Throughout the valley, people are talking about those who helped in ways large and small — even heroic. Many labored anonymously, each individual offering what he or she could, but together lifting an entire community struggling to cope with one of its most disastrous events.

In Manoa, friends and strangers worked side by side to help clear mud and debris, pump water from homes, and haul the water-logged contents out into heaps of garbage on lawns.

"A lot of people we didn't even know were helping, like my brother's fishing buddies," remembers Earl Shigemoto, whose home was flooded with four or five feet of water, and whose 82-year-old mother was stranded for an hour on a sofa floating in her living room.

"Friends came by with equipment, a power-washer, a sprayer, and this one guy from Hawaiian Dredging brought an industrial-sized pump. He was a friend of a friend."

Shigemoto's brother, Brian, got on the phone to his friends and family and pretty soon the word was out that help was needed.

"I called about six buddies and three or four cousins," said Brian Shigemoto. "My cousins, my uncles, my aunts came and they were mostly carrying bags out. Most of the things we just had to get rid of. My niece who works at Prudential found out and somehow the word got out there, too, so the property managers from Waimanalo and Kailua all showed up."

Down and dirty in mud

Some of those helpers were friends going back to his Roosevelt High School days. Others, like Sue Kelly, Ross Kikuta and Scott Matsunaga — all dentists — are fishing buddies. It was Matsunaga who rounded up the high-capacity power-washers.

"All these guys who aren't supposed to get their fingers dirty cleaned up all the mud," said Brian Shigemoto.

Help came from many quarters — the fellow parishioners of a church member whose home was flooded, the grocery store that offered free lunch and boxes of fruit to feed volunteer workers, the owners of a small sandwich shop who gave free meals to muddy patrons, the doughnuts and coffee brought by a PTA member to help the Noelani Elementary School clean-up, the food baskets prepared by a church for those with flooded homes.

"When the people came in and told us about their house being flooded out, especially the older ones, our hearts just went out to them and we thought we'd help them out with a free meal," said Norma Rodrigues, co-proprietor of Andy's Sandwiches & Smoothies on East Manoa Road.

The Manoa Safeway, meanwhile, sent boxes of fruit to volunteers helping at UH's Hamilton Library and sandwich makings to helpers at Noelani Elementary.

"We did lunch for them because their cafeteria wasn't operational," said Safeway manager Chris Bannister. "But never mind us — it's those guys who did the work."

Mopping up Noelani

As floodwaters rushed through the hallways, cafeteria and office of Noelani that Saturday night, school parents were gathering, alerted by teacher Sharlene Arita. She lives nearby and placed a 911 call around 7:15 p.m. as she saw water crest over the stream banks.

"We'd just gotten back from a birthday party and a teacher, Jeff Fukushima, called me and said there's a flood problem," remembers Mark Pennington, a board member. "So I asked my wife for a couple of towels and said, 'I'm going to go mop up some water.' When I stepped out of my car in the parking lot the water came up to my shins."

Pennington and about 25 other volunteer parents, teachers and staff were there until 2 a.m. sweeping, mopping, squeegeeing, clearing drains and moving mud out of the parking lot.

"There were actually fish flopping around the storm drains," said Pennington. "At first we had no wet-vacs, we were just using brooms. We'd make a chain of parents and staff and push water to each other and the last one would push it out the door. We did that for an hour before the first wet-vac showed up."

One of the most painful losses was a cardboard box full of cereal box tops and soup labels that students had been collecting as part of the Boxtops for Education program that offers rebates.

"They had just tons of them," said Pennington. "And we lost all of that. Maybe it was just a few thousand dollars' worth, but in public education, every penny counts."

But Arita said that because the school, parents and teachers acted so quickly, the school sustained less damage than it might have.

"We were right here doing something about it," said Arita. "We pretty much had the floor dry before we left at 2."

Principal Fred Yoshinaga, new to the school this year, was overwhelmed by the support, which has brought the school even closer together.

"To see the parents out here that night was very powerful in itself," he said. "It shows how close-knit a community the school is."

The sense of community also pervades the congregation of Kapahulu Bible Church. When floodwaters inundated the home and garage of church member Winnie Yamashiro, some in the congregation decided to head up there after church the next morning to see what they could do.

"We brought wheelbarrows and shovels and used buckets to try and scoop up the mud," said church member Greg Kimura, who also teaches at the church preschool. "Word got around and some of the youth talked to others, too, and close to 20 people went down to shovel — kids, high schoolers and older people too."

Saving lives, artifacts

At the university, the flooding proved life threatening at one point, with waters rampaging through the campus after hitting Manoa.

As floodwaters rushed through the Biomedical Sciences Building, security guard Jimmy Lagunero rescued a woman clinging to a tree and calling for help.

As the campus cleanup began, an e-mail went out to the Geography Department from cartographer Everett Wingert asking for volunteers to help save what historic maps they could from the Hamilton Library basement, where water had hit the ceiling.

In response, during the next several days faculty and students showed up by 8 a.m. to carry the heavy drawers of maps — drenched in mud and water — outside to be hosed off and stored in refrigerated containers, said department chairman Mark Ridgley.

Aloha at the core

As professionals arrived in the days afterward to clear debris and sanitize buildings, volunteers were able to step back. But their assistance was a crucial piece of the immediate response.

"Absolutely, Hawai'i-style," said dentist Matsumoto of the many friends and friends of friends who helped the Shigemotos. "But everyone was so busy we didn't have time for introductions."

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.