HVERI Newsletter - June 2024
Aloha HVERI ʻohana,
As we enter June, we’re excited to announce the return of our newsletter, which will now run monthly and share updates on our progress. The new newsletter will detail our work on disaster preparedness and community resilience through education and innovation.
Highlights this month include the expansion of our Digital Resilience Hubs and the launch of our Youth Development Program.
Your support is vital to our success. Together, we are building safer, more resilient communities across Hawaiʻi Island. Mahalo for your continued support.
Mahalo nui loa,
Lou Ettore
Executive Manager, HVERI
Eruption Paused on Kīlauea’s SWRZ
Kīlauea Eruption June 3, 2024
Kīlauea volcano started erupting on June 3, 2024, just after midnight but stopped by noon the same day. The eruption happened in a remote part of the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on the Southwest Rift Zone (SWRZ) with no nearby people or infrastructure to threaten. Even though the eruption paused by noon and lava is no longer being erupted, the volcano is still releasing a lot of gas. This eruption marks the first time in 50 years that lava has made its way to the surface of the SWRZ.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory lowered the warning level from RED/WARNING to ORANGE/WATCH on June 3rd. The main thing to watch out for is the vog (volcanic smog), which can impact air quality downwind from the eruptive vents far away from the volcano.
“This was a real sneaky eruption,” said Ken Hon, Scientist-in-Charge of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, describing how the usual earthquake flurries that precede an eruption were largely absent in the Southwest Rift Zone.
Despite this unusual sequence, USGS-HVO raised the Volcano Alert Level hours before the eruption, in the middle of the night. This eruption emphasizes the importance of keeping connected with reliable volcano information to help residents and visitors adjust to a rapidly developing situation.
Reimagining the Role of Social Media
Leveraging Social Media for Disaster Preparedness
Social media can be a powerful tool for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. In the right hands, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram help you stay informed, share crucial updates, and connect with your community during emergencies.
Hawaiʻi Tracker emerged as the premier online Facebook group during the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea. Since then, we have been improving how we share helpful information on natural disasters and making more partnerships with disaster-focused organizations. We have learned many lessons, but our work to improve communication on natural disasters continues to progress.
Relying on trusted sources that provide accurate and verified information can ensure timely and reliable updates with internet access. You can stay connected even when traditional communication services are unavailable during the next large natural disaster. Your local physical Resilience Hubs, supported by Vibrant Hawaiʻi and HVERI, will be standing by to respond with Starlink connectivity and backup power. Stay tuned for more tips and strategies on maximizing social media for safety and resilience.
Digital Resilience Hubs
Updates and AI Training
We are excited to announce the training of the first cohort of new Digital Resilience Hubs across Hawaiʻi Island. These hubs enhance our community’s preparedness by leveraging social media for disaster response. Recently, we began the first round of Social Media Moderator In Disasters training, where those familiar with social media are provided with skills to support their community in a disaster situation by coordinating and sharing accurate information online.
Digital Resilience Hubs are designed and trained to offer valuable support by distributing essential information in a disaster situation and engaging with their community to obtain the most accurate and current information available. The digital hubs collaborate through HVERI and, in partnership with Vibrant Hawaii’s physical Resilience Hubs, can reach toward the future of disaster communications through technology already available.
Youth Development Program
Internships and the Aloha AI Watchtower
We are proud to highlight the ongoing success of the internship and AI Watchtower components of our Youth Development Program.
Our first internship was a notable success in partnership with the Big Island Press Club. David Mayser, a student from Germany attending the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, helped our nonprofit develop a more modern layout for our regular Hawaiian volcano video updates to be shared on Instagram and became a trained moderator on Hawaiʻi Tracker.
We are also excited to announce our Aloha AI Watchtower software development initiative. In this project, students from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s Computer Science department created an early alpha AI program to monitor and analyze social media activity during emergencies. Currently in active development and testing, this program has the potential to aggregate and analyze large amounts of social media reports and process them into readable summaries. During the 2018 eruption, we successfully harnessed the rapid flow of information on social media, leveraging technology to stay connected. This project holds significant promise for supporting our island communities. We will share more details on this program as development progresses.
Building on these successes, we are excited to announce our Youth Development Program. Our Youth Development Program aims to empower young individuals aged 13 to 25 with critical thinking, leadership, technological, and communication skills necessary for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. We aim to develop young leaders who can innovate and implement practical solutions for community resilience by providing educational workshops, hands-on projects, internships, and mentorship opportunities. This program leverages advanced technologies, social media, and the creative arts to equip participants with the tools and knowledge needed to contribute to the safety and well-being of their communities.
"Digital Resilience Hubs and Youth Development will make our island better prepared and our operation more sustainable."
— Philip Ong, Co-Executive Director
News and Articles
Latest Updates
Stay informed with the latest news and articles from HVERI. Our dedicated team regularly provides updates on our Hawaiian volcanoes at 5:00 pm HST every Thursday. You can catch our live stream on Hawai'i Tracker or our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HVERI
For other ways to follow us, check out https://hveri.org/follow
Visit our website to read about recent events, volcano updates, live broadcasts of After Dark in the Park events, and insights from the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park: https://hveri.org/news
Get Involved and Support HVERI
As we strive to enhance disaster preparedness and community resilience, your support is more crucial than ever.
You can make a difference by donating online through our secure DonorBox at www.hveri.org/donate. No matter the size, every contribution brings us closer to building a safer and more resilient Hawaiʻi Island. Stay tuned for more information on our exciting Summer 2024 Fundraiser and how you can get involved.
Mahalo for your continued support!
