MILITARY
MARKDOWN
SAVE 10% OFF
EVERYDAY!
SEE STORES FOR DETAILS.
Olivia looking to arrive
EAST SIDE SURF CAN HIT 20 FEET TONIGHT; RESIDENTS URGED TO PREP
Cat killer
reward up
to $8K
BY CHELSEA JENSEN
WEST HAWAII TODAY
cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com
Warrant
issued for
Old A rape
suspect, again
BY TIFFANY DEMASTERS
WEST HAWAII TODAY
tdemasters@westhawaiitoday.com
Latrik
Vog-less in Kona
Left, the Sheraton Kona Resort and Spa at Keauhou Bay is barely visible through the vog from the scenic lookout on Kamehameha
III Road on May 29. Right, Haleakala can be seen from the Kiholo lookout on a clear Monday. PHOTOS BY LAURA RUMINSKI/WEST HAWAII TODAY
VOLCANIC EMISSIONS DOWN, WEST HAWAII SKIES CLEAREST IN YEARS
INDEX Annie’s Mailbox . . . . . . 4B Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5B Nation & World . . . . . . . . .3A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6A Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1B
GGRRIIDD OOPPEENN AAGGAAIINN!!
ONLY 700 Openings Left!
FREE CONSULTATION
808-286-6591
LIC #C-24559
ProSolarHawaii.com
HI 89 LO 76 WEATHER, PAGE 6A
PV Panel Special
$84500*
per panel
Including installation
& permit.
*min purchase required (with coupon)
VOL. 50, NO. 254 18 PAGES
INSIDE
A LONG WAIT
Groundbreaking
held for new
building at Waikoloa
Elementary,
Middle School
PAGE 8A
▼
GUN THREAT
LOCKS DOWN
CAMPUSES
ON EAST SIDE
Suspect has record
of terroristic
threatening
PAGE 8A
▼
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2018 WESTHAWAIITODAY.COM 75¢
HILO — State and county
officials advised residents to
have 14 days worth of food and
pet food, a full tank of gas and
other emergency supplies ready
as Tropical Storm Olivia is set to
arrive either late tonight or early
Wednesday.
At a news conference Monday
afternoon, Gov. David Ige said
everyone should “stay connected
to … county emergency management
and Civil Defense.”
“They will have the most current
and accurate information,”
he said.
Ige said the emergency proclamation
he signed over the
weekend allows state officials
to be proactive in meeting the
threat of the cyclone, which was
downgraded Monday from a
Category 1 hurricane to a tropical
storm.
“We have pre-positioned
equipment and personnel along
the Honokaa coast on Hawaii
Island, in and around Hilo,” Ige
said.
Tom Travis, Hawaii
Emergency Management
Agency administrator, said he
appreciates “the community’s
patience in preparing for the
many disasters that we’ve experienced,
even though past events
have been better than we feared
they would be.”
“The success we have in
responding to a disaster is, in
large part, based on the response
of the community,” Travis said.
As of 5 p.m. Monday, Olivia
was 380 miles east-northeast
of Hilo, packing maximum
sustained winds of 70 mph. The
storm was moving west at 10
mph.
National Weather Service
meteorologist Leigh Anne
Eaton said the forecast track of
Olivia has been “pretty consistent
over the past several days.”
“That is a sign that the forecast
does have a little more strength
BY JOHN BURNETT
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
SEE OLIVIA PAGE 5A
KAILUA-KONA — The
community is upping the
ante for information leading
to those responsible
for the shooting of three
cats on Hawaii Island.
Some $8,250 was on
the table as of Monday
afternoon for any tips
leading to prosecution
in any of the three incidents
that killed cats since
December 2016, said
Donna Whitaker, executive
director of the Hawaii
Island Humane Society.
SEE REWARD PAGE 5A
KAILUA-KONA — A
3rd Circuit Court judge
issued his second bench
warrant on an 18-yearold
man
accused
of class A
felony sex
offenses
who has
twice violated
his
conditions
of release on bail.
The warrant for Samuel
Latrik was issued Monday
after the Hawaii Intake
SEE WARRANT PAGE 9A
KAILUA-KONA — Take a
deep breath.
A pall of seemingly unrelenting
vog swallowed West Hawaii
for months as Kilauea wreaked
havoc in Puna. Since the volcano
has cooled, the excess pollution
subsided. But the changes are
actually more significant than
that.
“In Kona, it seems like (air
quality) looks better than it was
prior to the eruption,” said Lisa
Young, environmental health specialist
with the state Department
of Health’s Clean Air Branch.
Young’s statement was a soft
determination that she explained
is based more on anecdotal evidence
and what she’s heard from
people throughout West Hawaii
rather than on a hard comparison
of pre- and post-eruption pollution
numbers.
However, there are scientific
indicators that back up what
Young believes to be true — that
the air is as clean as it’s been in
recent memory.
When it comes to air quality,
green is good. Literally.
Particulate matter is registered
by monitors across the island
and posted on airnow.gov, an
air quality website run by the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. The state DOH’s shortterm
SO2 advisory website uses
the same color-coding system at
hiso2index.info.
A green dot indicates “good”
air quality on both sites. And for
weeks, Kailua-Kona and surrounding
areas up and down the
coast have been in the green.
Before the eruption that began
in May, Young said West Hawaii
areas were subject to yellow days,
indicating “moderate” air quality.
During the eruption, air quality
levels frequently hit orange and
red, which signify “unhealthy for
sensitive groups” and plain old
“unhealthy,” respectively.
“We got green everywhere,”
Young said. “It’s been really good.”
More than monitors, hard data
from the volcano itself offers
explanation for the perpetually
clear Kona skies over the last few
weeks.
Before the most recent eruption,
Kilauea was spewing about
5,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2)
per day. Save for a few hundred
tons, all of those emissions originated
at the summit, said Patricia
Nadeau, research geologist and
part of the gas geochemistry
team at the Hawaiian Volcano
Observatory.
During the ash explosions in
the middle of May, summit emissions
peaked at about 10,000
tons per day but dropped to a few
hundred tons around a month
later, Nadeau added.
However, Lower East Rift Zone
emissions, which had been tallied
at only a few hundred tons daily
prior to the May eruption, soared
in early August to over 50,000
tons every 24 hours.
“SO2 emissions generally track
closely with the presence and
amount of lava at or near the surface,”
Nadeau said. “Emissions
were relatively high when there
was a lava lake present at the
summit before this recent eruption,
and then very high during
the voluminous fissure eruptions
of the Lower East Rift. Kilauea
is still an active volcano, but has
little to no lava at the surface,
BY MAX DIBLE
WEST HAWAII TODAY
mdible@westhawaiitoday.com
SEE VOG PAGE 9A
“In Kona, it seems like (air
quality) looks better than it
was prior to the eruption.”
LISA YOUNG
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SPECIALIST
WITH THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF
HEALTH’S CLEAN AIR BRANCH
link
link
link