Plan now for how to help Pahoa folks

The stoicism of folks in lower Puna is unquestioned, coping since June as they have with a slow-moving yet unpredictable lava flow that has disrupted daily routines in ways large and small.

Some schools and businesses have relocated, and residents have learned to cope with the smoke and vog that worsens air quality, as well as with the influx of visitors eager to see the island-in-the-making, although civil defense and other officials are keeping people safely away from the active flow.

Residents of a volcanic island that has been erupting almost continuously since 1983 generally don’t overreact to Kilauea Volcano’s beautiful, lethal force — they figure out how to live with it for as long as they can, then get out of the way. So it was in Kalapana. So it is now in Pahoa and nearby areas.

A new community-needs assessment, though, lays bare the potential need to help relocate hundreds of families and their pets, livestock and belongings should the lava advance and force evacuations.

Residents’ honest accounting of where they might end up and what they might leave behind highlights how important it is to address the issue now, before the need for new housing grows more urgent.

There’s an opportunity to forge innovative solutions, zoning that would allow quick construction of modular homes or mobile-home parks, so that longstanding communities that have to move out of the lava’s path could stick together elsewhere.

If this type of emergency housing were to work in lower Puna, it could be tried in high-needs areas, such as among Oahu’s homeless population.

Of the 784 affected Big Island households that responded to the survey, 72 percent said they did not plan to leave their homes because of the lava.

Embedded in that optimistic outlook, how-ever, was the stark fact that if forced to leave — because the lava reached their property, air quality deteriorated or authorities ordered them to evacuate — more than half of all affected residents had no immediate place to go.

About 10 percent said they would need short-term shelter, while slightly more than 40 percent would need long-term shelter or a new place to live. Of the other half, 20 percent planned to stay with friends or family on the island — a potentially tenuous solution if the shared living arrangements soured — 10 percent had a second home to move to, and 10 percent planned to leave the island altogether.

The survey, conducted Nov. 20 to Dec. 11 by Hawaii County Civil Defense, Hawaii Island United Way and University of Hawaii-Hilo researcher Mark Kimura, establishes an important baseline in the lava-affected areas, highlighting not only the potential need for housing, but also for alternative transportation, health care for medically fragile residents and supervision of animals that may be left behind.

(The survey indicated that there are more than 8,600 pets and livestock in lower Puna, and not all owners intend to take the animals with them if they evacuate.)

The findings allow the coalition of organizations and individuals that has already stepped to refocus its efforts to best effect. Moreover, the survey illustrates that no matter how fervently Pahoa residents want to stay put, it is wise to bring the private and public sector together now to devise innovative housing solutions in case Pele forces the issue.