That small congregation of just 100 people also is faced with the difficult task of raising $1.2 million to pay for the reconstruction, said the Rev. George Baybrook, the church's senior pastor.

Park said there is some repair work going on at the hotel, but would not be specific about the cause of the delays. He said his company had earthquake insurance, but is still in "negotiations" with the insurer.

Just north of Kawaihae, Sharon and Randall Cislo are in negotiations of their own with the contractor who built their home after the structure sustained about $350,000 in damage in the earthquake, including a bedroom that was so damaged it had to be demolished and rebuilt.

"It was the most terrifying moment of my life, the most terrifying," Sharon Cislo said. "I was looking into our kitchen, and the whole kitchen fell apart. All of the cabinets opened, all of the dishes came to the floor, the refrigerator opened and came forward and everything came out, my husband's bar unit came completely crashing to the floor, the glass block shower in our bathroom crashed to the floor, it was absolutely unbelievable."

The house moved about 3/4 of an inch toward the ocean, and when the shaking stopped, the front door wouldn't open and the sliding doors wouldn't close. Broken glass was everywhere, the pool and jacuzzi were ruined, drywall was damaged inside, and stucco was damaged outside the house.

"I spent most of that day crying because you're so terrified. When you walk through the house, you're numb, you don't know what to do, you don't know where to start," she said. "My husband, bless his heart, he put me in the corner of the kitchen and said, 'Start here, and just start picking up glass and start cleaning up,' and he went in and started cleaning up the liquor bottles that had fallen on the floor.

"You're numb for a long time, because you're just trying to focus on getting things fixed, and we had just finished building three years before that."

$200 MILLION IN DAMAGE

The total damage from the magnitude 6.7 and 6.0 earthquakes on Oct. 15, 2006, has been put at more than $200 million, but there was no comprehensive tally of the damage to public facilities, homes and businesses, so it is unclear if that estimate is accurate.

After the earthquakes, inspectors checked 1,679 structures, and issued 67 "red tags" indicating the buildings were unsafe for use. The county issued another 227 "yellow tags" — including one to the Cislos — that meant portions of the buildings were unusable.

Almost a year later, the county said 22 red tags and 72 yellow tags have still not been removed. North Kohala buildings sustained the most extensive damage and had the most red tags, county officials said.

Like many Big Island residents, the earthquake gave the Cislos a hard education in soils engineering and construction techniques.

They learned that the bedroom, pool, jacuzzi and rock walls that were ruined had been built above 9 feet of uncompacted soil, and the house experienced extreme shaking in part because it had no sheer walls that would have strengthened the structure, Sharon Cislo said.

Like almost all Big Island businesses and residents, the Cislos had no earthquake insurance. They borrowed the money they needed for repairs, taking out a low-interest loan from the Small Business Administration and borrowing more from their credit union.

"I feel very, very blessed that I finally finished," she said. "There are still people whose house isn't done yet," in part because contractors on the Big island were swamped after the earthquakes.

Recovering from the earthquake was a different sort of task for Kamuela Liquor Store, where the earthquake tossed hundreds of whiskey and wine bottles on the floor in an instant.

"The front window was busted out, and there was wine pouring out into the street, and it was a shambles," said employee Shelly Kaiyala, who was the first to reach the store after the earthquakes. "The middle aisles were just piled high with glass, and we filled a whole dumpster with broken glass. I had on my rubber boots, and I was up to my ankles in wine in here."

Alvin Wakayama, 60, owner and manager of Kamuela Liquors, said the earthquakes destroyed about $127,000 worth of liquor and wines, or almost his entire inventory.

"It was unbelievable," he said, and it was a total loss because his insurance didn't cover earthquake damage. But Wakayama said he was touched by the kind response from people who reached out to help one of the last family-owned retail establishments in Waimea.

Friends and neighbors arrived almost immediately to help him clean up the glass, and by the end of the day on Oct. 15, the store was cleared. Wholesalers and distributors gave him extra time to pay to help him quickly restock his shelves. Longtime customers made a point of buying more during the holiday season to boost business and help him get back on his feet.

"I just can't overemphasize the aloha of people in town," he said.

However, Wakayama said he was disappointed to discover that he could get a better loan from his own bank than the disaster loan offered by the federal Small Business Association, and said he was surprised there wasn't more help available.

LIMITED USE OF PIERS

Wakayama said he has largely bounced back from the earthquakes, but rebuilding and making repairs has been slower for large-scale government projects.

Perhaps the biggest examples are Kawaihae Harbor's Piers 1 and 2A, which were damaged to the point that the U.S. Coast Guard restricted use of both until repairs can be made.

Pier 1 was used for cattle ships and cement offloading and had been planned for use by the Superferry, but use of that pier has been limited to offloading cement using a special rig that does not put stress on the damaged structure.

Shippers Matson Navigation Co. and and Young Brothers have been sharing Pier 2B, the only remaining available pier.

State Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa said the repair work was delayed because the state only recently finalized an insurance settlement that will pay for the $3 million in earthquake repairs to the piers and other harbor facilities. Ishikawa said he does not know when work on that project will begin.

For the county Department of Water Supply, which has been criticized for delays in making repairs to its two damaged 50 million-gallon reservoirs in Waimea, the repairs have been complicated because the reservoirs have to be rebuilt to meet current earthquake standards, said water department spokeswoman Kris Aton.

The delays led to some unhappy Waimea residents when the lack of water storage capacity during the drought this summer prompted the water department to impose mandatory 25 percent restrictions in water use.

Those restrictions were lifted when the rainfall picked up later in the year, although water officials are still asking for a voluntary 10 percent restriction in water use in the area.

Aton said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has strict guidelines and requirements that govern the reservoir reconstruction, and the county has to obtain FEMA approval before it proceeds if the county expects to be reimbursed for the work.

Aton said the design work for the reservoirs should be completed in December, and construction should be done by the end of 2008.

"We are aware of the public concern on why so long, but we emphasize that we are working quickly with experts in the field helping us design extensive repairs as well as upgrade to current code," Aton said in a written statement. "Ongoing drought conditions in that area compel us to move forward with this repair as soon as possible."

SLOW TO REPAIR

Kuhio Hale, where Hawaiian Homes has offices and a meeting hall, never reopened after the earthquakes because of cracked walls and structural damage that included shifting beams and separations in the building support structure.

DHHL spokesman Lloyd Yonenaka said the original plan was to put the project out to bid next year, but now the department plans to move more quickly by soliciting bids next month.

He said he does not know how much the repairs will cost or when the work will be completed, and said he believes the delay was because DHHL needed to complete an evaluation of the damage before it could ask for bids for repairs.

The repairs of the Lower Hamakua Ditch, a lifeline of agricultural water for Hamakua farmers, also have been slow.

The Lower Hamakua system serves about 250 farmers and ranchers along its 24-mile length, and suffered damage to its three water intakes.

Brian Kau, administrator and chief engineer of the state Department of Agriculture's agricultural resource management division, said water has been restored to about half the ditch by making repairs to the first intake, meaning the ditch is running almost to Honoka'a.

There is money available to make repairs to the second intake, which Kau said he hoped will be completed early next year, but he said he does not have money yet to make the repairs to the most heavily damaged third intake.

In the meantime, farmers and ranchers in the Pa'auilo area have been relying on emergency connections to the county water system for water for farming and ranching.

In North Kohala, work on the smaller Kohala ditch seems to be moving more rapidly.

Michael Gomes, who is president of the Kohala Ditch Company owned by Surety Kohala, said he expects water in Kohala Ditch that was choked off during the earthquakes will again flow the length of the ditch by early next year after about $4 million in publicly and privately funded repairs are completed.

The ditch has 60 to 70 water users along its 13.5-mile length, including Parker Ranch, a dairy and export nurseries, Gomes said.

NO QUICK FIX

But there will be no quick solution for the extensive damage suffered by the historic Kalahikiola Congregational Church. Baybrook, the church's senior pastor, said insurance will pay $800,000 for repairs, but that leaves the congregation to raise about $1.2 million.

The crumbling stone walls of the Kapa'au church in North Kohala are probably the most famous images from the earthquakes.

Progress on repairs was delayed while church members found the right architect and structural engineer for the project. They are expected to present some possible reconstruction alternatives to church members in the coming months.

Baybrook said progress has been slow, but the church members haven't wavered.

"The strong majority, they simply want to rebuild the church," he said. "They're in there, and everyone is working very hard."

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.