Hunter Farr watched as water flooded the parking lot of Haleiwa Boat Harbor during Wednesday morning’s high tide as the largest swell in a decade arrived on Oahu.

Farr, 22, a commercial fisherman, said the water rose past his knees in the parking lot and came in surges as huge waves outside the jetty pushed excess water into the harbor.

"It was crazy," said Farr, who returned to watch over his boat at the harbor during the second high tide Wednesday night. "I never seen it like that before. That was the highest."

The peak of the largest swell only began hitting Oahu’s North Shore Wednesday afternoon, prolonging anxiety for some shoreline residents but building excitement for throngs of big-wave watchers.

The high-surf warning remains in effect through at least 6 a.m. Friday.

Waves of 40 to 50 feet are expected today on the north shores of Oahu, Molokai and Maui and the north and west shores of Kauai and Niihau, the National Weather Service said. The west shores of Oahu and Molokai can expect surf of 20 to 30 feet and the west shores of Hawaii island 12 to 18 feet.

After peaking overnight, the surf should slowly subside today but will remain above warning levels tonight.

While awe-inspiring, the swells Wednesday were not pretty under a barrage of high winds.

Banzai Pipeline, famous for its tubes, was churning like a washing machine.

Waimea Bay experienced a set with 60-foot faces that surged through the park, said Shayne Enright, spokeswoman for city Emergency Medical Services.

"Basically no one was in the water," Enright said of the blown-out surf.

City Ocean Safety lifeguards strung yellow tape on North Shore beaches from Haleiwa Alii Beach Park to Sunset Beach with warnings to stay out of the water.

The gates to Waimea Bay parking lot and a nearby grassy area were closed after surf started rolling onto the grassy area. The state closed the beach park Tuesday night and was expected to keep it closed through today.

"When you see the outer reef break, it’s something to behold and worth coming to take pictures," said Kimo Sutton of Waialae, camera around his neck, at Ehukai Beach Park. "It’s pretty nasty out there."

Waialua resident Dora Doroha, 55, said she found a perch at Haleiwa Alii Beach Park.

"We haven’t had big surf like this in a long time," she said. "It’s cool watching this from a distance."

Doroha spent Wednesday morning taking photos of the big surf to send to her grandchildren in Oregon.

The high surf was being described by weather forecasters and emergency officials as a once-in-a-decade event made more hazardous by the duration (the time it takes for a wave to pass) and potential impact of the waves on the shorelines.

"The long duration means that ocean waters will pile up in the surf zone, allowing the larger waves to impact further into beach areas," Melvin Kaku, director for the Department of Emergency Management, said Wednesday afternoon as the peak of the largest swell was beginning to build."This battering effect can cause increased shoreline erosion and damage to homes and infrastructure as well as blocking coastal highways with sand, debris and water."

The forecast for monster surf drew hundreds of spectators to the North Shore as daylight broke Wednesday morning, creating traffic congestion and prompting police to issue tickets to cars parked illegally on the shoulder of Kamehameha Highway.

The city conducted meetings with first responders as well as the American Red Cross to coordinate emergency response activities, although there were no major surf-related incidents before nightfall Wednesday. Emergency volunteers also alerted residents as well as homeless families along affected shorelines. Homeless service providers active on the Leeward and North Shore were also notified.

The erosion-plagued homeowners of Sunset Beach’s Rocky Point managed to survive Wednesday’s swells, but the fight to save their property isn’t over.

"We’re tired of it, but we can’t give up," said Krystle Dombrowski, whose father owns two of the homes in jeopardy of falling into the ocean.

Dombrowski said she and her husband, Kenneth, came down to their Ke Nui Road rental homes Tuesday night to prepare for the big day.

"We’ve done all different kinds of things to try to prevent the waves from coming up here," she said. "Now we’ve just got to wait, watch and see what happens. There’s not really much we can do."

Professional surfer Takayuki Wakita was there early Wednesday. The night before, he helped move the belongings of a friend from Japan, a tenant of the Dombrowskis’, to the mauka side of the property.

Wakita, one of the invitees to the Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau surf contest, said he was disappointed organizers did not schedule the event.

"It would be one of the biggest accomplishments of my life," he said. "If it’s on, I’m ready."

The large waves didn’t pound the coast Wednesday as much as they could have because the wind knocked their power down.

But that doesn’t mean the day was without drama.

At about 10:20 a.m. a particularly large wave claimed about half of the large plastic tarp that was put into place the night before to help protect the steep sandy slope in front of the Dombrowski homes.

A group of friends and neighbors leaped into action and 20 minutes later a new tarp was lowered over the scarp, the waves at times lapping dangerously close to the workers.

Meanwhile, Michele St. John was helping next-door neighbor Alice Lunt fill sandbags — something she’s been doing since the Rocky Point erosion started seriously accelerating Dec. 26.

"This little neighborhood has really pulled together," St. John said. "I’m so impressed. We didn’t really even know each other before all this but now we’re like lifelong friends."

Walt Cundiff of Oregon, his wife, Geri, and niece Lisa Schneider took Bus 55 from their Waikiki accommodations to see the spectacle.

"I’ve never seen water that big," he said.

Sunset Beach had a festival atmosphere, with tons of tourists clicking cameras.

Shark’s Cove was spectacular when the waves crashed down on the rocks, sending sea spray skyward.

Police said water washed onto the road at Haleiwa Beach Park and near Ke Waena Road near Pupukea Beach Park, but no property was damaged.

The "swell of the century," which produced monstrous waves in Hawaii and on the West Coast, occurred during the first week of December 1969, according to the website encyclopediasurfing. com.

Meteorologists later determined that the weather during the winter of 1969-70 was affected by a relatively weak El Niño, the mid-Pacific ocean-warming phenomenon that tends to produce bigger, stronger open-ocean storms.

The surfing website said that 39-foot surf hit the north shore of Kauai on the afternoon of Dec. 1, 1969.

Beachfront residents along Oahu’s North Shore had to evacuate. Sixty North Shore homes were destroyed or badly damaged over the next 72 hours.

Kamehameha Highway was flooded, utility poles were knocked down and boats at Haleiwa Harbor were pushed inland.

Two people were washed from shore and drowned.

An intense storm northwest of the Hawaiian Islands triggered the superswell of 2013.

The same storm system also whipped a cold front through the islands, bringing gusty southwest Kona winds, cloudy skies and locally heavy rainfall.

The Department of Health’s Clean Water Branch has issued a brown water advisory for the Kihei area and Honokahua Bay on Maui.

———

Star-Advertiser reporter Gregg K. Kakesako contributed to this report.