His property untouched, a lava evacuee waits to rebuild his retirement home

Since the 2018 Kilauea Volcano eruption, Victor Hoapili has flown twice by helicopter to the kipuka where his Leilani Estates home still stands amid hundreds of acres of cooling lava.

The 61-year-old retired Navy chief petty officer considers himself fortunate not to have lost his home, even though he can no longer access it by road or move back into it due to irreparable damage.

“In my case, it’s a total loss. There’s no foreseeable future,” he said. “I’m OK with it. I still have my land and that’s important because the view is phenomenal.”

Hoapili watched a year ago as gushing lava formed a massive molten lake outside his house at 13-636 Kahukai St. where he had lived since 2015.

“You’ve got all these monstrous cones that spewed thousands upon thousands of cubic yards of hot molten lava in our back, front and rear side yards and took people out. It’s almost immeasurable,” he said.

“It is quite stunning to have all the fissure cones that were doing such damage presented in front of you as you stand in your yard. Everybody was blown away.”

Island Insurance deemed his home “absolutely unlivable,” he said, and paid off the mortgage. For the past year Hoapili has been living in the Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision about 12 miles away while he and his former Leilani Estates neighbors petition for a new road to their properties.

“Since the lava came I just picked up the pieces, like all of us did. They tried to move on with life as best they could … ,” he said. “I’m insured. Fortunately for me that was the case. Other people weren’t as fortunate. The most difficult, enduring thing that you think about is the fact that your neighborhood is gone and the people that used to live there are also gone.”

Hoapili said he plans to “live off the grid” once he can finally rebuild his retirement home.

“I’m just happy to be alive. It could have come in the night and I could’ve been trapped by the thing, you never know.”

Also surviving the ordeal were his 82-year-old mother’s home in Pohoiki and his brother’s residence in Puna. The lava stopped at her “front door” and created a new black sand beach at the Isaac Hale Beach Park.

“It’s still growing too. The black sand is still being deposited on the beach due to the flow that happened up there in Kapoho,” Hoapili said. “And mother still has her castle by the sea.”

The new home he plans to build on his one-acre lot will “look out upon the vast enormity of it all.”

“Life goes on. I bought that land because it spoke to me and it’s still there. The mana, the spirit, the land — you feel it. You get chicken skin,” he said.“It’s going to be a great spot again. I really believe it.”