NATION IN BRIEF : HAWAII : Lava-Damaged Area Declared a Disaster
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From Times Staff and Wire Reports
President Bush declared part of the island of Hawaii where Kilauea Volcano has destroyed 139 homes and caused an estimated $61 million damage a major disaster, Gov. John Waihee announced. Civil defense authorities ordered the evacuation of the few remaining homes in Kalapana Gardens as a new lava flow completely cut off the subdivision. Waihee said the President’s action was retroactive to Jan. 24, 1983, when the volcano started its devastation, and that officials had recognized that this had been “a unique, slow-moving disaster.”
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