Hauanio 'Ohana Displaced by Lava

Many of you know us as a fun loving and hard working local family. Some of you may know us through our business Hawaiian Lava Boat Tours LLC. What you may not know is that our family home which we built ourselves about 12 years ago as a young couple is located on Kaupili Street in Leilani Estates in Pahoa on the Big Island of Hawaii. If you have been watching the news lately, you will know that our home is currently closely surrounded by spouting fissures of active red lava and we are likely facing the imminent loss of our home. For my husband, this is a recurring tragedy as he and his family lost their home to the Kalapana lava flow years ago.  Though the lava has been a huge part of our lives and livelihood, we never expected to have our home in such direct peril. We built our home ourselves, and every nail pounded and every tree planted was to establish our forever home, a place to raise our family. We since have had two daughters, aged 6 and 3 years, and have just had our son who is 2 and a half weeks old today. We were home from the hospital less than two weeks before 292 increasingly frequent and strong earthquakes caused me to flee our home on May 3rd with our children. My husband Kainoa Hauanio remained behind to protect our home while we waited to see what the earthquakes would lead to. Little did we know, our lives were about to be changed forever. The children and I have not been able to be with Kainoa since, as the next day a fissure of active lava erupted on the street below our home. Since then twelve fissures have opened within a one mile radius of our home, creating a literal ring of fire and nine homes near us have been taken by the lava flow.  As I never expected this reality, I left with only  small overnight backpacks for me and the children, and my husband quickly loaded what he could of our life's collection of belongings as he was forced to evacuate on Thursday. Though he had to leave our home, he has remained in the area helping Ikaika Marzo keep the community updated and safe, and is currently manning an information and donation booth in Pahoa. At this point we are needing to find a new home, buy necessities for our children, and somehow still manage to pay our bills while without income or a home. We are looking into what emergency aid may be available to us, and also considering taking out an emergency loan (if we can qualify with no income) for a new home. At this point we do not know where we will go or what we will do for work, as our Lava Tour Business is currently defunct. Every little bit will help ease the transition of this tragic time as we try our best to move forward and rebuild our lives. From the bottoms of our hearts and with greatest humility, we appreciate all of you supporting our family through this extremely difficult and unexpected time. Aloha