Electricity, water and telephone service was restored yesterday to parts of Kauai, hardest hit of the major islands when Hurricane Iwa stormed through the area Tuesday night.

However, many problems still remained. A Honolulu Red Cross officials described the Garden Island, saying: “The sanitation situation is grim. The electricity situation is grim. The telephone situation is grim.”

The Red Cross is the only source of food for 5,000 of the Garden Island’s 39,000 inhabitants, delivering in some cases the C-rations donated by the military by air drops.

It will be another two to three weeks before electricity, generated by Kauai Electric Co., will be back on for 90 percent of the Island. So far, power has been restored to Eleele, Koloa, Port Allen, Waimea, Kalahea, Lawai, Hanalei, Kilauea, Anini, Omao, and part of Lihue, Kauai County Civil Defense officials said.

Eighty percent of the Kauai homes have been surveyed for damage. The rest are in isolated areas the Red Cross has not reached yet.

Jeanne Park, Red Cross spokesman, said that out of 13,000 homes on Kauai, 209 were destroyed; 1,134 suffered major damage and are temporarily unlivable; and 2,699 had minor damage.

Of multiple dwellings, 197 were destroyed; 292 have major damage; and 314 minor damage. The Red Cross also estimates that 75 Kauai businesses have been destroyed or damaged.

Kauai public schools were still closed today, but Garden Island teachers were asked to report at 8 tomorrow to assess the damage in their classrooms and possibly spending two hours in school.

Kauai District Superintendent Mitsugi Nakashima said individual Garden Island public schools will be opened as soon as they are cleared by the Department of Health and Department of Accounting and General Services.

Kauai Civil Defense officials reported yesterday that water service was restored to all parts of the Island except Poipu where water pipes were broken during the hurricane. Portable power generators have been flown in from Honolulu and California to pump the water and water wagons also are being used.