HANALEI — North Shore residents and business owners were working hard Monday to clean up after what they said was the worst rainstorm and flooding in recent memory.

“I’ve lived here 23 years and this is the worst I’ve ever seen Hanalei flood,” Kayak Kaua‘i Manager Crystal Perry said Monday, noting that much of Sunday had been spent “digging things out of the river,” including kayaks, canoes, boat racks, picnic tables and other debris.

She said employees have yet to inventory roughly 100 boats on property to see if any have gone missing.

The nearby Hanalei Canoe Club had at least one single-person canoe torn in two by the weather, which sent a “pretty intense, pretty scary” torrent of waist-high water “ripping through” the riverfront property where the club makes its home, a pair of club members said Monday.

In addition to the broken blue one-person canoe, which was recovered in pieces clear across Hanalei Bay at Waikoko’s, a red one-person canoe went missing and is presumed lost at sea, the members said. Thanks to an advance warning of the storm, many of the other boats were secured to each other and to permanent structures to prevent their disappearance even as they sat floating atop a de facto segment of the Hanalei River.

The torrent of water — which turned at least a dozen fish into a brand of uncustomary roadkill in the gravel driveway leading to the canoe club — also impacted operations at the riverside Hanalei Dolphin restaurant and fish market.

Steve Miller, a cook at the restaurant, said the water began rapidly rising on all sides of the building, getting deep at around noon Saturday. Before Miller could react, the red sedan he was borrowing from co-worker Jim Turner was trapped in the parking lot, and all he could do was park it in the highest place he could find and take shelter with a half-dozen coworkers “like survivalists” in the top floor of the restaurant.

While they waited, the water level rose to about halfway up the sedan’s doors, filling the interior of the car with water. Sandbags placed by the doors of the restaurant were ineffective, and a layer of standing water eventually found its way inside.

Miller said the six employees stayed in the attic until about 5 p.m., occasionally venturing out into the elements for sustenance and getting out on the roof “like Katrina victims” before wading through the water to a cottage a few hundred yards away to stay overnight.

County officials announced over the weekend that 17 people were evacuated due to the flooding. Red Cross North Shore Disaster Team Leader Bill Troutman said Monday that the rare closure of the Kalihiwai Bridge necessitated the opening of an emergency shelter at the Kilauea Neighborhood Center from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Troutman said he had been told by representatives of the Kaua‘i Police and Fire departments in Hanalei that nobody was still displaced on Monday.

Turner, who was on his way to work and stranded on the Princeville side of the Hanalei Bridge, was working with Miller Monday to try to find the location of an electrical short that was preventing the vehicle from starting. The bridge was closed from about 9 a.m. Saturday until about 6 a.m. Sunday, county spokeswoman Mary Daubert said Monday.

Other Hanalei Dolphin employees were working to clean the gravel and grassy areas a day after spending much of Sunday removing a layer of muddy water from the interior of the restaurant, another worker said.

Perry said the cleanup at Kayak Kaua‘i, delayed for more than a day while the region was without running water, was in full effect Monday. She said she was forced to turn away a handful of potential customers because the dock was crowded with wayward kayaks that had been littered across the lawn by the flood.

The interruption in water service closed Hanalei Elementary School for the day on Monday. The tank went dry at around 5 a.m. Sunday and the well was back up and running at about 8 a.m. Monday, the county Department of Water said.

“We’ve got our water back on, but the quality is what we’re concerned about right now,” Hanalei Elementary School Principal Corey Nakamura said at around noon Monday, calling the weekend weather among the “most intense” he can remember.

Nakamura said the Hanalei Parent-Teacher-Student Association is set to donate enough water bottles to provide one to each of his 224 students so that the school can open today. The school will also have at its disposal a 400-gallon “water buffalo,” said Russell Coyaso of the Department of Water.

Complex Area Superintendent Bill Arakaki said Monday afternoon that Hanalei Elementary School will indeed be open for students and staff today. Comparing the current situation to the loss of power and water caused by Hurricane ‘Iniki, Arakaki said the school has taken precautions like turning off all water fountains and sinks and providing hand sanitizer to make sure students are safe.

Coyaso said a 1,200-gallon water wagon normally used by the county Department of Public Works for road maintenance was to arrive Monday afternoon at the field adjacent to the school for Hanalei residents to use for drinking water. He said between 50 and 60 residents came to the tank for water on Sunday and around 30 had come by noon Monday.

While the water service was back on Monday, the water was not yet safe for drinking, cooking or showering and washing as of press time.

• Michael Levine, assistant news editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or mlevine@kauaipubco.com.