NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 8
Dispatches
N AT U R A L D I S A S T E R
KILAUEA
CALAMITY
MONTHS OF VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS ON
HAWAII'S BIG ISLAND CHALLENGE EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT OFFICIALS AND RAISE QUESTIONS
ABOUT HOW TO PREPARE FOR SUCH EVENTS
By Angelo Verzoni
aradise turned into "a little bit of
hell" is how Ellen Gannet described
the situation on Hawaii's Big Island
to The New York Times in May. The
house where she had raised five
children was encased by hardened black lava after
the island's most active volcano, Kilauea, began
erupting earlier in the month.
The eruptions have led to thousands of evacuations and various ongoing public safety concerns.
Lava flows have leveled homes, swallowed cars,
swept away roads, and destroyed or threatened
critical infrastructure. As of late June, there was
no sign of the eruptions abating.
As the situation nears its third month, Hawaii's
experience has raised questions about what, if
anything, can be done to help emergency officials
respond to and prepare for when the earth spews
its molten core onto civilizations above. It also
raises the question of whether NFPA codes and
standards could play a larger role in addressing
the threat of natural disasters for certain facilities
like power plants-the same question that was
raised after a string of powerful hurricanes pummeled the United States late last year, crippling
the petrochemical infrastructure of the Gulf Coast.
So far, human casualties have been low. There
has only been one known injury; a man's leg was
reportedly shattered from his shin to his foot after
HAWAII UH-OH
A lava flow
approaches a
geothermal power
plant on the Island of
Hawaii. The ongoing
volcanic eruptions
have presented an
array of challenges
for emergency
management
officials.
8 | NFPA JOURNAL * J U L Y /A U G U S T 2 0 1 8
it was hit by lava spatter. (A Hawaii government
spokesperson told Reuters that lava spatter "can
weigh as much as a refrigerator and even small
pieces of spatter can kill.") But thousands of people
have faced warnings of noxious sulfur dioxide gases
wafting miles through the air from volcanic vents.
There have also been reports of blue flames rising
from the cracks of roadways and hardened lava, the
result of burning methane gas that formed underneath plants crushed by the lava flow.
Perhaps the most alarming scenario amid
Kilauea's chaos, however, played out on the
fourth week in May when a wall of lava began
GETT Y IMAGES
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2018
Contents
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 1
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - Contents
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 3
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 4
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 5
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 6
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 7
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 8
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 9
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NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 11
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NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 18
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 19
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 20
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 21
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NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 24
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 25
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 26
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - 27
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NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - Cover3
NFPA Journal - July/August 2018 - Cover4
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