WAILAPA, Kaua'i — Six weeks after the Kaloko Dam breach, Wailapa Stream remains a tangled mess of broken trees, mosquito-infested stagnant ponds and frustration.

"We've got cars in our backyard that are buried in the mud. The debris is so massive we can't do it ourselves," said Carole Wells, whose family property borders Wailapa Stream. "It's humongous."

State Civil Defense and county public works officials are predicting they may be able to send in the heavy equipment for a top-to-bottom cleanup by late May.

On March 14, the dam on the giant Kaloko Reservoir failed. The earthen wall likely gave way in a flash, sending more than 400 million gallons of muddy water in a span of minutes down the Wailapa Stream valley. The noise was described by one resident as the sound of 10 jet engines roaring.

It stripped the forested slopes of Wailapa bare, and driving the hundreds of whole trees before it, swept through the smaller Morita Reservoir, crashed into and overtopped Kuhio Highway. The wave rumbled through the Wailapa subdivision, where all homes were built outside the designated flood zone, but many were flooded anyway.

Two homes belonging to real estate professional Bruce Fehring were built on a peninsula formed by a U-shaped bend in the stream. The wave jumped the peninsula, and instantly scoured the homes off the ground, and with them seven people: Aurora Fehring; her husband, Alan Dingwall; their son, Rowan Fehring-Dingwall; and Christina Macnees, Daniel Arroyo, Wayne Rotstein and Timothy Noonan.

The Wells family lives across the stream from where the seven were staying, and credit their trees, in part, for protecting them. The Wells clan lost 430 Honduras mahogany trees and four rare Brazilian rosewoods. Most of the trees were scraped right off the ground. A few remain, bent and broken, but bravely pushing out fresh leaves.

The power of the wave carried hundreds of full-grown trees from upstream. As they smashed into the Wells tree farm, they created piles of logs that weakened the water's onslaught. The water came within a few dozen feet of their home, but never touched their foundation.

The aftermath of the flood has been misery for residents. Thousands of dead fish, chickens and other animals provided a food source for rats.

"The rat population came up phenomenally," said Mike Perius, who lives at the upper end of the former Morita Reservoir.

Once emergency crews breached the Morita dam wall, it left a mudflat punctuated by pools of water that bred mosquitoes.

"The little striped mosquitoes that can carry dengue fever, they're coming up out of there in clouds," Perius said.

Kaua'i Civil Defense coordinator Mark Marshall said teams have identified 12 dangerous items still lying in the mud, ranging from upside-down automobiles to fuel tanks. Wells said she believes there are between 12 and 18 cars — two of them in her own yard.

Some folks have been hauling smaller items out of the muck. Ed Doty, whose equipment shed was washed away, has been locating his tools and gear downstream, and is trying to bring some of it back to life. He was able to dismantle and restore a mud-clogged Honda pump. Diesel fuel tanks and oxy-acetylene welding gear are among the other finds. Four chain saws are still missing, along with much other gear.

He and his wife, Joyce Doty, have not waited for a government cleanup. They've moved most of the logs from their front yard, have raked the smaller debris and are planning the landscaping of their scarred land. They are spraying to control the mosquitoes in areas where they are working.

"I don't want to sue anyone. I don't want money from anyone. I just want people to stay out of our way so we can get the work done," Joyce Doty said.

County Engineer Donald Fujimoto said he welcomes folks willing to do their own work, but warns that under the rules for the federal grant the county expects to use to pay for the cleanup, there will not be any compensation for it.

"We appreciate the fact that people take the initiative. That helps everybody. But nobody will compensate them for their efforts later," Fujimoto said.

The county has applied for a U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service grant, and is waiting for funding for the grant to move through Congress. The grant program covers stabilization and debris removal, but not restoration of properties to their original condition, he said.

County officials have been meeting with the community to update residents on progress. Their next session is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. on May 9 at Kilauea Neighborhood Center.

The state Department of Health has treated the Wailapa area for mosquitoes and has consulted with residents about how to reduce mosquito numbers, said Clyde Takekuma, the department's environmental health chief.

There are other changes in the local environment in the region that may never be addressed. Wells' husband, Terry, said that in the Kilauea River, where the Wailapa Stream comes in, once deep enough that area residents were able to water ski, the rocks and logs and silt are so thick that you can't get a boat through it at all.

"You can almost walk across there," Terry Wells said.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.