UH professor Terrence Lyttle's biomedical lab was at one point under 4 1/2 feet of water, destroying his genetic research project that goes back 35 years. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Manoa clearly saw the brunt of Saturday's storm, said National Weather Service lead forecaster Tim Craig. He said more showers are likely this afternoon.

Thirty-five buildings at UH were using generators for electricity today and all but four of them should return to normal power by the end of the week, Manke said. Hamilton Library, the Bio Medical Sciences Building, Sherman Laboratory and Ag Sciences 3 will need more time for repairs.

The cost of the damage the the UH campus and other parts of Manoa hit by the flood had not been tallied this morning.

University of Hawai'i maintenance worker Jorge Ortiz assesses the damage the flood did to the Hamilton Library basement, which stores government documents. Some material even floated down to Dole Street. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Manke said state insurance would cover some of the damage at UH and that school officials would apply for additional state and federal emergency funds.

"But there is a lot of stuff which is priceless," Manke said. "There is a lot of stuff in the library which is totally irreplaceable. And life's work, research is being lost. Specimens are ruined. It is really devastating for a lot of people."

The resumption of UH classes will depend on how long it takes to remove the debris. The flash flood topped the banks of Manoa Stream and created a river Saturday night that raced through the heart of the campus.

The emergency may add an extra day — Dec. 10 — to the fall semester, Manke said.

Hamilton Library was hit hard by the flood, but nearly all of the damage was in the basement, Manke said.

"But upstairs one of the things they were concerned about it getting dehumidifiers right away," Manke said today. "Mold is a persistent problem for books. They are trying like crazy to get generators and dehumidifiers in there."

The Biomedical Sciences building also sustained serious damage. In some cases, dry-ice coolers helped save experiments.

Professor Terrence Lyttle's biomedical lab was under 4› feet of water, destroying at least one-third of the 50,000 Drosophila, which are similar to fruit flies, that were stored in his ground-floor incubator.

Lyttle's genetic research on the Drosophila goes back 35 years and some of it is irretrievably lost, he said.

"I've been studying that system for my entire career, since I was a graduate student," said Lyttle, 56.

The water also ruined $100,000 worth of computers, microscopes and other electronic equipment.

Gov. Linda Lingle toured the campus yesterday and was shocked by the damage.

"It seems as if this is a storm that came down right over Manoa. It looks like a tornado, not something caused by water," she said. "It shows you the power and the force of that much water."

UH's Lyon Arboretum in Manoa recorded 9.96 inches of rain between 11 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. yesterday.

Manoa residents yesterday spent hours shoveling mud out of their homes.

Lingle signed a disaster proclamation yesterday making personal and commercial loans available from the state's major disaster fund. The state's director of Civil Defense, Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, said the governor is also seeking federal assistance.

David McClain, UH interim president, called the flood "an event of significant destruction," and said 35 buildings were damaged on campus.

Between 6:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday, a wall of water 4 feet to 6 feet high swept through low-lying areas of the campus all the way to the sports facilities on the lower campus, McClain said. The parking structure will remain closed until the mud and water can be removed.

In the Hamilton Library basement, students in a class had to smash a window to escape rising floodwaters, said Sara McBride, library development and community specialist.

Yesterday, the water mark in the basement was 6 feet high, and mud filled drawers full of archival maps and documents.

McBride and much of the library staff worked all day yesterday to try to save some of the 90,000 photographs stored in the basement along with rare government documents and Hawaiian maps.

Computers, books, magazines and equipment were destroyed and much of it was strewn from McCarthy Mall down to Dole Street.

Matson Navigation Co. and Horizon Lines donated refrigerated containers to preserve some of the biological research projects and the library documents until power is restored on campus.

"Thirty-three percent of our budget, $330 million, comes from the science side of the operation," McClain said. "We have experiments going on all the time and there is no power. It is a situation you can live with for a few hours, but not for long."

The Fire Department dispatched nine companies to Manoa Valley Saturday night to respond to more than 20 calls from residents between 5 and 10 p.m. Fire Capt. Emmit Kane said the calls were for flooded homes, rising water and other emergencies associated with heavy flooding. He said HFD received no calls for injuries.

Edward Texeira, vice director of Civil Defense on O'ahu, said it was too early to tell yesterday exactly how many homes were affected by the flood.

Workers from the city's Department of Road Maintenance also were in Manoa today to ensure that city owned drainage canals were clear of debris, said Larry Leopardi, director of the department.

The clean-up will take several days, he said.

"If we don't remove the mud and the debris it will just go right back into the drainage ways," Leopardi said.

Noelani Elementary School also suffered severe water damage to several classrooms, the cafeteria and the central administration building. Principal Fred Yoshinaga said eight offices in the administration building were completely flooded.

The rain sent mud, silt and water throughout neighboring Mid-Pacific Institute. Mid-Pac's weight room, boys' locker room, swimming pool, pool mechanical room, cafeteria and an auditorium were all hit to varying degrees, said Hank Howlett, director of facilities and maintenance services. The school was open today.