It’s been a strange three months for the Hawaii island village of Volcano, where thousands of earthquakes have rattled the residents of this small mountainside town since Kilauea began erupting in May. Now, after a week of waning quakes, residents are holding their breath, waiting to see if this, finally, could signal the end of the eruption that has crippled the easternmost part of the island.

Volcano, a tiny tourist town nestled in a high elevation forest, is a scant five miles from the caldera of Kilauea volcano. Its location makes it especially vulnerable to earthquakes, which during July sometimes numbered as high as 800 a day, according to Kyle Anderson, a seismologist with US Geological Survey.

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Ferns and Ohia trees line the streets of Volcano’s main road, punctuated by several restaurants, a general store and a post office. There is a skate park, a winery and an art center nearby. Under normal circumstances the village experiences only occasional earthquakes, residents said, but in the months since Kilauea began erupting, a “big one” hit “like clockwork” every day for months. Most of those larger quakes ranged between a 3.0 and a 5.0 magnitude, forcing everyone to grab whatever was nearby and brace themselves until the shaking stopped.

“I’ve heard from some people that they are getting a little traumatized,” said Adam Laning, the manager at Hawaii True Value Hardware store in Volcano. Early on, Laning said, he learned that certain items – motor oil, dish soap, six-packs – needed to be secured on shelves or the shaking would tip them to the ground.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kathy and Ola Tripp are residents of Volcano. “The constant shaking is like nothing you could have ever expected,” says Kathy. Photograph: Jesse Tunison/The Guardian

Typically the daytime population of Volcano is about half local residents, half visitors on their way to and from Hawaii Volcanoes national park, Laning said. But these are not normal circumstances. The park is closed until further notice and tourism is way down.

“It’s turned this town into a ghost town,” Kathy Tripp, a 35-year Volcano resident, said of the earthquakes.

Many of the last months’ daily quakes hovered around a 2.0 magnitude or less. On a particularly active day, the more sensitive people in town felt dozens of them. Many residents said that as the days wore on, they began to distinguish between different types of shakes. Some came in waves, others felt like quick vibrations. It became a kind of secret language, prompting people in town to speculate about what activity was happening inside the volcano.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Visitors taste wine and cheese at Volcano Winery. Employees at the winery said wine would slosh in the vats during earthquakes. Photograph: Jesse Tunison/The Guardian

It was the kind of thing Tripp just couldn’t get used to. “Even after months, they still get you by surprise,” she said. “The constant shaking is like nothing you could have ever expected.” At some points, Tripp said, she even witnessed the pavement undulating beneath her.

“If I was in the car in the parking lot I would see the cars going up and down – the whole lot was moving,” she said.

Sometimes the big ones came in the daylight, and other times they came at night. Mishi Simmons Clauberg, a Volcano resident, said that in recent weeks she’d been woken up at 4am to her chandelier swaying, her bed shaking and moving across the floor. “We have come up with the motto, ‘rock, roll and repeat,’ she said.

Most people said they learned to adjust after a few days of quakes, and that the majority of homes have held up well. At Volcano Winery, the only casualties of the earthquakes were two wine glasses, precariously placed. But employees there knew the earth was moving when the wine began sloshing in the vats.

“It has become the new normal for us,” said Lani Delapenia, the winery manager. “For some visitors, it’s their first time experiencing an earthquake. It’s exciting for lots of them and scary for some.”

The constant shaking is like nothing you could have ever expected Kathy Tripp

While the Puna region has been ravaged by lava, Volcano residents have been living in a strange limbo: almost on top of the volcanic epicenter, but removed from the worst of the physical destruction of recent months. The village remained untouched as many residents downhill watched molten rock consume their homes. Even fumes such as vog (volcanic fog) and laze (volcanic haze, produced when lava meets sea water) are infrequent, considering its location. Residents like to brag that as long as the trade winds are blowing, their air stays clear.

“On a sunny day, there is no place like it,” Tripp said. She isn’t the first one to feel that way. In 1909 volcanologist Thomas A Jaggar arrived en route for research in Japan. But during the layover he decided to stay in Volcano and study its unique explosive phenomena, establishing the United States’ first volcano observatory.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The village of Volcano has avoided much of the destruction of Kilauea, while molten rock has wiped out the homes of residents downhill. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

The story of Jaggar is one that Suzi Bond knows well. As a community theater producer and director, she helps put on a weekly one-man show about the volcanologist and the history of the area. Bond has been producing theater in Volcano for 25 years. But the Jagger show has been on hold since Kilauea began erupting, and two community theater venues have been forced to close. The main theater’s production of Oliver! became an orphan, with its 21 local actors having to rehearse in dance studios, living rooms and the local Lutheran church.

Bond, who lives outside town, says that unlike most people, she doesn’t feel the quakes. “It’s my superpower,” she said. If given the choice, she would have preferred to continue performing in the 1934 theater she knows so well, despite its proximity to the caldera, which has collapsed dramatically since the beginning of the eruptions.

“The overhead lights do sway when there’s an earthquake,” she said. But like many in Volcano, she takes a practical approach. “I originally proposed that we just shouldn’t seat anyone in the first four or five rows.”

After days with few big quakes – the largest this week so far was a 4.4 magnitude on Thursday, and the total daily number now dropped down into the teens – Bond and others say they’re counting the days, hoping that this, perhaps, could signal an end to the eruption chaos.

“It feels great that the quakes have begun to stop, but we are still left with a destination village without a destination,” Tripp said. But, she added, she and others have stayed this long for a reason. In more normal times, she’s often gone to view the glow of the volcano beneath a starry sky that’s among the brightest in the hemisphere. Recalling the memory helps remind her that for most of the time she’s lived here, Volcano has been a place of peace and natural beauty.

“This is the only home we know. And we’re going to make it through because we don’t want to go anywhere else.”