After a week renting an oceanfront home at Sunset Beach, Jennifer Warde and her family from Modesto, Calif., were used to waking up to an army of surfers in the water.

On Monday there were none.

Instead, giant, roaring, debris-filled walls of water were rushing up the beach.

Warde was alerted to the big surf the night before when the owner of their rental home called and asked that the furniture be moved to the mauka side of the house. That made for an anxious night as she and her husband got up to check on conditions at least a couple of times.

“Everything seemed to be OK,” she said, eyeing the waves that had lapped up within 10 feet or so of the property. “We survived.”

It was indeed a nervous time for oceanfront residents Monday as one of the largest swells to hit the North Shore in the past 20 years threatened homes, threw water and debris across roadways and closed 11.5 miles of the coastal Kamehameha Highway for hours.

At least one homeowner abandoned her Kamehameha Highway house, and water rushed over the road near Laniakea, Chun’s Reef and Rock Piles, leaving sand and debris scattered across the roadway.

Surfer Liam McNamara said he saw waves with 60-foot faces slamming into Waimea Bay early Monday.

While the waves were huge, the conditions were “mush,” McNamara said, adding that Monday’s onshore northwest wind is the worst kind you can have for surfing the North Shore.

“Even if conditions were good today, the Eddie still wouldn’t run,” he said. “It’s too big.”

But it might run Thursday. With another sizable swell on the horizon, officials with the Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau contest called a yellow alert for Thursday, meaning that the decision whether to run the contest will be made at the beach that morning.

It will likely be the last opportunity to run the Eddie this year as the holding period closes Feb. 29.

Meanwhile the National Weather Service continued a high-surf warning for north and west shores, plus east shores, through 6 p.m. Tuesday. North shores could see 40- to 50-foot waves.

At an oceanfront home facing the Banzai Pipeline, Scott Haines, a maintenance worker, said large waves two weeks ago swept away much of the sandy berm protecting the dwelling, leaving the house vulnerable.

Overnight, he said, the wooden stairs leading down to the beach were almost swept away, held only by a rope.

“We’re kind of worried about the situation,” Haines said.

Australian visitor Trevor Reynolds said he got up at 2:30 a.m. to check on the surf roaring at the Off the Walls surf break directly out from his oceanfront condo on Sunset Beach.

“It was wild, like a washing machine,” he said. “Waves reached the top of the bank and splashed over a bit. But it wasn’t too severe.”

Sunset Beach resident Richard Peck ventured down to the beach early Monday morning expecting to see some big waves.

“I didn’t know it was going to be this big,” he said. “It’s big, rough and wild — very dangerous.”

Peck, a surfer who attended Kahuku High School in the 1970s, said conditions were much too dangerous to surf.

“It would be like suicide getting in that water,” he said. “There’s too much debris. You could get clubbed to death.”

Chuck Frissora of Boston traveled to Sunset Beach early, armed with a Nikon camera.

“Look at that explosion,” he said, pointing at the booming breakers further out. “It’s just a marvel of nature. It’s overwhelming.”

In Waialua an oceanfront condo named Sunset Shores was hit by storm surge and waves Monday morning, leaving the pool and spa filled with ocean debris and a metal fence ripped off its foundations. Sand and water covered much of the ground-floor parking garage and spilled onto Au Street.

Maintenance worker John Hynes said he witnessed the huge wave that ripped the fence away. Fortunately, cars were removed from the garage early in the morning, so damage was minimal.

In Haleiwa, Anahulu Stream was surging and flooding the stand-up paddling and kayak rental dock attached to the Tropical Rush surf shop on Kamehameha Highway.

“We’ve had to clean this area up five times, but the water keeps coming,” said employee Danny Osborne.

He said the shop has been unable to conduct lessons and offer rentals, resulting in the loss of thousands of dollars.