Lava creeps down Makamae St and Leilani Ave during the 2018 Kilauea Eruption.
Our journey into Leilani Estates led us face to face with Madame Pele. Here is my continuing story about how we found the elusive lava that destroyed a beautiful community in Puna.
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Steam gushes out of an active fissure near a Leilani Estates welcome sign.
As the Kilauea begins to quiet down inside Leilani Estates, I am sharing my experiences covering the eruption for the several weeks I was on the Big Island. Many of the people we encountered during this time were truly unforgettable and my adventures with them will stay with me for a lifetime.
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Hawaii National Guard and local police block the entrance to Leilani Estates the morning after the first eruptions.
s the lava begins to harden, it is time to write about my experiences covering the May 2018 Kilauea eruption inside the Leilani Estates subdivision. I was one of a handful of reporters and photographers that arrived within hours of the eruption and covered the historic event as best we could. The next few blog posts will be about my experiences traveling into the region and documenting the tragic yet beautiful destruction.
Read MoreWhat I thought would be a typical Friday Night Lights, rather Saturday Night Lights college football game turned into something more exciting, and painful.
Last Saturday at the Western Carolina Hawaii game, an unexpected force crashed into my 400mm lens thrusting my camera straight into my face. The massive blow tore my forehead open and cost me a trip to the ER. Luckily, the cut, although deep, was relatively small and required no stitches but the doctor glued my wound shut with Dermabond.
Read MoreHonolulu suffered a major tragedy this last week when a fire broke out at the Marco Polo, a residential high rise, killing three people along with a dog and displaced many from their homes. As of this blog posting, the cause of the fire is unknown but we do know the fire started in one unit on the 26th floor and spread to the 27th and 28th floors destroying dozens of units in its wake. Marco Polo also did not have fire sprinklers as the law mandating sprinklers in new construction was past several years after Marco Polo was built in 1971. Currently, there are no laws requiring buildings in Hawaii to be retrofitted with these fire safety measures.
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US President Barack Obama waves at he exits Air Force One In Honolulu.
Friday marked the start and the end of US President Barack Obama’s annual Hawaii vacation. After eight years of his headlining holiday visits, Hawaii’s favorite son will no longer return to his million-dollar rental home on the east shores of Oahu, at least not as President of the United States. The ending of his two terms in office also brings an end to this unique time of Hawaii history, where the D.C. limelight merged with the Island’s aloha culture.
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