HILO, Hawai'i — A month after powerful earthquakes battered churches, cracked concrete slabs and shattered support posts under homes, Big Island residents are still picking up the pieces.

In Kapa'au, a contractor was scheduled to start work today to shore up the partially collapsed stone walls and the wooden bell tower of Kalahikiola Congregational Church to prevent them from finally crashing down in an aftershock.

In Pa'auilo, Domingo Gomes is waiting for another contractor to arrive and save his mother's house by hauling it away from the unstable lip of a 50-foot cliff. The earthquake peeled off a chunk of the gulch and left the house frighteningly close to the edge.

Gomes plans to move the house 18 feet away from the gulch to safety, and then reconnect the plumbing so his 85-year-old mother, Mabel, can remain in the plantation home where she raised her three children.

"She get so much memories here," Gomes said.

In Kailua, Kona, the caretakers of Hulihe'e Palace are awaiting the results of an inspection on Monday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Daughters of Hawai'i, which leases the historic building from the state, believes the repairs will cost more than $1 million, and are hoping for help from the federal government.

Damages from the magnitude 6.7 and 6.0 earthquakes on Oct. 15 are expected to exceed $200 million, but state and county officials acknowledge that is really just a guess because no one is tallying the dollar value of damage to residents' homes.

County inspectors checked nearly 1,700 homes and other buildings after the earthquake, and issued red tags to 67 structures that were unsafe for occupancy. The county estimates repairs to most of those buildings will be $50,000 or more.

The county issued yellow tags to another 227 buildings to indicate portions of those structures cannot be occupied; green tags were issued to another 1,388 that had "cosmetic damage."

In a briefing for reporters yesterday, Big Island public works officials said that buildings constructed according to the current building code generally fared well in the earthquake.

"I'm not aware of a lot of new homes that were damaged," said county Chief Engineer Bruce McClure. "It was our older homes."

However, McClure said engineering experts are reviewing the specifications for how much pressure the support structures of homes should be designed to withstand in an earthquake, and the county expects more strict load requirements will be imposed when the building code is revised this year.

County officials are also considering imposing new building requirements for rock walls after many collapsed in the shaking.

Civil Defense Administrator Troy Kindred said Big Island residents probably have a "new awareness" of the need to retrofit their homes to prevent quake damage. Retrofitting involves taking steps such as securing posts to support blocks, and constructing support walls to help homes withstand shaking.

He also said Civil Defense officials met with commercial radio station representatives to discuss ways to get more backup generators so stations will remain on the air the next time an earthquake triggers a power outage.

At Kalahikiola Congregational Church, senior minister George Baybrook said his congregation of about 75 is puzzling over how to finance $2 million to $3 million worth of repairs when the church had quake insurance coverage worth only up to $1.1 million.

About a third of the old stone walls of the church building fell, and the minister's house on the church grounds suffered another $25,000 in damages. The church also has to somehow cover a 5 percent deductible on its insurance coverage as well as the shortfall in insurance because it is not eligible for FEMA assistance, Baybrook said.

"We're just going by faith, to be honest about it, and we're not wealthy, either," he said.

Hulihe'e Palace is more likely to receive federal assistance since it is owned by the state, and the Daughters of Hawai'i is having a video produced to help with fundraising, said David Scott, executive director of the Daughters of Hawai'i.

The earthquake fractured and dropped plaster inside and outside the palace, and caused stonework at the peak of the building at both ends to lean inward.

The palace has received about $24,000 in unsolicited donations, and a kickoff event for the fundraising effort is planned for Nov. 29, he said, adding that "people have been very, very sympathetic about what has happened, and generous as well."

Derek Obina, 54, has finished major repairs on his Kapa'au home after it fell off its pier-and-post supports, and he has been working on the weekends to help friends and neighbors with their repairs.

North Kohala was lucky because no one was seriously injured or killed, and because the disaster brought people closer together, Obina said.

"We had a lot of help from our local church group, and friends that came over, and my neighbors pitched in, so it was really a blessing in disguise, I guess you could call it," he said. "Everybody gave, came together and helped each other."

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.