'AINA HAINA — Three people escaped injury Monday night when their house on Ekoa Place slid off its posts and collapsed.

The house showed signs of termite damage. It happened on a night when heavy rain pounded much of O'ahu, and in a neighborhood where other hillside homes have slid off their foundations.

"It was a like a loud crash," neighbor Tara Botelho said of the 10:30 p.m. incident. "We were awake, but no one knew what it was until the fire truck and police came up with their lights and sirens. It was dark and very rainy out here."

Botelho said an elderly couple and their daughter were in the wood-frame home, which sits on a sloping lot.

"It didn't sound like anything normal," Botelho said.

A white Toyota was covered with roofing material and splintered beams lay in piles around the yard. Walls buckled and dishes lay shattered outside the house, shrouded by dense vegetation. A mattress lay on top of the roof.

More than 3 inches of rain fell on parts of O'ahu in a short period Monday night.

The city has paid $7 million to 11 'Aina Haina homeowners to settle a lawsuit filed after their homes began sliding down the hillside after a 1989 rainstorm that caused sewer lines to crack.

"It's an area subject to many landslides," 'Aina Haina resident Bertha Leong said. "There was so much rain last night. The homes up here have a history of sliding off their foundations."

Vacant lots can be seen in the community, in some cases because homes were removed because of unstable soil.

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.