North Shore fortunes are known to ebb and flow on the turn of a single event. Such as the Waimea Bay rockslide of March 6, 2000.

So reactions were mixed yesterday when Kamehameha Highway was nailed by another rockslide reminiscent of the one seven years ago. But overall, residents were mainly stoic.

Diana King, interim director of the Waimea Valley Audubon Center, said the center had expected to serve 500 to 700 people yesterday, with even a bigger crowd showing up for today's Easter brunch special.

However, since the entrance to the Audubon Center was blocked by road closures in both directions, it remained closed throughout the day, and the whole Easter weekend was in doubt.

"We had no expectation of being open, which is kind of a bummer for folks who were planning to come to participate in all our programs," King said.

Still, King said she wouldn't call the situation a crisis.

"We've lost a lot of revenue, obviously. But when a natural disaster occurs, if all you've lost is revenue, then you've done really well. This could have been horrendous.

"To hear that it happened in the middle of the night and that nobody was hurt even though it was a major rockfall — to me that sounds like good news, all things considered," she said.

King was delighted to learn later in the day that a decision had been made to close the highway today at a point past the Waimea park entrance — meaning vehicles coming from the Hale'iwa side will be able to enter the Audubon Center for Easter.

Mike Stangel, senior pastor of the North Shore Christian Fellowship, said his group had already made up its mind to hold its 30th annual Easter sunrise service at Waimea Beach Park as scheduled.

"No matter what, we'll have it," said Stangel, who, before the slide, had expected 1,200 people to attend. Now he wasn't sure.

"We're hoping people will have the resolve to follow through and come," he said.

Over at the Surf N Sea surf shop in Hale'iwa, manager Eric Basta was also taking things in stride.

"You know, we weren't sweating it when we first heard about the rockslide," Basta said. "We've been through this before. We're going to roll with the punches. We had employees call this morning from the other side of the slide, and we started a shuttle service to go pick them up and bring them here.

"So, everyone seems to be ready this time."

Antya Miller, executive director of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce, heard the news yesterday morning while visiting relatives in Texas. For a while she feared a repeat of the 2000 slide, in which the highway was shut down for 95 days, causing prolonged inconvenience for residents and a major economic meltdown in the local economy.

Miller's spirits were raised when she learned the DOT had said that, barring unforeseen problems, the highway should be open to some extent within a day or two.

"I would say if it's only going to be a couple of days it will have a minimal impact on the overall economy — especially compared to the last time," Miller said.

She even pointed out how disasters sometimes can bequeath a lasting silver lining. She said that after the 2000 rockslide the city tried to help drum up business for Hale'iwa by throwing a couple of rockslide ho'olaule'a festivals in town.

The events were so popular it was decided to have more in other communities.

"Our rockslide ho'olaule'a events were the pilot projects for the Sunsets on the Beach festivities," said Miller with a laugh.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.