(BIVN) – The Volcano Village community got a glimpse of their possible future ingress and egress to their Kilauea summit town, during a public meeting Thursday night at the Cooper Center.

Residents got an update from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on the current conditions at the summit caldera, where dramatic inward slumping of the rim and walls of Halemaʻumaʻu continues. The resulting earthquakes have compromised Highway 11, and although the important roadway is still open, contingency plans for an alternate route have been made.

Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator Talmadge Magno unveiled a new map showing alternate routes that the county will be working on. Photographer Ken Boyer got a photo of the map and shared it with us.

“I understand that …we’ve kind of been given a life-changing blow right here,” Magno told the Volcano residents, adding that “whether you like it or not, we gotta just to make things still viable for our communities.”

Magno said the first alternative the county is looking at is the Golf Links Road, which goes from Piimauna and through the pasture along the fence line, nearly parallel to Highway 11, and eventually exits out onto the Upper Village Road and Highway 11. “That’s a quickest road that we could put in,” Magno said.

The second option starts from the the top of Piimauna Road, goes through the ranch and makes its way to Mahiai and out on Wright Road. Magno said this option would take about three months to complete.

“It’s critical to us to get started on those,” Magno said, “so that if we get [Highway 11] failure, immediately you guys have a route in and out of community and Ka’u maintains viability.”

The full video of Thursday night’s meeting at the Cooper Center can be found on the Na Leo TV website.