A striking image shows the entire north portion of the crater in Mount Kilauea as residents are warned to 'go now' before more homes are destroyed.
Emergency authorities battling lava flows and gas erupting from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano warned some residents to evacuate after a new fissure opened.
'Be prepared to evacuate at a moment's notice,' the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency said in an alert on its website. Residents of a second area, Lanipuna Gardens, were barred from returning home on Monday due to deadly volcanic gases.
So far, Kilauea has destroyed 35 homes and buildings and forced 1,700 people to leave their residences since it erupted on Thursday, spewing lava and toxic gas from volcanic vents in a small area of Hawaii's Big Island.
A new fissure opened Sunday night in the Leilani Estates area some 12 miles from the volcano, prompting a cellphone alert for residents to leave homes to avoid sulfur dioxide gas, which can be life threatening at high levels.
This striking photo made available by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) shows the entire north portion of the Overlook crater in the Mount Kilauea volcano, Pahoa, Hawaii
Emergency authorities battling lava flows and gas erupting from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano warned some residents to evacuate after a new fissure opened
A new fissure opened Sunday night in the Leilani Estates area some 12 miles from the volcano, prompting a cellphone alert for residents to leave homes to avoid sulfur dioxide gas, which can be life threatening at high levels
No fatalities or major injuries have been reported so far from the volcano, according to the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency.
Evacuees from Leilani Estates were allowed to return for pets, medications and to check property on Sunday. Some, including Jeremy Wilson, found homes surrounded by fissures hundreds of feet long.
'My house is right in the middle,' said Wilson, a 36-year-old social worker who turned back when he saw steam coming from cracks in the road.
As of 3.30am local time, 161 people were housed at two evacuation centers on the island, the Hawaii Civil Defense Agency said.
The semi-rural wooded area of Leilani Estates had become a magnet for newcomers to Hawaii's Big Island who were prepared to risk living near an active volcano for more affordable real-estate.
Eruptions of lava and gas were expected to continue, along with aftershocks from Friday's 6.9 magnitude earthquake, the largest in the area since 1975, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
The observatory's website showed 142 earthquakes in the past 24 hours as 3.45am on Monday.
Geologists said the activity looked like an event in 1955 when eruptions continued for 88 days in the area and covered around 4,000 acres with lava.
Lava flows towards a home with a swimming pool while consuming another nearby in this Sunday photograph taken from the air
Lava burns across a road in the Leilani Estates subdivision as a man takes pictures of the flow. In the foreground, plants grow through the tarmac
The Kilauea volcano destroyed at least 35 homes and buildings and spewed lava hundreds of feet into the air, leaving evacuated residents unsure how long they might be displaced.
In revised figures on Sunday, Hawaii County officials said another four unspecified structures were covered by lava.
Hawaii officials said the decimated homes were in the Leilani Estates subdivision, where molten rock, toxic gas and steam have been bursting through openings in the ground created by the volcano.
Lava has spread around 387,500 square feet surrounding the most active fissure, though the rate of movement is slow.
'If we lose our farm, we don't know where we're going to go. You lose your income and you lose your home at the same time,' said McArthur, who's had the farm for about 20 years. 'All you can do is pray and hope and try to get all the information you can.'
About 250 people and 90 pets spent Saturday night at shelters, the American Red Cross said.
The number of lava-venting fissures in the neighborhood grew overnight from eight to as many as 10, Stovall said, though some have quieted at various points. Regardless, USGS scientists expect fissures to keep spewing.
The lava could eventually be channeled to one powerful vent while others go dormant, as has happened in some previous Hawaii eruptions, Stovall said.
Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes, has been erupting continuously since 1983.
The USGS's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory issued a notice in mid-April that there were signs of pressure building in underground magma, and a new vent could form on the cone or along what's known as the East Rift Zone. Leilani Estates sits along the zone.
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