00:45 (Ambient noise) 00:49 (Instrumental music) Narrator 01:36 The path ends here in Kalapana, Hawaiʻi, the newest land on Earth.

As the lava pours into the ocean mixing fire and water, new land is created by lava from Kīlauea, the most active volcano in the world.

Narrator 02:00 Kīlauea's current eruptive phase began in January of 1983 when Puʻu Ōʻō - a vent on the volcanoe's east rift zone - exploded in a curtain of fire.

It is the longest eruption of a Hawaiian volcano in the last 200 years.

Generating an estimated 650,000 cubic yards of lava each day, Kīlauea has left a trail of devastation and creation, forever changing the lives of those in her path.

A landmark of incredible beauty and an ever changing landscape, Kīlauea is a special place to many Hawaiians Pualani Kanahele 02:45 That's one of the most sacred of our, of our lands.

For the Hawaiians that have lived for many, many years, and some of the Hawaiians that live today, that is the most sacred of our land, for many reasons.

One is because it is the home of Pele and also because it is the home of creation.

And that, because that land is still very much alive and the land is still growing.

And so that growth has to be allowed.

And so anytime you see, you know steam coming out of the land, that's an indication that the land is alive and it's growing.

And it has breath.

kilowatt area is really the house of Pele.

Pele is she resides in Kīlauea, but then also Pele is the lava that comes out of Kīlauea, as well as the deity.

So she is not only this deity that sits up here and is responsible for that lava, but she is the lava.

And so she plays these two roles, where as this this big puka or this this caldera that is that is made then becomes a home of this is fountaining of the lava.

02:58 Kīlauea's creative force can be seen in the works of artists who are attracted to the volcano's tremendous power.

Herb Kane 04:08 I'm habitually at the volcanoes.

I go there whenever I can.

One has to get close to the subject in order to do a painting of it.

One cannot just get back and say rather arrogantly as some people do, "Well, I'm going to do it this way or do it that way."

One has to get close to the subject, I believe, and let the subject dictate how it wants to be painted.

This seems to have been the first European experience of Kīlauea when Captain George Vancouver, on his third visit to Hawaiʻi, came into Hilo Bay and Kamehameha happened to be there on his annual makahiki tour around the island.

Kamehameha sailed with Vancouver from Hilo to Kealakekua Bay.

And as they passed the Puna coast, Vancouver records how Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea were both covered with snow.

And then he saw smoke coming from the flanks of Mauna Loa and was told about Kīlauea, that this was a volcano.

05:16 A Hawaiian historian and artist, Kane believes the inspiration for his paintings of Pele came from the volcano goddess herself.

05:26 I wanted to do a depiction of Pele for some time.

And I thought about it a lot while shaving, while driving.

I knew she had to be a strong looking person.

I tried drawing it, it got to the point where almost every day as I sat down in my studio, first thing I do in the morning is spent about 20 minutes sketching the face that I wanted, and it didn't work.

And a couple months went by and one day, I just kept on sketching, and along about 11 o'clock, I had litter all over, bad drawings all over.

I just broke out in a sweat and came down hard with a pencil and and the pencil seemed to be moving by itself and there was the face.

And so I said, "Okay, baby, that's it."

I immediately transferred that onto canvas and did a painting, which was my first painting of Pele.

06:35 Meaning mysterious or extraordinary, Kupaianaha, a vent almost two miles from Puʻu Ōʻō, began erupting in July of 1986.

It was the beginning of the volcano's most destructive phase.

This stark and desolate landscape was once home to a thriving community.

Kalapana was home to generations of Hawaiian homesteaders and the newer subdivisions of Royal Gardens and Kalapana Gardens.

Now buried under up to 100 feet of lava, the town is almost completely gone.

Todd Dressler 07:11 My memories of Kalapana are always going to be the most beautiful place with the most beautiful people, which made it a all around paradise.

That was Hawaiʻi.

It's Hawaiʻi, what we'd call lost, but not lost because it's always going to be in our memories and Pele cannot take that away from us.

07:37 They were married on the famous black sand beach in 1980, Mary and Todd Dressler moved to Kalapana looking for a safe and quiet community in which to raise a family.

Today the home they built themselves is only a memory.

It was on Earth Day, April 22, 1990, that lava engulfed the Dresslers multi level home.

In a couple of hours, the home that took them 10 years to build was gone.

08:07 (Fire, wood crackling) Mary Dressler 08:11 It's been a real hard adjustment for all of us, just to relocate and being a rental house.

We, for 10 years, were able to build our dream home that we always talked about building and it was finally completed in 1986.

And having that all taken away so quickly was a real drastic change for us.

My husband and Danny Webb and Kenny Webb were the three primary builders, but everybody and anybody that stopped by our home including our mom and dad Dressler helped us build that house.

So there is a lot of loving hands that went into it.

Narrator 08:46 Starting from this lot that they cleared by hand, the Dresslers slowly built their dream home.

From the oak floors and the hand tiled kitchen, to the stained glass window of Kalapana's Painted Church, building their home was a personal project for the family.

Mary Dressler 09:04 They'll never be able to leave those memories.

Lehua, our nine year old here, was part of our home for nine years.

She helped us build it.

She was in all the transitions that we grew together.

Lehua Dressler 09:18 All my friends were there, and it was nice there and we swam there.

It's just real nice because everybody was really nice to you.

09:29 The biggest fact that we have in this whole thing is that really like our house burning down, you could always build a new house.

It is shocking when your whole community disappears, completely gone.

And everybody is scattered.

I think that'll be the hardest part of this whole thing of of everybody trying to pick up the pieces find each other and many people would like to build a community together again, in a new location if the state grants it because the community isn't really the land, it's the people.

Girl 10:03 Kalapana was beautiful.

Narrator 10:08 One of the few remaining Hawaiian villages, Kalapana is famous for its black sand beach and exquisite sunsets that fall into sapphire seas.

But the essence of Kalapana is the people.

The Hawaiian homesteaders.

Today, much of their land is covered by lava.

For those born and raised here, the lava took more than their land.

It took a lifestyle that many say, can never be replaced.

Harry Kim 10:38 A Hawaiian homestead for those people who are not familiar with it is an area where people were born, people were buried, and their way of life was because of the land.

It is not like rural Oʻahu or different islands where your home basically represents someplace where you camp and sleep and eat, and then go to work.

The Hawaiian homestead for a lot of these people was an area for their total life.

Raising their food and playing, bearing their family, you know, giving birth to their family, etc.

So it's a total lifestyle.

You take that away, there is no more Hawaiian homestead to go to, they'll have to join the rest of the population in trying to find a place to live.

Narrator 11:21 Located about seven miles upslope from Kalapana, the relentless flow from Kupaianaha has created a vast wasteland.

Currently, less than 20 homes are left.

One of the few remaining homes belongs to Robert Keliʻihoʻomalu and his family.

Employed by the City and County, his job often requires him to mend the roadblocks leading to active areas of the flow.

The current roadblock is less than a half mile from his home.

Robert Keliʻihoʻomalu 11:51 I've been out here on the road block all these times.

It saddens my heart.

And I know our families, our friends that have lost their homes, their land.

I know how they feel now because right now it's not too far from my house.

I can put my feet in their shoes and feel how they feel.

But with all them that have lost their homes, their property - I'm talking about our Hawaiian people - it hurts me to be here on the line and see all this destruction.

It hurts me more seeing people coming in, going out.

Yeah, they come to get their eye full to see the destruction.

But they don't know the story behind all this destruction.

Girl 12:42 I didn't know anything about it.

I mean, I never really heard anything about it.

I wasn't educated about it.

Woman 12:47 I don't think that people on the mainland, really understand that this means loss of vegetation and animal life and homes and so forth.

Harry Kim 12:58 In eruptions such as these, I'm specifying eruptions such as the one we're going through, it's different from the Kapoho eruption of 1960, it's different from the eruption of Mauna Loa of 1950 where we lost land.

This is pahoehoe unlike previous flows that I just mentioned, where basically aʻa, this is pahoehoe, at average depth is anywhere from 50 to 100 feet deep.

The people are never gonna go back to these lands in their lifetime and that cannot be emphasized anymore.

All infrastructures of roads, every landmark is gone.

Minnie Kaʻawaloa 13:34 Today, I'm looking at Kalapana, the land has been cleansed.

It's covered by lava.

It's all covered and looking back, it seems like you're looking back to the days of old, how the land was.

You see houses you see, you know, plants, flowers, you see farm.

It's just something that, you know, it touches me because the area was so beautiful that you could see from one end to the other end.

Narrator 14:16 A master lauhala weaver, Minnie Kaʻawaloa has lived in Kalapana for over 50 years.

Much of her artwork is made of lauhala leaves picked from around her home.

As the eruption continues, her source of leaves is getting scarce.

Minnie Kaʻawaloa 14:31 The lauhala is getting hard because all the areas that I used to pick is covered by the lava.

So today where I went is the only section that is left.

Who knows, it might be covered within next two or three days.

It's a hard job going out and pick the leaves.

My grandchildren will always remember Kalapana looking back to the Queen's bath And Harry K, Brown Park, the playground and also where they used to play in the pavilion next to the Catholic church and in the back of the church where they go swimming.

Keiki pond, you know, that's something that they're gonna remember.

15:21 It's going to take a long time before we forget or take away or minimize some of the hurt we've seen and the tears we've seen.

But take that away and you know what I will remember as a person or what I think most people down here will always remember is the people.

I got a hunch that in time some of these people will start to congregate in an area and that will be known as the new Kalapana and the people living there, the feelings and the type of people that they are will not change.

16:12 (Ominous music) 16:34 Located at the summit of Kīlauea is Halemaʻumaʻu Crater.

Each year, thousands of visitors from around the world peer down into the caldera.

Kīlauea's easy accessibility makes it one of the best understood volcanoes.

Kid #1 16:50 What I used to think was just a big mountain with all this orange stuff coming out.

But it sort of is a big mountain with, the molten lava magma came up from underneath and comes out and through the holes in the top.

Kid #2 17:03 And there's a big reservoir under the volcano, it's not just all the magma just comes out of the ground from nowhere, there's a big reservoir and it comes out of a lot of different places, not just one.

17:18 Kīlauea's non-explosive nature allows scientists to study even the most active areas up close.

17:27 Man: 131.

Tari Noelani Moulds 17:36 What we're doing here is measuring the conductivity of the rocks.

And that tells us where the tube is, how wide it it is, how deep it is, and also how much lava is in it.

And it gives us an idea of which tubes are more active than others.

And we can then pass that information on to CD to tell them where to expect say more activity or where not to expect activity for hazard assessment.

Well, this area was active yesterday.

There Okay.

Over here right now.

Yeah, that stop sign is 18:06 Besides doing hazard assessment for local authorities,   one of the main functions for scientists from the Hawaii Volcano Observatory is research.

Tom Wright 18:17 The observatory was formed here in 1912 specifically because of the combination of having eruptive activity at hand and the ease of access to study it and also the, the relatively low hazard that is in terms of not having really explosive eruptions very often so that you can get close and study it.

Tari Noelani Moulds 18:47 What most people don't realize when they visit Kīlauea is they're actually standing on the volcano itself.

Most people don't understand that these are really mountains but because they have such gentle slopes, they don't appear like mountains to be volcanoes like Mount St. Helens, you know, looks like or anything like that.

And what we're actually standing on Kīlauea and the lava is erupting out of event.

And the vent is actually in the side of a volcano of the volcano in the East rift zone.

We really have a unique opportunity in Hawaiʻi because many, many geologists study volcanoes, but most of them are studying very ancient volcanoes.

And here we have a volcano in action, so to speak.

And so we can look at lava flows and actually see how they form.

A lot of geologists will say look at an ancient lava flow, and not really understand what is causing those ropey structures on the lava flow.

Well here we can actually see how they form.

Just like we can watch how tubes form and how a volcano will develop.

19:46 When John Kjargaard sees Kīlauea, he sees more than the orange fountains of fire and endless rivers of lava.

He sees the little things that make up an eruption.

John Kjargaard 19:58 I'm trying to I make a record of all of the various small events that make up a volcanic eruption.

I do that by going in and trying to shoot as close as possible.

The biggest thing that you don't see that you don't, that you're not aware of when you're watching a videotape is the heat.

The heat out there is tremendous.

The more lava that's exposed, the greater the heat is.

When you have high fountain eruptions, when you have a tremendous amount of red lava up in the air, it's just very, very hot.

I've been out there in a rainstorm, where one side of you would get soaking wet from the rain and the other side who would be just as dry as toast because it's the, that's the side that faced the fountain.

20:43 Working from his home studio, Kjargaard has produced several award winning videos on Kīlauea.

He's been following the current eruptions since it began in 1983 and has watched as news crews from around the world descended upon Kalapana John Kjargaard 20:59 When you get crews that come in, and they're only going to stay here for for a few days and to them time is of the essence.

They are used to operating in a situation where they have to elbow their way around to get what they want.

They have to push and shove.

And Hawaiʻi really isn't push and shove.

As I've said before, you know New York and Kalapana met head on at Walter Store.

And that was caused by the people who were very important, thought they were very important.

They were from New York.

They were they were they were somebody.

And when they got to Walter Store, they were treated by the many of the residents as if they didn't even exist.

Narrator 21:40 A place where you could buy a soda or get some shave ice.

Walter Yamaguchi's neighborhood market is now gone.

Like other Kalapana landmarks, Kīlauea's unrelenting flow has buried it under lava.

John Kjargaard 21:53 What occurred down in Kalapana is still, I'm still assimilating it.

I, when I think of Kalapana, I don't think of it as the way it looks right now.

I see Kalapana as being able to park at Harry K Brown.

I think I can still walk up and buy an ice cream from Walter's store.

To me, that's how I see it.

And I was there practically every day and I watched the lava come through and I watched Kalapana slowly being destroyed.

And yet, it's too hard.

I can't assimilate it yet.

And so what I see Kalapana is a series of events, a series of things that were that were significant.

Narrator 22:34 One of the more significant events was when lava threatened one of Kalapana's oldest churches.

Built in the 1930s, the Star of the Sea Church or the Painted Church holds fond memories for many residents.

Robert Keliʻihoʻomalu 22:48 We used to walk all the way down to the Painted Church.

In the back of the Painted Church used to have a gym that where we play volleyball, basketball, and baseball also to add the old Kalapana school.

Oh, we have a grand time.

Narrator 23:07 On May 4 1990, the church was moved.

Today it sits across from the Civil Defense Command Center just off Highway 130.

A symbol of hope that Kalapana will live on.

23:19 (Singing Amazing Grace: Sweet the sound.

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found) Narrator 24:05 Other landmarks weren't so lucky.

There are some things you just can't move.

This August, the famous black sand beach was covered by lava.

Current damages have been estimated at $61 million and more than 170 homes have been destroyed.

But for those who will never again play volleyball in Harry K. Brown Park or walk the shores of Kaimū Beach and feel the glorious waters of Kalapana.

There is no compensation.

Robert Keliʻihoʻomalu 24:40 They said they have a relief fund.

Sure.

But we the people from the land, we're born and raised here.

We're not no foreigners.

These people that came to live in the subdivision, their land burned, their house burned, they can go home to America.

Well where our Hawaiians can go?

Nowhere else except Hawaiʻi here.

Narrator 25:11 No one can deny her power.

From artists who are drawn to the breathtaking beauty of her spectacular fountains to the residents of Kalapana, who have lost homes and land, Kīlauea has touched them all.

The path of Kīlauea will be felt for generations to come.

It will take a couple hundred years for the land to return to what it was like before the eruption,more than anyone's lifetime, but in the history of the world's most active volcano, it's just a blink of the eye.