Nov 29, 2022   From Ben Berkey:

A significant change in MLSO conditions since yesterday's update.  
The eruption was calming down over the afternoon, with new overnight photos or updates from USGS and summit 
webcams showing a cooling summit lava lake.  But the volcano was reorganizing into a northeast flank eruption 
during this time.  By Nov 28 1:30 PM, one of these fissures erupted into a large lava flow that started 
proceeding down toward our access road and power lines.  At about 4:30 PM on Nov 28 this lava flow had 
crossed, cutting off power to the site.  By 7 PM Nov 28, the backup power supplies for the data network had 
gone offline, so for all practical purposes, the site is offline.  

At this point, we do not expect to have NCAR staff on the mountain again until well after the lava flow 
has stopped and a new road surface can be created.  We will require the power company to replace poles or 
install a large generator somewhere on the mountain before we can get back to taking data.

As for sunrise this morning, Nov 29, this lava flow continued to pass the Mauna Loa access road (approximate position is 
shown in yellow in the photo provided on web page) and has proceeded down to about 8,000 feet, just missing the Hi-Seas 
(https://www.hi-seas.org/) Mars Habit circled in green.     

The eruption is now falling into the path taken by the 1970s and 1980s eruptions.  So without significant 
changes to plumbing feeding the lava flows, we can expect the flows to continue toward the Saddle road before 
eventually turning east when the slope levels out and heading toward Hilo.  With this shallower terrain, 
it will likely be days or weeks before roads or structures can be threaded either along Saddle road or in 
Hilo itself.

The good news for the observatory is that for most historic flows it seems like once the eruption gets 
established in the northeast flank, it stays on the northeast flank, so the MLSO/MLO site should be fine, and 
we should be able to get back up there to take more data within a few weeks after the end of the eruption.