A temperamental weather system clobbered the Islands yesterday, as residents and officials braved stormy weather from one end of the state to the other.

Kaua'i, which received the brunt of the torrential rains, witnessed everything from flooding to landslides, evacuated homes to closed roads and bridges, and even a dead cow that washed up on Lydgate Beach.

A flash-flood warning was in effect for Kaua'i until early this morning.

Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. authorized Parks and Recreations personnel to open the Kílauea Neighborhood Center to use as an emergency shelter due to flooding. Seventeen people in Hanalei Valley were evacuated, the Hanalei Bridge was shut down, and water spilled over the banks of the Hanalei River.

Tom Birchard, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service, said the Hanalei River area saw 15-plus inches of rain in 12 hours yesterday.

"That's incredible rainfall," he said. "We were getting rainfall rates from our gauges that are about as high as I've ever seen."

Birchard said a number of areas on windward Kaua'i received a foot or more of rain between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m.

By last night, the weather system seemed to be playing itself out, and forecasters were cautiously saying that sometime today the flash-flood watch for the state could be canceled. More rain was likely, especially in windward areas, but conditions were expected to gradually improve into today and this week.

"The system aloft that's been responsible for the unsettled weather is gradually weakening, and we expect to be able to drop the watch by morning," Birchard said. "It's trending that way at least."

"I've never seen the Hanalei River this big before," said North Shore resident Scott Mijares. "That river looks like the Amazon. It has completely flooded all of the taro fields. Unbelievable. That's going to be a lot of damage."

Mijares said he earlier had passed by the Anahola River on the east of the island, and noticed it was flooded as well. "It's over its embankment, and is three times wider than it normally would be," he said.

Mijares said the Kalihiwai Bridge on Kuhio Highway was also closed, which he described as unusual. And, near his home, off Kalihiwai Road, there had been a landslide.

"That's a side road that dead ends at the beach. That's where the landslide was. They're out moving the dirt away right now. The waterfall is bigger than I ever seen it."

"It's storming pretty much all over the island," said Jo Dodd in Wailua. "There's been a lot a thunder and lightning. There has been a bunch of flooding up in the streams by the homesteads."

Other parts of the state had their share of heavy weather, too, though rainfall totals elsewhere didn't approach the amounts received on Kaua'i.

On O'ahu, one man's home ended up in Kaipapa'u Stream.

Shon Ka'ana'ana said he knew it was going to happen; it was just a matter of when.

In Hau'ula, a 400-square-foot section of the home in which Ka'ana'ana had been living hung precariously in mid-air on Friday, after the embankment beneath it was cut away by the flood-swollen waters of the stream.

Ka'ana'ana, 41, said the house would go down if the rains didn't stop. His prediction came true in the middle of the night.

"It fell in the river about 3 o'clock this morning," said Ka'ana'ana, who was standing in the yard about 20 feet away when the home's living room and bedroom fell. "I was waiting for the thing to fall. I could barely hear it because the river was roaring so loud."

Ka'ana'ana said he then called his sister, who owns the house, to tell her it had collapsed. The news didn't come as a surprise.

"We knew it was going to happen," he said. "So, we were prepared."

John Cummings, with the city and county Department of Emergency Management, said officials were initially concerned that the collapsed structure would cut off the river's flow.

"We were just worried about it blocking the stream and making matters worse," said Cummings. "But the fire department personnel on the scene assured us that that was not the case."

The National Weather Service said the storms were caused by an unstable low pressure system in the upper atmosphere.

"Everywhere has the potential to be the trouble spot," forecaster Victor DeJesus said around midday. "It's coming down pretty heavy on Kaua'i, O'ahu's got more showers moving in from the south, and the Big Island is taking a beating."

Kaua'i County spokeswoman Mary Daubert said a number of roads were closed due to heavy debris and flooding: Hauaala; Kawaihau (near Kahuna Bridge); Kuamo'o (in vicinity of S-turn); 'paeka'a (in vicinity of Pu'upilo); and 'paeka'a Bridge.

The Kílauea emergency shelter closed at 6:30 p.m. after serving just two people.

Though the rains were slowing last night, Kaua'i residents still needed to be alert for the possibility of flooding.

"The widespread torrential rain that was over the windward side of the island for most of the day has eased a little bit," Birchard said yesterday evening. "But there's still massive amounts of runoff occurring ."