation operations were carried out by fire and police department personnel, with help from the Hawaii National Guard and public works teams, as reported.
Residents of Hawaii are dealing with incessant volcanic eruptions from Kilauea since the beginning of the May. Thousands of people were evacuated from the Leilani Estates subdivision. Moreover, the area was shrouded by toxic sulfur dioxide.
Kilauea is one of the world's most active volcanoes and last month the crater floor of the Puu Oo vent, which is a volcanic cone in the eastern rift zone of the mountain, collapsed, pushing the magma more than 10 miles downslope toward the southeast coastline.
