Hawaii officials on Sunday upped the number of destroyed homes to "at least 9" in the wake of last week's eruption of the Kilauea volcano.

The news was revealed in a 8:15 a.m. update from Hawaii County.

"Hawaiian Volcano Observatory confirms 2 more fissures emerged between Leilani and Malama Street near Luana and Kupono Street last night, bringing the total number of fissures to 9 at this time," it also said.

Fissures are vents through which lava is emitted from the volcano.

The Kilauea volcano erupted Thursday. The area also has been affected by extremely high levels of sulfur gas, and by several earthquakes, including one that hit on Friday at a magnitude of 6.9.

The Leilani Estates subdivision on Hawaii's Big Island has been affected by the eruption and subsequent earthquakes.

"Conditions permitting, Leilani Estates residents with property between Highway 130 and Maile Street will be allowed to enter the subdivision to complete evacuation of pets, medicine and vital documents left behind between the hours of 8 AM to 6 PM," Hawaii County officials said Sunday morning.

"I have no idea how soon we can get back," Todd Corrigan, a resident of the Leilani Estates subdivision, said.

He said he and his wife left Friday as lava burst through the ground three or four blocks from their home. They spent the night on the beach in their car and began looking for a vacation rental.

HAWAII’S KILAUEA VOLCANO ERUPTS, MANDATORY EVACUATIONS ORDERED FOR MORE THAN 1,000 PEOPLE

Fox News' Zoe Szathmary and The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> The texts and calls to John Tarson, a tour operator in Hawaii who has taken thousands of visitors to see lava flowing from the Kilauea volcano over the years, began soon after last week's spectacular eruptions.

There were expressions of concern for the residents on the island's eastern edge who were forced to flee their homes, and about his own safety. There were exclamations of fear and awe at the lava spreading across the land. And then, some version of the question: "Can we go watch?"

To those, Tarson, 37, had an easy response; Business was closed. "At this point our efforts are all going to be to help the community that is suffering losses."

The natural wonder that is the Kilauea volcano is the main attraction of Hawaii's Big Island, with nearly all of its 2 million annual visitors making a stop in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. But as the volcano and the surrounding area transformed into a natural disaster, leaving almost three dozen structures destroyed, residents, officials and tourists alike wrestled with its dual nature.

Twelve fissures have emerged, sending lava into the Leilani Estates and Lanipuna Gardens subdivisions, where about 1,800 people live. Last week, Hawaii County ordered the subdivisions evacuated. Thirty-five structures have been destroyed, according to the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency. No deaths or injuries have been reported.

The authorities began allowing residents of Leilani Estates to retrieve their belongings Sunday, while Lanipuna Gardens remained closed because of dangerous volcanic gases.

The island has been hit by hundreds of earthquakes in recent days, and more aftershocks were expected, officials said.

Heath Dalton, who lives in Leilani Estates and was evacuated Friday, returned to his home Sunday morning. He drove a truck and trailer, planning to pick up possessions that he had packed earlier. Instead, he found his home engulfed.

He called two neighbours to tell them their houses were gone. "I look at mine and I can see my house burning," said Dalton, who was unharmed. "At that point I called my wife and said, 'There's no reason for you to come; there's nothing to get.'" </s> After weeks of steadily flowing to the ocean in a self-contained channel, lava from fissure 8 began spilling over into Leilani Estates, destroying more homes in the subdivision, according to Hawaii County officials.

After weeks of steadily flowing to the ocean in a self-contained channel, lava from fissure 8 began spilling over into Leilani Estates, destroying more homes in the subdivision, according to Hawaii County officials.

Hawaii Civil Defense said Wednesday afternoon that three homes were destroyed by breakouts that occurred Wednesday, but the breakouts have since stalled.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported earlier that two of the consumed homes were on Luana Street, while a home on Nohea Street was being threatened.

At least 700 homes across several subdivisions have been destroyed since Kilauea began erupting along the lower East Rift Zone on May 3.

Lava from fissure 8 has been feeding a fast-moving flow heading northeast to the ocean at Kapoho. A flow moving around the west side of Kapoho Cone has proceeded to within a quarter-mile of the coast, HVO said.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Recovery Center is open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekends at the Keaau High School Gym. </s> (AP Photo/Marco Garcia). Resident Sam Knox rides his bicycle to the edge of the road as lava burns across the road in the Leilani Estates in Pahoa, Hawaii, Saturday, May 5, 2018. Hundreds of anxious residents on the Big Island of Hawaii hunkered down S...

(AP Photo/Marco Garcia). Lava from the Kilauea volcano moves across the road in the Leilani Estates in Pahoa, Hawaii, Saturday, May 5, 2018. Hundreds of anxious residents on the Big Island of Hawaii hunkered down Saturday for what could be weeks or mon...

(AP Photo/Marco Garcia). Burned out vegetation is seen on the side of the road in Leilani Estates in Pahoa, Hawaii, Saturday, May 5, 2018. Hundreds of anxious residents on the Big Island of Hawaii hunkered down Saturday for what could be weeks or month...

(AP Photo/Marco Garcia). Fumes come out of cracks on the asphalt road near the Leilani Estates in Pahoa, Hawaii, Saturday, May 5, 2018. Hundreds of anxious residents on the Big Island of Hawaii hunkered down Saturday for what could be weeks or months o...

(AP Photo/Marco Garcia). Lava burns across the road in the Leilani Estates in Pahoa, Hawaii, Saturday, May 5, 2018. Hundreds of anxious residents on the Big Island of Hawaii hunkered down Saturday for what could be weeks or months of upheaval as the da...

PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) - The number of homes destroyed by Hawaii's Kilauea volcano jumped to 26 on Sunday as scientists reported lava spewing more than 200 feet (61 meters) into the air.

In revised figures, Hawaii County officials said another four unspecified structures were covered by lava.

Some of the more than 1,700 people who evacuated prepared for the possibility they may not return for quite some time.

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. Officials updated the number of lost homes after an aerial survey of the subdivision.

"That number could change," Hawaii County spokeswoman Janet Snyder said. "This is heartbreaking."

Amber Makuakane, 37, a teacher and single mother of two, said her three-bedroom house in Leilani Estates was destroyed by lava.

The dwelling was across from a fissure that opened Friday, when "there was some steam rising from all parts of the yard, but everything looked fine," Makuakane said.

On Saturday, she received alerts from her security system that motion sensors throughout the house had been triggered. She later confirmed that lava had covered her property.

"They don't really understand," she said about her children. "My son keeps asking me, 'Mommy when are we going to go home?'"

Makuakane grew up in the area and lived in her house for nine years. Her parents also live in Leilani Estates.

"The volcano and the lava -- it's always been a part of my life," she said. "It's devastating ... but I've come to terms with it."

Lava has spread around 387,500 square feet (36,000 square meters) surrounding the most active fissure, though the rate of movement is slow. There was no indication when the lave might stop or how far it might spread.

"There's more magma in the system to be erupted. As long as that supply is there, the eruption will continue," U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist Wendy Stovall said.

Traditional Hawaiian beliefs say it depends on Pele, the volcano goddess who is said to reside in Kilauea.

"You have to ask Pele," Steve Clapper said when asked whether he had any idea when he'd return to his Leilani Estates home.

Clapper had to put his ailing 88-year-old mother into a car and leave shortly after hearing an ominous rumbling behind the house. He believes he saw its roof still standing in photos of the area but can't be sure. Still, the California native was sanguine as he assessed his situation.

"What can you do? You have no control over it," Clapper said as he started his day at a nearby evacuation shelter. "Pele's the boss, you know."

Cherie McArthur wondered what would become of her macadamia nut farm in Lanipuna Gardens, another evacuated neighborhood near Leilani Estates. One of the year's first harvests had been planned for this weekend.

"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 240 people and 90 pets spent Saturday night at shelters, the American Red Cross said.

Officials let some residents return briefly Sunday to fetch pets, medicine and documents.

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 (pronounced kill-ah-WAY'-ah), 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 .

The crater floor began to collapse Monday, triggering earthquakes and pushing lava into new underground chambers that carried it toward Leilani Estates and nearby communities. A magnitude-6.9 earthquake - Hawaii's largest in more than 40 years - hit the area Friday.

It set Michael McGuire's car rocking in his driveway, knocking things off his shelves and shattering glass in his cabinets in an area near Leilani Estates.

He hoped to check on his home Sunday. But he realized it was too soon to be sure when, or if, it would be safe from the moving lava.

"I'm somewhat fatalistic: if it happens, it happens," he said. "And I'm enjoying life here, so you know, you put up with a lot of things here. This is one of them."

Noah and Laura Dawn own a retreat center about 3 miles downhill from the most active vents They were clearing out items Sunday and relocating up the coast indefinitely.

"We're just removing all things of value to us and precious things because I have the feeling it could get real - real, real fast," Noah Dawn said.

Peltz reported from New York and Yan from Honolulu. Associated Press photographer Marco Garcia and videographer Haven Daley contributed to this report from Pahoa.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Hawaiian authorities are urging sightseers to stay away as Leilani Estates residents return to check on their neighborhood, which is threatened by lava and toxic gases emerging from fissures in the subdivision.

Big Island’s Kilauea volcano erupted Thursday, spewing molten rock and high levels of sulfur dioxide.

Cracks emerged in the volcano’s East Rift Zone — an area of fissures miles away from the volcano’s summit. All residents of Leilani Estates, a community of about 1,700 people near Big Island’s eastern edge, and nearby Lanipuna Gardens were ordered to evacuate.

The eruption was followed by a 6.9-magnitude earthquake Friday.

So far, at least 35 structures have been destroyed, Hawaii’s Civil Defense said on Monday. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said that active venting of lava and hazardous fumes continued.

The Kilauea volcano has been erupting almost continuously since 1983, according to the US Geological Survey. Activity along the East Rift Zone has shifted down and then back up the rift, said CNN meteorologist Michael Guy. Each one of the episodes that has occurred in this 35-year period has lasted months to years, so there’s no definitive way to predict how the volcanic activity will last, Guy said.

Residents return briefly

Some Leilani Estates residents were able to return to their properties from Sunday to retrieve pets, medicine and vital documents.

Sunday evening, Civil Defense said Leilani residents would be able to check on their properties until further notice between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. local time, with authorities on the scene determining which areas were safe to enter.

“Please be aware that because of unstable conditions that involve toxic gas, earthquakes and lava activities, lines of safety can change at any time. You must be prepared to leave areas if required,” it said in a statement.

“Please, the residents of Leilani need your help. This is not the time for sightseeing. You can help tremendously by staying out of the area,” Civil Defense said, warning that police had established a policy of zero tolerance towards looting or vandalism.

“Under Emergency Provisions, any looting or vandalism will be treated as a felony,” the statement said.

Volcanic gases at Lanipuna Gardens meant residents did not have access to that neighborhood, it said.

Dangerous volcanic gases

The eruptions have released high levels of sulfur dioxide into the air, according to the civil defense agency. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says the gas can be life-threatening.

Breathing large amounts of sulfur dioxide can result in burning of the nose and throat, and breathing difficulties. Senior citizens, the young and people with respiratory issues are especially vulnerable to the gas, the state’s Emergency Management Agency said.

The Hawaii Department of Health has warned consumers that no masks sold to the general public in stores will protect against “the extremely dangerous volcanic gases” being released.

“First responders require special masks and training not available to private citizens,” the department said in a statement Sunday.

“The best way to protect yourself and your family from the extremely dangerous volcanic gases is to leave the immediate area of the volcano defined by the police and fire department,” it said.

Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator Talmadge Magno told CNN affiliate KHON Saturday that some first responders had been affected by the gasses on the first night when levels were particularly high — experiencing “headaches and so forth” — but that they had recovered.

The American Red Cross has opened two shelters at the Pahoa and Keaau Community Centers, where some evacuees have gathered while they await news about their homes.

Mayor Harry Lim said on Twitter Sunday that an eruption information center would open in Pahoa Monday to address questions from those affected.

The Hawaii State Department of Education said that all public schools on Big Island would be open Monday but that students absent due to evacuations would not be penalized. It said in a statement that school buildings had been checked for earthquake damage and found to be safe.

Uncertainty

Corey Hale is one of the residents staying at the Pahoa Community Center. She was originally staying with a friend, but later chose to camp out in the parking lot.

“I wanted to be around a lot of people,” Hale said. “It just felt better.” Volunteers there have kept evacuees safe, well-fed and have plenty of hot coffee ready in the mornings.

Still, Hale wishes she’d been able to get more things from her home in Lanipuna Gardens before she left, like a compass that belonged to her great-grandfather, and other family heirlooms.

“At this point, I’ve got what I’ve got on my back,” she said. “I didn’t realize until this morning, I’ve got one pair of shoes.”

Meantime, Leilani resident Shirley Doctor was able to return briefly to her house of 38 years Sunday.

Doctor told CNN affiliate KITV that her sons had invited friends to help her pack up.

“I came home to get my dogs, that was the most important thing. My dogs and my pig … Everything else is just material,” Doctor said.

Another resident, Steve Gebbie, told CNN’s Stephanie Elam on Saturday that he initially stayed home when evacuations were ordered. But when he saw lava tear through the streets near his Leilani Estates home, he knew he needed to leave.

He didn’t know what would become of his house, one he built with his own hands.

“Now it’s trying to figure out what the future brings. … My work. My job. Am I going to have to move to somewhere else on the island?”

“I’d have to start over at age 56,” Gebbie said. “That’s concerning.”

What’s important

Jordan Sonner has been staying with a friend since she fled her home right outside Leilani Estates.

When Sonner bought her property in 2016, she knew the neighborhood sat in the shadow of the Kilauea volcano.

She was also aware that one day the volcano could erupt, Sonner said, and lava could overtake the area. But she was more excited about her home and being a first-time homeowner.

“At the time, I understood it as a possibility,” she said. But she never thought it would be a reality.

Sonner was at work this week when she heard that lava had erupted in her neighborhood.

“It was a moment of panic,” she said, “because the only thing I knew was, ‘lava in Leilani.'”

After Hawaii’s false ballistic missile alert in January, Sonner realized she didn’t have an emergency plan. “I took that to heart, and I got myself and my dogs prepared just in case something were to happen.”

This time she was ready. She had bags packed with her clothes, important documents and whatever her dogs would need. The only other item she took was a chain necklace that belonged to her late father.

“I’ve always said that’s the only thing I would run back into a burning building for, barring people and animals,” she said. “There wasn’t anything that important.” </s> LEILANI ESTATES, Hawaii -- On Hawaii's Big Island, about a dozen people who ignored evacuation orders, are now surrounded by flowing lava. Their only way out will be by helicopter. A huge lava front is consuming everything in its path. Massive amounts of molten rock -- an unstoppable force of nature."

In the community of Kapoho, authorities had been anticipating that the lava would get there for days.

Helicopter pilot Colin Burkardt has watched it all unfold since the eruption began a month ago.

"This could be an inevitable lava flow. It could end up being a new eruption site, it may never go back to crater, it may never shift back up the rift zone," Burkardt said.
• None Hawaii officials go door to door to get holdouts to flee fast lava 



Now, homes and businesses are gone, and anything that survives here will be cut off from the rest of the island.

Residents packed up what they could before the lava arrived.

The area is known as four corners because it's the intersection of two major highways. Lava has covered it all. There is nothing left ... and with it, the two major escape routes for people in this community.

On the ground in Leilani Estates, lava is still taking out homes.

When one home caught fire, a sheriff's deputy -- on vacation from Virginia and curious about the lava -- just happened to be there.

"So I went around the side, banged on the door a couple of times, announced sheriff's department, and then I breached the door," Jason Patch said.

Smoke filled the home but no one was there. Patch, helplessly, watched it burn.

"It was bad knowing you can't do anything about it," Patch said

From the air, Leilani Estates has changed dramatically over the last four weeks. Where there were once homes and a thriving community, there are now just rivers of lava with no end in sight. The landscape here has changed permanently. </s> PAHOA, Hawaii (Reuters) - A growing river of molten rock flowing from a fissure at the foot of Kilauea Volcano is believed to have demolished scores of additional homes and filled in a small bay at the eastern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island, civil defense officials said on Tuesday.

The latest estimates — up to 80 more structures than previously counted as destroyed by lava smothering two newly evacuated subdivisions — could bring the total number of homes and other buildings lost over the past month to nearly 200.

Such a tally would put property losses from the current upheaval of Kilauea, which entered its 34th day on Tuesday, on par with 215 structures destroyed by lava during all 35 years of the volcano’s last eruption cycle, which began in 1983.

On Monday, the Hawaii County Civil Defense agency was putting the confirmed number of buildings lost to the current eruption at 117, mostly residential properties. About 80 of those were destroyed in the Leilani Estates community, where lava-spouting fissures in the ground first opened on May 3 downhill from the volcano’s eastern flank.

Another three-dozen homes were confirmed destroyed this past weekend when a large lava stream creeping 6 miles (9.7 km) across the landscape reached the far eastern edge of the Big Island, pouring into the ocean at a place called Kapoho Bay.

On Tuesday, a civil defense official told Reuters that at least 60 to 80 more homes were believed to have been devoured as the lava flow, measuring about a half-mile (80-meter) wide and 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 meter) tall, inundated the adjacent subdivisions of Kapoho Beach Lots and Vacationland.

The official said aerial surveillance of the area showed only the northern portion of Kapoho Beach and the southernmost “sliver” of Vacationland — the latter consisting of only about a half-dozen homes — were left unscathed.

Vivian Mark, a resident of Hilo who owns a beachfront vacation rental in Vacationland and is president of the Vacationland Hawaii Community Association, said Vacationland consisted of 240 housing lots and nearly 90 farm lots, but she was unsure how many of those had properties built on them.

Video footage from a helicopter flying over the area showed two seaside homes engulfed in flames, as clouds of white steam and hydrochloric acid fumes billowed from the water where red-hot lava was pouring into the ocean.

Civil defense officials said Kapoho Bay itself had been filled in with lava that extended seven-tenths of a mile (1.1 km) from what had been the shoreline.

“What used to be the bay is now all lava bed, new land, almost a mile (1.6 km) out into the ocean,” the civil defense spokesman told Reuters.

Authorities began evacuating the greater Kapoho area last week and ushered most of the last remaining residents to safety early on Saturday, hours before the lava flow severed all road access to the region. Several holdouts were airlifted by helicopter on Sunday, leaving no more than a handful of people who refused to leave, officials said.

The lava inundating Kapoho is emanating from Fissure 8, the only volcanic vent that was still belching large volumes of molten rock from the ground as of Tuesday, officials said. </s> PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — The number of homes destroyed by Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano jumped to 26 on Sunday as scientists reported lava spewing more than 200 feet into the air.

In revised figures, Hawaii County officials said another four unspecified structures were covered by lava.

Some of the more than 1,700 people who evacuated prepared for the possibility they may not return for quite some time.

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. Officials updated the number of lost homes after an aerial survey of the subdivision.

“That number could change,” Hawaii County spokeswoman Janet Snyder said. “This is heartbreaking.”

Amber Makuakane, 37, a teacher and single mother of two, said her three-bedroom house in Leilani Estates was destroyed by lava.

The dwelling was across from a fissure that opened Friday, when “there was some steam rising from all parts of the yard, but everything looked fine,” Makuakane said.

On Saturday, she received alerts from her security system that motion sensors throughout the house had been triggered. She later confirmed that lava had covered her property.

“They don’t really understand,” she said about her children. “My son keeps asking me, ‘Mommy when are we going to go home?'”

Makuakane grew up in the area and lived in her house for nine years. Her parents also live in Leilani Estates.

“The volcano and the lava — it’s always been a part of my life,” she said. “It’s devastating … but I’ve come to terms with it.”

Lava has spread around 387,500 square feet surrounding the most active fissure, though the rate of movement is slow. There was no indication when the lave might stop or how far it might spread.

“There’s more magma in the system to be erupted. As long as that supply is there, the eruption will continue,” U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist Wendy Stovall said.

Traditional Hawaiian beliefs say it depends on Pele, the volcano goddess who is said to reside in Kilauea.

“You have to ask Pele,” Steve Clapper said when asked whether he had any idea when he’d return to his Leilani Estates home.

Clapper had to put his ailing 88-year-old mother into a car and leave shortly after hearing an ominous rumbling behind the house. He believes he saw its roof still standing in photos of the area but can’t be sure. Still, the California native was sanguine as he assessed his situation.

“What can you do? You have no control over it,” Clapper said as he started his day at a nearby evacuation shelter. “Pele’s the boss, you know.”

Cherie McArthur wondered what would become of her macadamia nut farm in Lanipuna Gardens, another evacuated neighborhood near Leilani Estates. One of the year’s first harvests had been planned for this weekend.

“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 240 people and 90 pets spent Saturday night at shelters, the American Red Cross said.

Officials let some residents return briefly Sunday to fetch pets, medicine and documents.

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 .

The crater floor began to collapse Monday, triggering earthquakes and pushing lava into new underground chambers that carried it toward Leilani Estates and nearby communities. A magnitude-6.9 earthquake — Hawaii’s largest in more than 40 years — hit the area Friday.

It set Michael McGuire’s car rocking in his driveway, knocking things off his shelves and shattering glass in his cabinets in an area near Leilani Estates.

He hoped to check on his home Sunday. But he realized it was too soon to be sure when, or if, it would be safe from the moving lava.

“I’m somewhat fatalistic: if it happens, it happens,” he said. “And I’m enjoying life here, so you know, you put up with a lot of things here. This is one of them.”

Noah and Laura Dawn own a retreat center about 3 miles downhill from the most active vents They were clearing out items Sunday and relocating up the coast indefinitely.

“We’re just removing all things of value to us and precious things because I have the feeling it could get real – real, real fast,” Noah Dawn said.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> The Latest: 26 homes, 4 other structures destroyed by lava

PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) — The Latest on a volcanic eruption on the Big Island of Hawaii (all times local):

The number of homes destroyed by Hawaii's Kilauea volcano jumped to 26 as scientists reported lava spewing more than 200 feet (61 meters) into the air.

In revised figures, Hawaii County officials said Sunday another four unspecified structures were covered by lava.

U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist Wendy Stovall says lava flows are continuing from the only active fissure, though the total of open vents has ticked up to 10.

Officials say 31 homes have now been destroyed in Hawaii by lava flowing from Kilauea volcano.

The update came as a window for residents of Leilani Estates to briefly return to their homes to gather essential items was about to end.

Officials said molten rock, toxic gas and steam have been bursting through openings in the ground created by the volcano.

U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist Wendy Stovall says lava could eventually be channeled to one powerful vent while others go dormant, as has happened in some previous Hawaii eruptions.

Stovall says there is no indication when the lava flow may stop.

Officials say 26 homes have now been destroyed in Hawaii by lava flowing from Kilauea volcano.

U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist Wendy Stovall says lava could eventually be channeled to one powerful vent while others go dormant, as has happened in some previous Hawaii eruptions.

Lava has spread around 387,500 square feet (36,000 square meters) surrounding the most active fissure, though the rate of movement is slow.

Officials said molten rock, toxic gas and steam have been bursting through openings in the ground created by the volcano.

Stovall says there is no indication when the lava flow may stop.

Officials say 21 homes have now been destroyed in Hawaii by lava flowing from Kilauea volcano, based on an aerial survey by the fire department.

Residents of Leilani Estates are still being allowed to briefly return to gather medicines, pets and other essentials.

No children are allowed in the area.

Officials said molten rock, toxic gas and steam have been bursting through openings in the ground created by the volcano.

A single mother of two says she is devastated that her Big Island home was burned to the ground by a lava flow.

Amber Makuakane confirmed to the AP on Sunday that her property in Leilani Estates is one of at least nine that officials say was destroyed by Kilauea volcano.

The 37-year-old elementary school teacher says her three-bedroom house was right across from a fissure that had opened Friday. She says there was some steam rising from all parts of the yard initially but everything looked fine.

But she received alerts Saturday that motion sensors throughout the house had been triggered. She later confirmed that lava had covered her entire property.

Makuakane grew up in the area, and despite the risks, wanted to remain close to her family.

Officials on Hawaii's Big Island say what started out as a small spattering of lava from the ground only took minutes to become cascading fountains.

U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist Wendy Stovall says lava fountains spewed as high as 230 feet (70 meters) into the air Saturday night only 15 minutes after the initial eruption from a new fissure.

Hawaii County spokeswoman Janet Snyder says only one fissure has active lava flowing, though at last count a total of nine vents had opened up as of 9:30 p.m.

Snyder says it's all part of a little chain of events and that these "breakouts" are following a path.

She says the plan remains to allow some evacuated residents to return to Leilani Estates to retrieve important items, though that is subject to change.

Officials in Hawaii now say nine homes have been destroyed by lava flowing from Kilauea volcano.

Big Island civil defense officials also said Sunday morning two new fissures, or vents where lava has broken through the ground, have emerged in the Leilani Estates subdivision.

That brings the total of fissures to 10 since the eruption began late Thursday afternoon, but a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey says one of those vents has gone dormant.

Officials say active venting of lava and dangerous levels of volcanic gases continue between two main roads in the subdivision, where more than 1,700 people have been ordered to evacuate.

Officials say some residents will be allowed to complete evacuation of pets, get medicine and grab vital documents.

The number of homes destroyed by lava bursting out of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has climbed to five.

The figure rose as many evacuees prepared for the eruption to last for weeks or even months.

The Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory said eight volcanic vents opened in the Big Island residential neighborhood of Leilani Estates since Thursday. The vents initially spewed lava but had calmed down by late Saturday and were only releasing steam and gas.

Scientists say Kilauea is likely to release more lava through more vents, but they're unable to forecast exactly where the lava will appear.

The Leilani Estates area is at the greatest risk for more lava outbreaks.

Hawaii County has ordered more than 1,700 people to evacuate Leilani Estates and neighboring Lanipuna Gardens.
At Leilani Estates, 26 homes and 4 buildings were destroyed by Kīlauea, forcing 1700 people to leave their homes.