Hundreds evacuated after Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts

Jane Onyanga-Omara | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, hundreds evacuate At least 1,700 are displaced after Hawaiian volcano Kilauea erupted, scattering ash and lava through a neighborhood.

Hundreds of people were evacuated after Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted Thursday, sending lava shooting into the air and flowing down residential streets.

Footage shown on local television showed lava spurting from a crack in a road in Leilani Estates, located near the town of Pahoa on the Big Island. Aerial drone footage showed a line of lava snaking through a forest.

Hawaii Gov. David Ige said he activated the National Guard to support local emergency workers with evacuations and security.

Ige said lava was flowing into streets, prompting 1,700 people to be evacuated from Leilani Estates, which according to the 2010 U.S. Census has a population of 1,500. The evacuated residents were sheltering at two community centers.

"The danger is of such magnitude that it warrants preemptive and protective action in order to provide for the safety, health and welfare of the residents of Leilani Estates and surrounding areas," Ige tweeted.

Resident Jeremiah Osuna captured drone footage of the lava burning through the trees, a scene he described as a “curtain of fire.”

“It sounded like if you were to put a bunch of rocks into a dryer and turn it on as high as you could. You could just smell sulfur and burning trees and underbrush and stuff,” he told Honolulu television station KHON.

Lava fountains were shooting 150 feet in the air, and molten lava spread out over an area about 200 yards wide behind one house in Leilani Estates, Big Island resident Ikaika Marzo told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser .

“It sounds like a jet engine. It’s going hard,” he said.

Officials said there is no way to predict how long the eruption will continue. The event came after days of earthquakes rattled the area’s Puna district.

County, state and federal officials had been warning residents all week that they should be prepared to evacuate, as an eruption would give little warning. Officials at the U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday raised the volcano’s alert level to warning status, the highest possible, meaning a hazardous eruption is imminent, underway or suspected.

Contributing: The Associated Press