Lava pouring out of a Hawaii volcano burned down Mary Dressler's home and her town 28 years ago. Now, watching creeping lobes of molten rock slowly wipe out entire neighborhoods over the past month, she has been transported back to those losses.
Memories and emotions overcame the naturopathic physician when she recently took clothing donations to an evacuation center — so much so she had a hard time staying.
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Lava pouring out of a Hawaii volcano burned down Mary Dressler's home and her town 28 years ago. Now, watching creeping lobes of molten rock slowly wipe out entire neighborhoods over the past month, she has been transported back to those losses.
"You see people walk up with that lost look. They have no clue what they're going to do next. I know that feeling," Dressler said.
"It there's any salvation in this whole thing, is it gives you an incentive to work harder and to get back up on your feet again. And you know if you did it once, you can do it again," she said.
She described the leader of the Big Island's civil defense, Harry Kim, who is now the island's mayor, as a beacon of compassion during the crisis. He inspired Beardsley to give back to her community and she became an epidemiologist in Mendocino County, California.
This 1990 photo provided by Julie Beardsley shows a road sign nearly covered in lava from an eruption of Kilauea Volcano that destroyed her home and the entire town of Kalapana, Hawaii. Beardsley remembers lava slowly taking over Kalapana, a village beloved for its surf spot and black sand beach, and neighboring communities. She called it a “time of intense sadness and hardship for everyone.” (Julie Beardsley via AP)
FILE - This May 4, 1990 file photo shows the Star of the Sea Church being transported to a safer location as lava continues to flow into Kalapana, Hawaii. Kilauea has destroyed more than 600 homes since it began spraying lava out of a vent on a residential street on May 3, 2018. The newly homeless aren't alone: over the past century Kilauea has covered large parts of the Big Island multiple times. (AP Photo/Norman Shapiro)
This 1955 photo provided by Rosemary Kawamoto shows her, at 9, left, her mother Mildred Nii holding her sister Carol, 3, with her sister Ethel Jane, 5, right, posing in front of a still-smoking cinder cone after an eruption on their family farm at Pahoa on the island of Hawaii. Lava spared their house, but her family never moved back because her mother, a city girl from Honolulu, objected. The family moved to Hilo, the largest town on the Big Island, and sold the farm. (Courtesy Rosemary Kawamoto via AP)
This 1955 photo provided by Rosemary Kawamoto shows her, at 9, left, her mother Mildred Nii holding her sister Carol, 3, with her sister Ethel Jane, 5, right, posing in front of a still-smoking cinder cone after an eruption on their family farm at Pahoa on the island of Hawaii. Lava spared their house, but her family never moved back because her mother, a city girl from Honolulu, objected. The family moved to Hilo, the largest town on the Big Island, and sold the farm. (Courtesy Rosemary Kawamoto via AP)
FILE - In this May 1, 1990 file photo, members of the Sweezey family watch as fire destroys their garage and threatens their house in Kalapana, Hawaii. Lava pouring out of Kilauea volcano burned down the whole town 28 years ago. Watching creeping lobes of molten rock slowly wipe out entire neighborhoods over the past month makes survivors of earlier eruptions relive the experience. (AP Photo/Norman Shapiro, File)
"You see people walk up with that lost look. They have no clue what they're going to do next. I know that feeling," Dressler said.
Lava has destroyed more than 600 homes on the Big Island since the Kilauea volcano began spraying molten rock out of a vent on a residential street May 3.
The newly homeless aren't alone: Kilauea has covered large swathes of the island's rural Puna district multiple times over the past century. People who have lived through these past eruptions speak of profound despair at losing their way of life but also about the new opportunities and perspectives they gained.
Dressler remembers helping her elderly neighbors load their belongings into shipping containers as lava approached the old Hawaiian fishing village of Kalapana in April 1990.
She packed her own pictures and personal belongings when an official pointed out that she had helped others but hadn't taken anything from her own home. He told her it was time.
"I remember walking out of that house and thinking we were definitely coming back," she said.
It burned down in less than 45 minutes.
Dressler, her husband and their two daughters, ages 3 and 5, moved into the video rental store they operated in nearby Pahoa town. They stayed there until they found a house to rent two weeks later. By December, they had built a new home in that neighborhood.
She wasn't able to feel lost for long because she had young children to care for.
FILE - In this May 2, 1990 file photo, lava from Kilauea Volcano overtakes and destroys a home in Kalapana, Hawaii. Kilauea has destroyed more than 600 homes since it began spraying lava out of a vent on a residential street on May 3, 2018. The newly homeless aren’t alone: the Kilauea volcano has covered large parts of the island multiple times over the past century. (AP Photo/Barry Sweet, File)
"It there's any salvation in this whole thing, is it gives you an incentive to work harder and to get back up on your feet again. And you know if you did it once, you can do it again," she said.
Many who have lost everything in Kilauea eruptions rebuild in nearby zones also at risk of being inundated by lava. People want to stay in their community, be where their family has lived for hundreds of years or love the weather and scenery. Affordability also is a factor: some of Hawaii's cheapest land is on the slopes of Kilauea.
The destruction in Hawaii comes as Guatemala struggles to recover from an eruption of the Volcano of Fire this month that killed at least 110 people and left about 200 people missing.
In Hawaii, Julie Beardsley remembers lava slowly taking over Kalapana, a village beloved for its surf spot and black sand beach, and neighboring communities. She called it a "time of intense sadness and hardship for everyone."
She said a longtime resident named Minnie Kaawaloa helped guide her through it, while invoking Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and fire.
"She explained this was Pele's land, and you didn't argue or resist her. There was something larger going on that was beyond your control. That you had to trust in God, in yourself, and in your community, and understand life would go on. In the midst of loss and grief, there was a future," Beardsley said in an email.
FILE - This May 3, 1990 file photo shows lava at the entrance to Kalapana Gardens subdivision in Kalapana, Hawaii. Kilauea has destroyed more than 600 homes since it began spraying lava out of a vent on a residential street on May 3, 2018. People who lived through past eruptions speak of profound despair at losing homes and their way of life but also about new opportunities. (AP Photo/Norman Shapiro, File)
She described the leader of the Big Island's civil defense, Harry Kim, who is now the island's mayor, as a beacon of compassion during the crisis. He inspired Beardsley to give back to her community and she became an epidemiologist in Mendocino County, California.
Dressler's and Beardsley's former homes in Kalapana are buried under hundreds of feet of hardened lava.
Decades earlier and further upslope, Rosemary Kawamoto, her parents and three sisters evacuated their farm after scientists warned that a series of earthquakes might signal a new phase of an eruption.
Her father returned every day in 1955 to check on their property. Then, a vent cracked open the earth on the farm and a crater later formed in their cucumber patch.
"That cucumber patch became very famous," said Kawamoto, who was 9 at the time. "My dad lost the whole thing."
Lava spared their house, but her family never moved back because her mother, a city girl from Honolulu, objected. The family moved to Hilo, the largest town on the Big Island, and sold the farm.
"It changed my life," Kawamoto said.
Dressler tells new evacuees to hold on to memories from neighborhoods now submerged in black rock.
"And just pick up the pieces and move forward as best as you can. And try to do it each and every day. That's all we've got," she said.
FILE - In this April 21, 1990 file photo, Mary Dressler steps onto a cooled lava flow which has filled up most of the backyard of her mother-in-law's home in the Kalapana Gardens subdivision in Kalapana, Hawaii. Lava pouring out of Kilauea volcano burned down both Dressler's home and the whole town of Kalapana 28 years ago. Now, watching creeping lobes of molten rock slowly wipe out entire neighborhoods over the past month, she has been transported back to those losses. (AP Photo/Gary Stewart, File)
This 1990 photo provided by Julie Beardsley shows a road sign nearly covered in lava from an eruption of Kilauea Volcano that destroyed her home and the entire town of Kalapana, Hawaii. Beardsley remembers lava slowly taking over Kalapana, a village beloved for its surf spot and black sand beach, and neighboring communities. She called it a “time of intense sadness and hardship for everyone.” (Julie Beardsley via AP)
FILE - This May 4, 1990 file photo shows the Star of the Sea Church being transported to a safer location as lava continues to flow into Kalapana, Hawaii. Kilauea has destroyed more than 600 homes since it began spraying lava out of a vent on a residential street on May 3, 2018. The newly homeless aren't alone: over the past century Kilauea has covered large parts of the Big Island multiple times. (AP Photo/Norman Shapiro)
This 1955 photo provided by Rosemary Kawamoto shows her, at 9, left, her mother Mildred Nii holding her sister Carol, 3, with her sister Ethel Jane, 5, right, posing in front of a still-smoking cinder cone after an eruption on their family farm at Pahoa on the island of Hawaii. Lava spared their house, but her family never moved back because her mother, a city girl from Honolulu, objected. The family moved to Hilo, the largest town on the Big Island, and sold the farm. (Courtesy Rosemary Kawamoto via AP)
This 1955 photo provided by Rosemary Kawamoto shows her, at 9, left, her mother Mildred Nii holding her sister Carol, 3, with her sister Ethel Jane, 5, right, posing in front of a still-smoking cinder cone after an eruption on their family farm at Pahoa on the island of Hawaii. Lava spared their house, but her family never moved back because her mother, a city girl from Honolulu, objected. The family moved to Hilo, the largest town on the Big Island, and sold the farm. (Courtesy Rosemary Kawamoto via AP)
