Big Island officials close Ho'okena Beach Park to reduce dengue fever threat

UPDATE 16 November 2015: 

56 cases of dengue fever on the Big Island have been confirmed by the Hawai’i Department of Health.

Of those infected, 46 are Hawai’i residents while ten have been visitors. Fifteen of those impacted are under the age of 18.

Over the weekend, DOH crews conducted spraying operations in a widely spanned area of the Big Island, including Napoopoo, Honaunau, Captain Cook, Ookala, Papaaloa, Kea’au and Mountain View on Sunday, as well as areas in South Kona.

CAPTAIN COOK, BIG ISLAND- Big Island officials have closed Ho'okena Beach Park in Captain Cook to reduce the dengue fever threat and conduct mosquito control.

The closure comes in the wake of an outbreak of the illness on the Big Island. Dengue fever is spread by mosquitoes.

USGS raises Mauna Loa’s volcano alert level to Advisory status

TOP: Mauna Loa weekly earthquake rates between 2010 and September 17, 2015. Blue bars indicate the number of earthquakes that were located by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory seismic network. Earthquakes of all magnitudes are plotted. Subtle increases in earthquake rates started in mid-2013, while more obvious changes in rates started in 2014.
BOTTOM: Change in distance across Mauna Loa’s summit caldera between 2010 and September 17, 2015. Blue dots indicate the relative distance between two stations that span the summit caldera of Mauna Loa, shown in the map on the upper left. Sustained extension across the caldera started in mid-2014. This extension is one of the indicators of magma infilling a complex reservoir system beneath the summit and upper Southwest Rift Zone.