By Tamara Timoshik and Wilfred Lopes, special to the Star-Bulletin
Cars and debris block the lobby door to Makaha Valley Towers after heavy rains this morning caused a mudslide.
Water runing under the foundation of one of the high-rise buildings this morning raised concern over the stability of the structure.
Police dogs, meanwhile, were sniffing a mud-filled parking lot after unconfirmed reports that two people were missing and may have been in the area at the time of the slide.
By Tamara Timoshik and Wilfred Lopes, special to the Star-Bulletin
Mud and debris fill the lobby of Makaha Valley Towers after this morning's landslide.
Mud covered several hundred cars in two parking lots and reached nearly to the fourth floor of the complex, which abuts a mountain and includes underground parking, at about 2 a.m.
The full extent of damage to the complex, off Kili Street in Makaha Valley, was initially unknown as police blocked off the stricken area.
Reporters and photographers were kept at bay but building residents offered a picture of mayhem, including reports of a car shoved into the lobby of one buildings by a 10-foot-high wall of rocks and mud.
"You've got cars wrapped around trees up there," said Tim Bittner, 35, a six-year resident of the towers. "The amount of force was amazing."
Bittner was looking for his bicycle, which had been in one of the building's fixed bicycle racks outside. He said they were torn loose and strewn in a mangled mess more than 100 yards away.
Some residents reported hearing a loud roar between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m.
Diane Brandon, 49, who lives on the 16th floor of one of the towers, surveyed the damage this morning.
"It's quite a mess, it's amazing."
Brandon said she heard a loud roar at about 10 o'clock last night. A second, larger noise came at about 2 a.m., she said.
"It was a deafening sound," she said. "It was roaring all night."
O'Brien also said a car was shoved into a building lobby by a 10-foot-high wall of rocks and mud.
Other residents reported cars hanging over the edge of an upper-level parking area, where vehicles had been swept down to a lower parking lot. Wilfred Lopes, 38, who lives on the 5th floor of a building thought to have taken the brunt of the slide, said he heard a loud road shortly after 1 a.m.
"I thought the windows were going to blow up. It was like thunder." Lopes said he was shaken awake by shock waves from the landslide.
Police said people were told to move their cars as the slide was happening. Cars were sliding around in the parking structure, cars on top of cars, one caller told police. A caller said a retaining wall in back of her unit collapsed. Buses were sent to assist in the evacuation.
Thomas Runza, a 37-year-old resident of the complex woke up to find five inches of mud pushed up against his back door.
Surveying the situation from the building's rooftop, he saw mud and gigantic boulders strewn across of of two adjacent parking areas. About 10 cars were overturned and smashed together. "It looked like a disaster hit."