HILO, Hawai'i — Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park remained closed yesterday because of winds that pushed potentially hazardous volcanic emissions toward popular visitor attractions.

The park closure will take a bigger toll on local tourism if it continues into today. The cruise ship Diamond Princess is scheduled to arrive in Hilo at 7:30 a.m. today, and Roberts Hawaii would normally be waiting at the dock with up to 10 buses that hold up to 50 passengers each for excursions to the national park, said David Oyadomari, vice president for sales and marketing for Roberts.

"It's the most popular tour in Hilo for the cruise ship passengers," Oyadomari said.

As for the closure, Oyadomari said, "it's kind of too early to really know how big this is. I think we treat it on a day-to-day basis, and obviously safety is our No. 1 concern, and I think people understand that."

By mid-afternoon yesterday 5 mph trade winds from the northeast began pushing sulfur dioxide and other emissions from the volcano away from the park's visitor center and the Jaggar Museum. Those facilities could reopen after parks officials meet today to review the air quality data and weather predictions.

Continuing trade winds reduce the threat to both the park and the closest communities, such as Volcano Village, and county Civil Defense officials last night lowered the alert status in Volcano Village and surrounding areas from purple to yellow, meaning there were only light levels of sulfur dioxide there.

The trade winds "greatly reduced the threat of dangerous sulfur dioxide levels impacting those subdivisions" nearest the Kilauea summit, according to Civil Defense.

The county previously had warned residents in Mauna Loa Estates, Ohia Estates and Volcano Golf Course subdivisions as well as the Volcano Village and Keauhou Ranch areas that sulfur dioxide fumes might pose a hazard there.

About 2,000 visitors and staff were evacuated from the park Monday because of concerns that sulfur dioxide emissions from Pu'u 'O'o and Halema'uma'u would be concentrated in the park and create a health hazard.

LAVA FLOW STILL ON VIEW

Parks officials said this is the first time the entire park was closed because of eruptive activity since about 1982, and it involved evacuation of the 42-room Volcano House hotel in the park as well as the 90 cottages in the Kilauea Military Camp.

In the end, most of the potentially harmful emissions drifted upward by 1,000 feet or more and off to the west, avoiding the most heavily populated areas around the park.

Still, park incident information officer Michael Larson said the highest sulfur dioxide reading in the park was 9 parts per million late on Monday afternoon, which is well beyond the safety threshold.

Some tour companies adapted to the closure of the park, which Larson said normally receives 1,000 to 2,000 visitors daily. Doug Arnott, owner of Arnott's Lodge & Hiking Adventures, said it has helped that lava is flowing into the sea in the Kalapana area.

Instead of taking visitors to the national park, Arnott said, his van tours have gone to Kalapana and then to Rainbow Falls or other sites.

"There's so much diversity in Hilo, if you can't make a good tour out of seven or eight hours, you shouldn't be in the business," Arnott said. Large tour buses are not able to deliver passengers to the Kalapana ocean entry site because there is no place for them to turn around at the end of Highway 130.

Yesterday morning the emissions continued to be a concern as relatively warm air above the plume created a "pancake effect" that left more vog at ground level, Larson said.

LITTLE VOG IN VILLAGE

Few people have evacuated from the communities around Volcano Village, and residents in the village area reported clear weather yesterday with little vog.

Pu'u 'O'o on Kilauea's East Rift Zone has been producing about 2,000 metric tons of sulfur dioxide a day for years, while only about 200 tons per day were being released at Halema'uma'u at the summit. Sulfur dioxide emissions from the summit began to climb late last year, and by March 13 had climbed to record levels of 2,000 tons a day as a new vent opened in the wall of the Halema'uma'u crater.

Emissions at the summit had declined to about 800 metric tons as of Monday, but the shifting winds meant that even the reduced emissions at the summit combined with the ongoing emissions at Pu'u 'O'o threatened Volcano Village and the park.