I was there in Hilo back in August for a week, my friend's husband runs the Hawaiian Natural Water bottling plant there.

The properties there get rated on a scale of 1 to 8, the lower the rating, the more likely lava is to flow through your property in case of an eruption. Sara and Steve's neighborhood is rated as a 3 in respect to Mauna Loa. The lava their house is on is less than 80 years old, the natural vegitation is JUST sarting to really grow. They have a small lava tube (cold, not flowing now...) in their front yard!

People in Hilo have nowhere to go if Mauna Loa goes. Running north along the coast or west along Saddle Road (which straddles the "saddle" formed between Mauna Load and Mauna Kea) will put you right on the volcano itself. You can't run east, unless you can swim 2000 miles, and running south will put you in the lava from Kiluea. (Which I got some pretty awesome video of Steve and I standing not 3 feet from!)

I guess people on kona side would be pretty bad off too... probably the only people safe people, AND with a good perch to watch from, would be the lucky bucks on top of Mauna Kea...

Even paradise has a price.

MrPex