The rate of the lava flow from the eruption of Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island picked up Saturday as five of the 22 fissures merged into one line of spatter and fountaining, and lava from another was less than a mile from crossing Highway 137 near the ocean.
Hawaii County Civil Defense said in a 2 p.m. update that while no residents were immediately threatened, the lava flow, moving at a rate of 900 feet per hour, could cross the highway within four to seven hours.
