U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday approved federal emergency housing aid and other relief for victims of the 6-week-old Kilauea volcano eruption on Hawaii's Big Island, where hundreds of homes have been destroyed, state officials said.
The approval came a day after Gov. David Ige formally requested assistance for an estimated 2,800 residents who have lost their homes to lava flows or were forced from their dwellings under evacuation orders since Kilauea rumbled back to life on May 3.
Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim has said that rivers of molten rock spewed from volcanic fissures at the foot of Kilauea have engulfed roughly 600 homes. The governor's office put the number of residences destroyed at 455.