KOHALA — The Rev. George Baybrook was dreading the drive from his Waimea home to the Kalahikiola Congregational Church after the first earthquake rumbled Sunday morning.

The pastor feared that the old church, dedicated in October 1855 in the historic district where the Rev. Elias Bond did his missionary work, might have fared badly. He had no idea.

The bell tower, red metal roof and hand-hewn wooden beams were intact. But it looked as if someone had taken a wrecking ball to the rock walls, which had crumbled in chunks, along with the back entrance where many of the parishioners would have arrived on a normal Sunday.

"I cried," Baybrook said yesterday, looking at the rubble through a steady rain. "I didn't dream it would be like this."

Big Island Civil Defense officials continued to assess the damage from the earthquakes yesterday, but they estimated that parts of North and South Kohala and Waimea might have suffered the most from the force of the temblors.

Rock and landslides had uprooted trees and left boulders and other debris along many roads, which became slick yesterday with rain. Some homes had shifted from their foundations.

At Kohala Elementary School, cracks had formed near the tops of beams that hold up a two-story classroom building that has the distinction of having the only elevator in town. Cracks have also been found on the firewalls separating other school buildings.

Classes at Kohala Elementary were canceled yesterday and today. Principal Ele Laszlo said it could cost $15 million to rebuild the two-story classroom building. The building has classrooms for kindergarten, fifth-grade and special-education students.

"It was pretty obvious there was some shifting going on," Laszlo said of the beams and the elevator shaft. "I might have to move five classrooms of kids."

Teachers, parents and a construction crew helped clean up the library and classrooms after the quakes scattered chairs, desks, shelves and supplies on the floors. "Everyone has been so willing to help," Laszlo said.

The Hawi smokestack, a remnant of the sugar mills that were an important part of the region's past, had also crumbled and fallen. Crews swiftly removed the rubble so that all that was left yesterday afternoon was a soggy dirt mound where the landmark once stood.

The Bank of Hawaii branch here closed after two severe cracks appeared outside both sides of the building and the south wall was tilting slightly to the right.

Several deep cracks were visible on Akoni Pule Highway near where it ends at the Pololu Valley Lookout. The Pololu Trail was closed because of quake damage that was being magnified by rain.

Sarah Pule-Fujii, a cafeteria worker at Kohala High School, said residents came out with backhoes within an hour of the first quake and removed rubble from landslides that had blocked Akoni Pule in North Kohala.

"The state highway guys didn't do this. It was the local people," she said proudly. "I came out and gave them some water and my thanks."

Down Kohala Mountain Road, in Waimea, the tension caused by the first quake snapped a power line and sparked a fire that burned through a garage and caused severe smoke damage to a home on Pu'u Nani Drive.

The family asked for privacy as neighbors helped load what was left of their belongings. Bob Martino, a retired builder who lives next door, said he tried to fight the fire with a garden hose and keep a propane tank next to the house from exploding.

"That propane tank was full, and if that would have caught fire, I would have lost my house, too," Martino said.

Martino, whose home shifted a few inches from its foundation, said he and other neighbors were dealing with the fire when a second quake hit. "The second one I really felt. It knocked me right on my ass," he said.

At Kalahikiola Congregational Church, Baybrook said a contractor and structural engineer are expected to inspect the church over the next few days.

Baybrook said a few parishioners showed up for the 9:30 a.m. services on Sunday despite the quakes. They had impromptu services on the patio of the church's social hall.

Later, after Baybrook had left, some parishioners decided on their own to move the pulpit, an organ, a lectern, hymnals and Bibles salvaged from the rubble into the social hall for safety. They also brought a plaque honoring Rev. Bond and his wife, Ellen, who were influential Protestant missionaries.

Several buildings in the Bond homestead nearby also suffered structural damage

The congregation, Baybrook said, will decide whether the church can be restored or rebuilt. "We'll study about it. And we'll pray about it," he said.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.