The Circumnavigator
Part 5:
Everything in its Path

"The National Guard finds people going out there, and just sends them back here."
--Conversation at the lava's edge

Several months before this trip was presented as an opportunity to me, I read in the news that a town in Hawai'i was threatened by lava flowing from the nearby volcano. Like so many news articles, I briefly thought to myself: "Crazy!", and promptly forgot about it.
I was sent to Hawaii to do some research involving features associated with the volcanoes. Suddenly I recalled the town, where by now a house or two had been consumed and the local stores were packing up. The National Guard had been brought in to keep people away from the actively flowing lava, and native Hawaii'ens had come to make offerings. From where we could see the lava some fences had been melted through and roads covered.






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