Ahalanui Park, before the eruption.

(BIVN) – The loss of Ahalanui Beach Park, home to Puna’s scenic, warm pond taken by lava during the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea, will be compensated by $2.2 million in federal funding.

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaiʻi) announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will provide Hawai‘i County with the new, disaster relief funding “based on damage to Ahalanui Park from lava flows during the 2018 Kilauea eruptions.”

Sen. Schatz says the new funding “may be used to restore the park at its current location or at an alternate site. Once the county decides how to proceed, it will have to submit a proposal to FEMA.”

“As we continue to recover from the natural disasters in 2018, this new funding will go a long way in helping us rebuild after the Kilauea eruption,” said U.S. Senator Schatz, who is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “As we continue to recover, I will keep fighting for more federal resources at every opportunity.”

According to Senator Schatz, Hawai‘i has – to date – received more than a half a billion dollars in federal relief funding to help the state recover from the 2018 natural disasters.