HiloReign

Note, I am choosing my words carefully here, I don't wish to start or engage in issues concerning race.

Pahoa town over the past few years has had an influx of "out of towners" who have made the town their home. Because of the flow there has been a very small but vocal minority who have said that because of this Pele has decided to "wipe Pahoa clean of them."

I am part Hawaiian and see this as a bunch of nonsense. Kalapana and Kapoho, both towns that were completely removed from existence in the 60s and 80s were predominantly comprised of native Hawaiians.

Pele does as she pleases.

Years...one of the backup roads is over a stretch of land that was covered in lava in 2013. Road crews that are carving out the new road have noted hot spots were the lava rock is still hot enough to generate steam.

Sorry, I need to interrupt OPs answer.

While USGS and Hawaii county civil defense have stated culture as one of the reasons, it is not THE reason as all of they haven't. Diverting it may/will cause unpredictable results. Classically there have been attempts with other flows throughout history to divert a flow but all have ended with - "slightly less or slightly more covered with lava" as a result.

The hard truth is that the lava vent is on a hill and Pahoa rests below it on an incline. And while we like to think that it has a viscosity of water, it's closer to molasses so it sometimes has a "surface tension of of up to 15" feet off the ground at some leading edges. It will just wrap the wall, fill the hole, and keep going in a ocean level trajectory...

Fortunately not with this current flow.

A few weeks ago there was a thread in r/hawaii where USA Today had posted a video with the headline "Lava flows near Honolulu subdivision"

Yes, it would. It the trench would also need to be taller than the current height of the flow (~10-15 ft), as wide as the current flow (~.5 miles wide) and be a more downwardly incline than the current landscape. But it will still flow over the highway.