Haole guy here, been living on the Big Island for seven years now. A couple of years ago I was riding my motorcycle home in the late afternoon, riding along between Malama Kai and MacKenzie Park. As I came around one of the turns I saw a person facing away from me walking a dog up ahead. I cut the throttle and slowed down to not scare the dog. As I passed them and waved I saw it was an old woman with long silver grey hair wearing a long white gown. The dog was all white, about the size of a German Shepard. I continued down the road around the next corner when it hit me… Chicken Skin! That was Madam Pele! I stopped the bike in the middle of the road and turned around to go back. It couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds but she was gone. Even more chicken skin, if you know that area you know there is no place to go. I turned around again and rode home quickly. I still get chicken skin when I ride thru there now.
A couple of weeks later the lava erupted in Leilani.