Kapoho gathering honors losses, memories after 2018 eruption
Kapoho residents gathered June 11 to share food, stories and grief, turning memories of the 2018 eruption into a lesson in community readiness.
Kapoho residents and people tied to the old lower East Rift Zone communities gathered Thursday, June 11, to share food, stories, memories and support, but the meeting carried a deeper purpose than remembrance alone. For families still living with the loss of homes, landmarks and gathering places, the event became a reminder that recovery in Puna is measured not just in roads and utilities, but in whether neighbors can keep one another safe and connected.
That urgency traces back to the 2018 Kīlauea lower East Rift Zone eruption, which the U.S. Geological Survey has described as one of the most destructive in Hawaii in the last 200 years. The eruption opened 24 fissures, added about 875 acres of new land beyond the old coastline, covered more than 700 structures and buried or damaged about 30 miles of roads. Reporting at the time said roughly 2,000 people were displaced, and the rupture of daily life has not fully eased.
The County of Hawaii says entire neighborhoods, including Kapoho Vacationland, Lanipuna Gardens and Kapoho Beach Lots, were destroyed. So were Kua O Ka Lā Public Charter School, Kapoho Bay and tidepools, and Ahalanui Warm Ponds. U.S. Geological Survey imagery from August 2018 showed lava filling much of Kapoho Crater, including the nested crater that once held Green Lake, while the Fissure 8 flow completely covered Kapoho Beach Lots. In a place where names once marked homes, schools and shore access, the landscape itself now serves as a permanent record of loss.
The financial toll was just as severe. The county’s recovery site puts damage to public infrastructure at an estimated $236.5 million. Road and waterline restoration projects alone were estimated at about $50 million, with 75% funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the rest by the state. Those figures explain why a gathering in 2026 still matters: for lower East Rift Zone families, healing is also about preserving memory, passing along hard-earned lessons and making sure the next emergency does not catch the community alone.
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