Meanwhile, steady rain yesterday soaked O'ahu residents but not enough to cause significant problems.

The Kaua'i deluge spawned a series of vast sinkholes near the lobby and main parking lot of the Kaua'i Marriott Resort yesterday afternoon.

Visitors Lou and Joan Wakley, of Sandy, Utah, said they believed it was their gold rental car that was the first to collapse into the Marriott sinkhole.

"I parked it back-end-in about 12:30, right about where the hole is," Lou Wakley said. The trunk of a gold-colored car was visible in the hole, nose down and almost entirely covered in mud. The sides of the sinkholes were severely undercut, and resort officials said it was too dangerous to get near enough the edge to confirm the car's ownership.

Heavy rain on Kaua'i created a series of sinkholes at the Kaua'i Marriott Resort; this one swallowed a rental car. Despite the sinkholes — and mudslides and fallen trees — no injuries were reported. Jan TenBruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We always have memorable vacations," she said.

Preliminary surveys suggested that an underground culvert had failed near the hotel lobby, and that gushing water eroded the soil under the hotel's road and parking system. Running water was audible from inside the holes. One sinkhole near the resort's entrance sucked in a large banyan and several coconut trees. The others ate parked cars.

The rushing water damaged an underground sewer line, and some sewage was believed to be making its way to the sea with the underground storm flow. Hotel officials posted Kalapaki Beach with no-swimming signs.

County Civil Defense administrator Mark Marshall said county and tourism industry officials were working with the resort to prepare for possible evacuation, but they concluded late yesterday afternoon that the situation was under control as rainfall diminished.

Residents of several flooded areas on the island expressed concern to authorities about contaminated floodwaters, from overflowing septic systems and cesspools.

The county opened its neighborhood centers as emergency evacuation shelters in Kapa'a and Waimea, although no official evacuation was ordered. County public information officer Cyndi Ozaki said no one took advantage of the shelters.

At some Waimea Valley properties the floodwaters threatened homes only when big-tired trucks drove by in knee-deep water, creating wakes that washed against homes and other buildings. In Waimea and Waipouli, some residents were reported using boats to travel on flooded roads.

The island's belt road and many smaller roads were intermittently closed by rock slides, mudslides, cascading water flows and fallen trees and other debris. A boulder the size of a Volkswagen fell on Kuhio Highway east of the Kalihiwai Bridge.

Streams and rivers flooded all over the island. The stretch of highway between the Hanalei Bridge and Hanalei town was closed for several hours at midday. Public works officials were inspecting bridges after reports one or more could have been damaged when trees carried by floodwaters crashed into them.

Civil Defense chief Marshall said there was no damage estimate yesterday afternoon. He said repairs to erosion and sinkholes at the Marriott were expected to be the single biggest financial loss from the flooding.

On Windward O'ahu, steady rain created spectacular waterfalls in valleys and off steep cliffs, but no rockfalls or mudslides were reported.

'Aina Haina resident Gregg Kashiwa, who lives next to the Wailupe Stream where it empties into the ocean, said he checked the stream in the morning to make sure it didn't crest its banks.

Fire stations reported no problem calls, said HFD Capt. Kenison Tejada.

"It's coming down slow enough that it's not causing any problems," he said.

The National Weather Service is predicting the rain will continue moving across the island chain, clearing O'ahu and Kaua'i by this morning, said Maureen Ballard, a weather forecaster.

"We should see some clearing, some blue skies," Ballard said. "There might be some showers, but not constant like yesterday or on Friday. The system is lifting out and there's no other storm on the horizon

"We'll have a bit of a break here weather-wise."

Weather forecasters had predicted high winds and thunderstorms by New Year's Day, but that system never materialized, Ballard said.

The weather system that was moving at a snail's pace of 10 mph now is at 20 to 25 mph, she said. "The faster it moves, the lower the chance of flooding," she said.

Rainfall totals for O'ahu were modest compared with the 6 inches or more dumped on parts of Kaua'i.

O'ahu rainfall gauges recorded nearly 2 inches in 'Ahuimanu, Waimanalo and Maunawili over a 12-hour period ending at 2 p.m. yesterday.

In East Honolulu, the Hawai'i Kai Golf Course rainfall gauge recorded 1.4 inches of rain, compared with a gauge on top of Kamehame Ridge that registered 1.16 inches.

But areas such as Kahuku registered a scant three-tenths of an inch of rain in the same period, according to the National Weather Service rainfall totals.