Aftershocks that struck the Big Island following Sunday's damaging earthquakes caused new problems for some residents, including homeowners who worried that their houses can't absorb any more punishment.

Meanwhile, some West Hawai'i residents trying to cope in the wake of Sunday's pair of earthquakes expressed frustration with the government response to the disaster.

Dozens of engineers and other experts fanned out to survey the damage, but in Waikoloa, residents of a partially evacuated condominium complex said they still haven't heard from state or county officials which parts of the damaged complex can't be occupied and what residents are supposed to do next.

"We've got problems; we have one roof that is buckled, and people are attempting to turn water back on and now we're having flooding issues," said Jennifer Halley, a member of the condominium's board of directors.

"I've called Red Cross, I've called FEMA, I've called my local congressman," she said. "We need some help out here to manage this. ... This isn't just a typical little problem."

LIGHTNING STRIKES

The U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported a magnitude 4.0 aftershock at 5:26 a.m. yesterday centered about 12 miles northwest of Kawaihae.

That was almost exactly at the origin of the smaller of Sunday's 6.7-magnitude and 6.0-magnitude earthquakes that did tens of millions of dollars worth of damage to Big Island schools, roads, water systems and Kawaihae Harbor.

A second, smaller aftershock registered at 6:57 a.m., according to USGS.

Janet Snyder, public relations specialist for the county, said she fielded one call following the aftershock yesterday morning from a distraught Pa'auilo resident.

"He was in tears. Basically he was afraid that his house would collapse because the posts had separated so much from the piers," she said. "He definitely did not feel safe enough to live in it."

Compounding the Big Island's problems yesterday was a storm Monday night that caused some roads to flood in Ka'u and North Kohala, and temporarily cut power to about 1,000 Lower Puna residents.

Big Island Mayor Harry Kim called it "the worst electrical and lightning storm I have ever seen in my life." One lightning strike destroyed electrical components for the private water system serving the Puna subdivision of Hawaiian Beaches, cutting water service to about 1,100 homes.

Jiro Sumada, deputy chief engineer for the county, said about 250 home and business owners have asked the county for checks of their properties to see if they are structurally sound. He said about 120 inspections had been completed by yesterday afternoon, with nine homes "red-tagged" by inspectors who found they were unsafe for occupancy.

Those homes include one in Kapa'au in North Kohala, one in Pa'auilo, one in Kona and one in Kawaihae, he said.

The county has 24 inspectors in the field, and will have three more today, he said.

American Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency employees were touring the most heavily damaged areas to catalog the destruction.

TEAMS IN THE FIELD

Five American Red Cross disaster assessment teams from Honolulu were working in North Kohala yesterday tallying damage, and eight more teams were to be dispatched today to inspect structures in Hamakua, said Verna Dias, Red Cross government liaison.

Dias said the Hilo teams had planned to begin work yesterday, but were unable to finalize their transportation arrangements until late in the day. The teams will go out into the field today, she said.

Red Cross reports are used to document damage for FEMA, and those reports will be critical because FEMA will provide the vast majority of assistance to homeowners who suffered damage in the earthquakes.

Kim said almost no Big Island residents have insurance coverage that covers earthquakes because that coverage is scarce and expensive. That means residents with homes that were damaged will have to rely almost completely on FEMA for assistance and repairs.

In Waikoloa, Halley said county officials told her they were under the impression the entire 60-unit condo complex where she lives had been evacuated, but it wasn't.

"We've got people who are displaced. Every night they don't know where to go ... and then we have people that are trying to get back into their units, and in my opinion, I would not," Halley said. "I'm on the third floor. I don't believe that I will live in my unit."

She said the county told her the project had been inspected, but residents were never told about the findings of the inspection.

"We had three people show up here on Sunday who never identified themselves, never told us their names, never told us in what capacity they were here. They looked at the three-story building and never gave us any input back," she said.

The complex is made up of seven two-story buildings including one three-story building. The worst damage was on the top floor of the three-story building, but four other structures also suffered damage, she said.

Halley said everyone has cleared out of the 12 units in the three-story building, but estimated that two dozen people are still living in the four other structures that were obviously damaged.

MORE CRACKS

The board of directors hired a private engineer to look at one of the buildings Monday afternoon, but he said a more detailed inspection is necessary. Halley said the damage appears to have followed a similar pattern where the vaulted ceilings join with the walls in each structure.

"The main beams that run through the buildings and the walls that are connected to them are not safe," she said. "We have cement blocks that have come down, are torn away, you can see daylight through it, and these are our main exterior structural walls that have this damage on the outside of the building."

Yesterday's aftershocks added to those concerns. After the latest jolts, Halley said she could see additional cracks in her unit.

The private engineer hired to inspect the project pointed out that in a stairwell that was ripped open by the quakes, some of the hollow-tile blocks may not have been filled with concrete as is required by county code, Halley said.

"If that's the same case in these exterior structural walls, we have a huge problem, and that's what we need — somebody to come out and look in theses exterior walls and tell us," Halley said.

"I've been asking for someone to come out here and help us manage this catastrophe," she said. "There's myself, my husband and two other board members that are trying on behalf of everyone to get all of this done. We have absolutely no experience in disaster recovery."

Later in the day Halley reported that a team of inspectors from the county had arrived, but "prior to going up there, they were condemning the third floor, every unit, without seeing it."

Halley said the inspectors spot-checked some units, "and he's telling us that's all they have time to inspect."

Sumada said one county inspector went to the site Sunday and checked the three-story building, but apparently did not know to check the other six buildings.

"We're doing the best that we can," Sumada said.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.