An army of city workers and volunteers swarmed over Sunset Beach on Thursday, hauling away truckloads of debris from a stretch of coast where high surf and tides left at least a half-dozen Rocky Point homes in danger of being washed away.

Aided by a bulldozer and a dump truck, workers with the city departments of Emergency Management, Facility Maintenance and Parks and Recreation removed eight to 10 pickup-truck loads of debris, moved at least two felled palm trees and removed various sections of fallen utility poles.

"Our focus has been on making the beach safe for use," said Peter Hirai, the city’s deputy director of emergency management. "But we’re telling people to be cautious. There still may be hazardous debris on the beach."

Thursday’s cleanup was timed to correspond with a forecasted lull in ocean swells. Surf along north-facing shores was expected to rise from Thursday’s 3- to 5-foot swells to 10- to 14-foot swells today, according to the National Weather Service. Pushed by a series of swells out of the north and northwest, the surf on the North Shore is expected to remain high through at least early Tuesday.

That’s not great news for Rocky Point property owners whose homes are teetering on the edge of a 20-foot cliff carved by last week’s pounding surf. The waves ate into foundations, swept away lanais and destroyed other structures, leaving property owners scrambling to fortify the tenuous bluff in front of their homes.

With help of friends, neighbors and volunteers, property owners deployed sandbags, tarps, ropes and wooden boards in an effort to brace against further destructive waves.

"We will endure" is what one resident wrote on the ocean side of his patched-up home, which literally sits on the edge of the beachfront cliff.

In a positive development, recent wave action has left additional sand on the beach, leaving homeowners hopeful there may be a greater cushion when the larger swells arrive today.

At Thursday’s beach cleanup, city crews were joined by a dozen members of Team Rubicon, a veterans group that has been operating in Hawaii for about a year. The group mobilizes for disaster response while helping veterans maintain a sense of purpose as they shift to civilian life.

"We wanted to reach out to the community to let them know they are not alone," said Michael Davidson, a veteran of Af­ghani­stan who is the group’s Hawaii state field operations director.

After removing debris from the beach, group members helped a homeowner dismantle his crippled wooden deck and then filled up 240 bags with sand, Davidson said.

"If this weekend’s swell causes more damage, we will be out there again," he said.

Hirai said crews removed about 95 percent of the debris they encountered Thursday and filled a dump truck about three-quarters full.

"We’ll leave the heavy equipment out there tonight, but I don’t think we’ll need it," he said. "We’ll send a parks crew there tomorrow to pick up some of the small stuff."