We took a vacation to the Big Island back in 2011. One of the highlights of our stay there was taking a helicopter tour over the Kilauea volcano. It had been active about a month prior to our arrival and was still smoldering. We walked all around the National Park and could not believe the amount of lava that had taken over acres of the island and hardened to look like something from outer space. It literally rolled right into the ocean.
The view was so incredible. The pilot circled the volcano from both sides so that everyone could see it clearly. Wow! The steam billowed up from the center and he tried to stay away from it.
He told us the story about this unfortunate guy who owned the only remaining house in the following picture. He did have neighbors, but the lava flow took every single home but his. You can see his road is blocked so he could only get to his house by foot. He rides a motorcycle on the road on the other side of this lava and has to stop. After that he walks across all of the rocky terrain to his house. Some of the helicopter pilots give him a ride to his yard because of the difficulty he has with walking that far.
His insurance company would not do anything because his house was technically fine. Insurance would only cover his dwelling and didn’t cover problems with access to his dwelling. He had no money to buy a new house and there was no way he could sell that house. How sad! I heard a couple of years later that the lava flow finally demolished it and he was able to file a claim and get a new house. Happy ending for him!
