Kaʻū News Briefs, Saturday, May 6, 2023

CHILDCARE FOR WORKING FAMILIES ACT has been introduced into Congress by Sen. Mazie Hirono and colleagues. “Families in Hawai'i and across the country deserve to have access to high-quality, affordable child care,” said Hirono. “The Child Care for Working Families Act will help address our nation’s child care crisis by capping child care costs for working families, increasing access to pre-K, and helping to ensure child care workers are paid a living wage."

Hirono said that many families cannot find—or afford—the high-quality child care they need

Childcare for Working Families Act has been introduced into Congress by Sen. Mazie Hirono and colleagues. Photo from National Women's Law Center

so parents can go to work and children can thrive. "The worsening child care crisis is holding families, child care workers, businesses, and our entire economy back. Over the last three decades, the cost of child care has increased by 220%, forcing families—and mothers, in particular—to make impossible choices, and more than half of all families live in child care deserts. Meanwhile, child care workers are struggling to make ends meet on the poverty-level wages they are paid and child care providers are struggling to simply stay afloat. The crisis—which was exacerbated by the pandemic—is costing our economy dearly, to the tune of $122 billion in economic losses each year."
    The legislation would dramatically expand access to pre-K, and support full-day, full-year Head Start programs and increased wages for Head Start workers. Under the legislation, the typical family in America will pay no more than $10 a day for child care—with many families paying nothing at all—and no eligible family will pay more than 7% of their income on child care.
    If a state would turn away funding under this program, the Secretary of Education couldprovide funds to localities, such as cities, counties, local governments, districts, or Head Start agencies. The program would also provide grants to help open new child care providers in underserved communities. Grants would cover start-up and licensing costs to help establish new providers, increase child care options for children who receive care during non-traditional hours and support child care for children who are dual-language learners, children who are experiencing homelessness, and children in foster care.
Child care workers would be paid a living wage and achieve parity with elementary school teachers who have similar credentials and experience.
    States would receive funding to establish and expand a mixed-delivery system of high-quality preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds. States would be required to prioritize establishing and expanding universal local preschool programs within and across high-need communities.

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FIVE YEARS AGO THE 6.9 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE STRUCK, as Kaʻū residents and visitors enjoyed their lunch at Aikane Plantation Coffee Farm, one of the opening events of Kaʻū Coffee Festival.      Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park reminds everyone that the earthquake "signaled the movement of magma to the Lower East Rift Zone as the largest eruption of Kīlauea in generations began to intensify.

    "The 2018 eruption changed the island of Hawai‘i forever. From May through August, large lava flows covered land southeast of the park destroying over 700 homes and devastating residential areas in the Puna District. At the same time, the summit area of the park was dramatically changed by tens of thousands of earthquakes, towering ash plumes, and a massive collapse of Kīlauea caldera as magma drained away."
      See the video, narrated by retired park ranger Bobby Camara, taking the viewers through the 2018 eruption at https://www.facebook.com/hawaiivolcanoesnps/videos/982312529447505

FIVE YEARS FLOW BY: REFLECTIONS ON THE DESTRUCTIVE 2018 ERUPTION OF KILAUEA. That's the title of this week's Volcano Watch, written by scientists and affiliates of USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory:
    Five years ago, volcanic activity at Kīlauea dramatically changed when magma intruded into the lower East Rift Zone. What happened at Kīlauea in 2018? What have been the resulting learning opportunities?
    The events in 2018 ended the 35-year-long Pu‘u‘ō‘ō eruption (on the middle East Rift Zone), along with the 10-year summit eruption—the summit lava lake drained, as did some of the shallow magma stored beneath the summit, which in turn triggered collapse and subsidence of the summit caldera floor.
    The sequence of events began on April 30, 2018, when Pu‘u‘ō‘ō crater floor collapsed as magma began intruding downrift. Over the next several days seismic and deformation data tracked the dike as it migrated underground farther down the East Rift Zone.

An aerial view looking downrift from Leilani Estates at erupting fissures 5, 6, 19, and 22. Ponded lava from these fissures  fed lava channels moving downslope, right side of the image, including the channels that fed the ocean entries just north  of MacKenzie State Park. USGS photo on May 22, 2018 by S. Isgett.

    The first LERZ eruption in 58 years began on the evening of May 3 when a fissure opened in Leilani Estates Subdivision. By the end of May 4, six fissures had opened in the LERZ and a magnitude-6.9 earthquake struck the south coast of the Island of Hawai‘i.
    The summit lava lake level began to drop as magma moved into the LERZ, and sections of the unsupported crater walls fell into the lake, triggering small explosive events. Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park closed to the public on May 11, and Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) staff vacated the office on Uēkahuna bluff on May 16 due to increased ash explosions, seismic activity, and building damage.
    From early-May to late-August, HVO staff, with help from the USGS Volcano Science Center, the University of Hawai‘i, and other Department of the Interior offices, maintained a 24-hour field presence and data watch to monitor the eruption and communicate any changes to the public and emergency managers. These collaborations were essential for continuous monitoring and data analysis, but they also introduced new monitoring techniques like using Unoccupied Aircraft Systems. UAS flights are now included as part of HVO’s routine eruption monitoring tasks.
    The 2018 eruption was the most destructive over the last 200 years in Hawai‘i, with 24 fissures covering an area of over 8,700 acres (35.5 square km) including the addition of 875 acres of new land beyond the old coastline. Over 700 structures and 30 miles (48 km) of roads were covered, displacing many residents. Gas emissions were at the highest levels ever recorded at Kīlauea and impacted much of the State of Hawai'i and areas as far away as Guam.


The summit region experienced 62 total collapse events during the eruption. These near-daily occurrences each released energy roughly equivalent to a magnitude-5.3 earthquake. Shaking from these events caused damage to nearby homes and businesses, along with Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park roads and infrastructure and the former HVO building. Volcanic ashfall from explosions in May, and gas emissions, also impacted downwind communities in the District of Ka‘ū.
    Recovery efforts are still underway for Island of Hawai‘i communities impacted by the 2018 eruption, and for HVO.
    The Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019 (H.R. 2157) has provided new opportunities for HVO to bolster monitoring and eruption response abilities and is supporting research that will help us to better understand Hawaiian volcanoes.
    Some of HVO’s new monitoring capabilities include cutting edge field equipment for tracking seismicity, ground deformation, gas, gravity, lava lake level, and surface changes. Lab equipment that can analyze physical and chemical characteristics of ash and cinder and lava samples, providing insights on eruptive processes, has also been acquired thanks to the Supplemental funding.

Large cracks run through Leilani Avenue near the old junction with Pohoiki Road. Lava spatter from fissure 6  (out of view on the left) covers the road and volcanic gas rises from cracks in the ground. This area was  covered by lava from renewed fissure 6 activity on May 20. USGS photo by L. DeSmither on May 17, 2018.

    Exciting new research has also been taking place at Kīlauea to help improve our understanding of the volcano’s magma plumbing system and structure, eruptive past, and hazards. This includes the ongoing Kīlauea Seismic Imaging Project.
    In the years since 2018, HVO has had the opportunity to apply lessons learned during 2018 to several Kīlauea summit eruptions and the first Mauna Loa eruption in 38 years. Research and monitoring upgrades funded through the Supplemental Funding have advanced our understanding of Hawaiian volcanoes, helping us to learn more about their hazards and potential future eruption impacts.