The ominous orange glow Evanstonian Peter Steffen sees from his house in Hawaii isn’t from a scenic sunset or sunrise, instead it’s the fiery radiance from the Mauna Loa volcano that began erupting a few weeks ago.
Steffen, 74, and his wife have been visiting Hawaii for 24 years and bought a house on the “Big Island” 18 years ago. He said they split their time between Hawaii and Evanston and that this is the first time he has ever had to ride out an eruption on Mauna Loa, about 50 miles from his home.
“We can see the glow coming up over the mountain,” he said.
He said they arrived on the island in mid September and a few days later their house was shaken by an earthquake, a common occurrence according to Steffen.
But when he heard a couple of “big booms” on Nov. 27, he checked online to see what was happening and that’s when he learned Mauna Loa, the world’s largest volcano, had started to erupt.
“That’s when they said Mauna Loa was really starting to show, that it was getting active,” said Steffen who graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1966. “It wasn’t until Monday morning that there was lava flowing.”
More Top Picks Best Tvs
Steffen said his house is above the city of Kona and that geological experts have said the section of the island where he lives is not in any immediate danger, but that the south section of the island is in harms way as lava continues its slow advance down the mountain. He also said local experts are saying the volcano is spewing the equivalent of 10 dump trucks full of lava every second.
“There’s no way you can put up some barrier that’s going to divert that,” he said. “It’s just too much of nature’s strength.”
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Mauna Loa, has erupted 34 times since 1843 and the most recent eruption was in 1984. In that eruption rivers of lava came within 5 miles of the outskirts of the city of Hilo, but the eruption ended on April 15.
Steffen said he lives closer to a volcano named Kilauea which, like Mauna Loa, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. He said Kilauea erupts every few years and when that happens the air is filled with ash that blocks the sun and stars.
“We have to go up north if we want a sunny day at the beach,” he said.
He also said the people on the island have learned to live with volcanic eruptions and that right now the eruption on Mauna Loa is more of a tourist curiosity than a danger, although the lava is approaching a major highway. He’s returning to Evanston for Christmas but said he’s got a plan if there’s ever an eruption near his Hawaiian home that forces him to evacuate.
“It’s always been going these other ways, but what if Mother Nature changes and all of the sudden it starts to come here?” he said adding that he and his wife may have to jump in their kayak and paddle over 22 miles of open water to the Island of Maui.
“It could be a little rough,” he chuckled. “That’s my final ditch plan if everything else were to fail.”
Brain L. Cox is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.