(ABOVE VIDEO) Civil Defense admin Darryl Oliveira and Mayor Billy Kenoi address the crowd at Thursday night’s public lava meeting in Pahoa. Video by David Corrigan.

NEWS BRIEFS

• Hawaii County officials told the crowd at last night’s lava meeting in Pahoa that they are striving to return some normalcy to the impacted community – in time for Thanksgiving – as long as the lull in downslope activity continues.
• Mayor Billy Kenoi made the anticipated announcement that the county will re-open Pahoa Village Road “early next week, hopefully before the holidays” but only officials continue to see a lack of activity at the front of the flow, near Apa’a Street or near Pahoa. The roadblock at Apa’a Street will be maintained.
• Kenoi – answering the call for lava viewing access by media, tour groups, and residents – suggested that the first opportunity should go to the displaced students of Keonepoko Elementary School. The school was closed indefinitely because of the lava flow threat.
• Civil Defense admin Darryl Oliveira said the Emergency Command Post in Pahoa will be downsized after Saturday in order to give everyone a rest and conserve resources for possible later events.
• Oliveira said CERT teams will be going door to door in the area downslope of the stalled flow front today, to conduct a survey.

INSIGHTS

There will be no lava meeting in Pahoa next week, due to the Thanksgiving holiday. In the light of the current (perhaps temporary) break, the mayor urged residents, “in the spirit of our community of aloha, next week we just enjoy our family, our friends, our community. We have much to be thankful for.”