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Lava nears the home of Jack Thompson on Friday in the Royal Gardens subdivision. The home was destroyed Friday after years of near-misses.
Lava nears the home of Jack Thompson on Friday in the Royal Gardens subdivision. The home was destroyed Friday after years of near-misses.
Jack Thompson, looking at the unstoppable river of molten rock bearing down at his home of nearly 30 years, delivered the epitaph on Friday: "This is probably the grand finale."
He was reached Saturday evening from his other home in Ainaloa.
"I got as much stuff out there as was practical and everything else, had to leave it. It (the lava) was pretty much coming in the back as we were going out the front," Thompson said. "We left about 6 o'clock it was still light."
He took whatever he could stuff into two empty choppers from Paradise Helicopters. An hour later, some of Thompson's friends in Kalapana Gardens (near the county's lava viewing area several miles away) saw a bright light go up from what used to be a bed and breakfast.
It was the final act in the destruction of a vast but sparsely populated neighborhood dating back to the earliest phases of the Pu'u 'O'o-Kupaianaha eruption in 1983. Over the years, flows from Kilauea had burned his neighbors' homes and cut off the roads leading to Royal Gardens. In 2008, his last neighbor's home succumbed. Thompson began walking the 3 or 4 miles to Highway 130 over rough lava rock, hauling a backpack heavy with brown rice and beans. Those days appear to be over.
Comment: It is quite ironic that this committee calls itself "The Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism while it attacks a scientist to defend a belief in a "consensus.
For a more informative perspective on the global warming debate and what is really coming our way see: Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!