By now, you’ve probably seen the video. And if you haven’t, well there it is above: Mike Hale’s silver Ford Mustang being devoured by the ravenous Pele, Hawaii’s volcano goddess, and her unstoppable crush of lava. Yet, if you look closely in that video, you’ll see something else, specifically in the foreground that meets its fiery end. That would be the R2-D2 mailbox his daughter made for him one Christmas.
“That had sentimental value,” Hale said in an interview with WXChasing. “The Mustang, I do have other cars.”
Indeed, the Mustang was one of many cars Hale kept at his now-destroyed home in Leilani Estates for use in his small rental car business. With the help of friends, he managed to evacuate the rest of his inventory, but the Mustang’s battery was dead, so it was at the bottom of a priority list that also included retrieving valuables from inside his home.
You can read more about what it was like for Hale as he and his friends evacuated during the eruption at the Washington Post as well as watching the full interview video at WXChasing. It’s worth a read/watch.
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