Four shelters set up to protect the homeless and others from high winds and waves closed down yesterday after helping more than 100 people, the Red Cross said.

Some 112 people were evacuated from beaches around O'ahu on Thursday and were registered by 10 p.m. at one of four disaster-relief shelters in Wai'anae, Waimanalo, Waialua and Kane'ohe, according to Red Cross workers who operated the facilities.

All four shelters were set to shut down at noon yesterday, said Maria Lutz, director of Disaster Services for the American Red Cross, Hawaii Chapter.

"The ones in Kane'ohe and Waialua really didn't have anybody in them after early morning," Lutz said. "So those two closed down right away. At Waimanalo and Wai'anae, we had to wait a little bit longer for the buses to come and take them back to where they had evacuated from."

On the Wai'anae Coast, folks held their breath as fierce winds and turbulent, 22-foot ocean waves pounded the coast beginning Thursday evening and continuing through yesterday morning and early afternoon.

With the stormy weather came fears that the coast's second bout of heavy weather in as many months would bring more havoc.

But as the afternoon wore on and the sea and skies began to calm, it became evident the disaster had not come to pass.

"The December rains were worse," said Bert Beaman, a tent dweller at Kea'au Beach, who added that not one of the park's dozens of tents had been blown down overnight.

Honolulu police Maj. Michael Moses said there were no reports of major property damage or injuries.

A total of 52 people spent the night at the shelter in Wai'anae District Park, said Red Cross shelter manager Lynda James. Before closing down, James said the number had dwindled to 31 adults and 11 children. At around 1 p.m. yesterday, a city bus took those remaining back to Kea'au Beach Park, the command point from which they had been evacuated.

Charlie Grinnell had already left the shelter by noon. Grinnell, a commercial fisherman from Alaska, came to Hawai'i in November to find work and warmer weather. Instead, he found neither work nor affordable housing, and ended up homeless on the beach near Farrington Highway and Auyong Homestead Road.

On Thursday, a giant gust of wind blew away his tent.

"The last I saw it was flying toward the mountains," said Grinnell, 46, who managed to salvage his backpack and sleeping bag. "I don't know where I'll go now. Probably to get another tent."