(ABOVE VIDEO) Piilani Kaawaloa offers words of comfort to lava threatened Pahoa.

Video by David Corrigan

PAHOA, Hawaii – Before the start of Thursday’s public meeting on the approaching lava flow, Piilani Kaawaloa provided the traditional pule, or prayer, for those in attendance.

Kaawaloa offered words of comfort to a community that seems to have given up hope that the June 27 lava flow will mercifully stop before destroying residential and commercial swaths of Puna.

Kaawaloa also spoke of the anniversary of September 11th, an event that happened a world away but is nonetheless a memory of deep emotion for the residents of Hawaii.

The Kaawaloa family has lived through numerous lava flows over the years in Kalapana. She has become one of the spiritual centers in Puna’s time of crisis. Her recent defense of volcano Goddess Pele against talk of diversion went viral recently.