Hawaii Lava News & Volcano Eruption 2014: Flow Reaches Pahoa [Map]

The molten lava flowing from the Kilauea volcano has reached the outskirts of Pahoa, reported The Sydney Morning Herald. According to the report, the river of molten lava runs at a speed of 10 to 15 yards an hour.

"As of Wednesday afternoon, authorities reported the lava had advanced to within 205 yards of Pahoa Village Road, the main street through the town of about 800 people built on the site of an old sugar plantation," The Sydney Morning Herald adds.

Fortunately, no place of residence has been consumed as of press time, noted CBS News. The lava flow, however, was 100 feet from a Pahoa home, the report adds, and the dwellers are already out.

A garden shed, tires and metal pieces have been burned down by the lava flow, stated CBS News.

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted civil defense chief Darryl Oliveira in reporting that "most homes and businesses are believed to be out of harm's way." The outlet said that "no mandatory evacuations have been ordered" yet.

This doesn't mean that all Pahoa residents are safe, though. The Sydney Morning Herald said that 50 homes within a so called "'corridor of risk' have been urged to be prepared to leave."

Oliveira said that all the residents and business owners in the said area were ready to leave but some are considering holding out until the evacuation is absolutely necessary, stated The Sydney Morning Herald.

"This is just a little quiet village in a very rural community. We farm, we fish, we hunt," said Jamila Dandini, a resident in the area, as quoted in the CBS News report. "We're going to be an island on an island."

"The people who are meant to stay will stay. The people that have to leave, sadly, will leave," Dandini adds.

Dandini describes the lava flow as "gentle, but so unrelenting" and "slow and steady," reported Gettysburg Times.

Business owner Paul Utes, who operates the Black Rock Café in Pahoa, told Gettysburg Times about the molten river of lava:

"It's like slow torture. It speeds up, it slows down. It speeds up, it slows down. It's not like any other event where it comes and goes and it gets over with and you can move on."

"Kilauea has erupted continuously from its Pu'u O'o vent since 1983, with its latest lava flow beginning on June 27," said The Syndey Morning Herald. "The last home destroyed by lava on the Big Island was at the Royal Gardens subdivision in Kalapana in 2012," the outlet adds.

See Hawaii's Kilauea volcano lava flow map here.