O.C. cities hurry to reopen roads, buildings damaged by quake

On Monday northern Orange County cities were working on reopening roads and buildings that sustained damage from last week’s 5.1 earthquake.

Buildings in Brea didn’t suffer any significant structural damage, said Anna Cave, emergency preparedness coordinator. Most of the calls the city received from residents were for walls or chimneys.

Their biggest concern was Carbon Canyon Road, which remained closed Monday as a result of a rock slide on Friday, Cave said. The Brea road, used by an estimated 21,000 commuters a day, was expected to open at 4 a.m. Tuesday.

California Department of Transportation crews are planning to close the road again on Friday night and reopen it Sunday night for additional repairs.

“That could change, especially with four days of rain in front of us,” Cave said. “There’s no way of predicting how rain can impact our canyon, even without an earthquake.”

The civic center was closed because of a broken water pipe on the third floor, ceiling tile damage and toppled bookshelves. It was set to open at 1 p.m.

An estimate of city-wide damages won’t be available for a few days, Cave said.

“I was around for the Northridge earthquake and I know it’s going to be a process that can go on for days and weeks,” Cave said. “We need to be prepared. This is not over.”

William E. Fanning Elementary School in Brea, which was closed Monday, will reopen Tuesday for students in transitional kindergarten, kindergarten, first grade and the special education class.

After an assessment Monday, inspectors determined that the stand-alone rooms were safe for students, the school said in a statement on its website.

However, second- through sixth-grade students will be relocated to Laurel Elementary School for the rest of the week or until inspectors say it’s safe for them to return to their classrooms.

In Fullerton, several buildings that were red-tagged, including an apartment complex that had cracks in the walls, have been re-inspected by city building inspectors and found to be structurally safe, said Mayor Doug Chaffee.

The remaining red-tagged homes, about two or three, should be re-inspected by the end of the day, he said. Several water mains that broke after the quake have also been repaired.

The city is meeting with state and county officials to determine what types of relief might be available to those affected by the quake, Chaffee said. The city’s preliminary estimates are that public and private costs attributable to the earthquake will not exceed $1 million, but that number will be refined over the coming days, the mayor said.

“Fullerton was fortunate not to have too much damage,” he said. “Hopefully, we don’t get any more aftershocks.”

In La Habra, city officials are still assessing damage from the quake, but so far it appears to be relatively moderate, said Robert Ferrier, assistant to the city manager. Unlike in neighboring Fullerton, no buildings were red-tagged.

“We had some superficial damage around town but nothing structural,” Ferrier said.

Reports indicate there were several broken windows and some damage to residential chimneys and to the tile roof of the local children’s museum. A Red Cross shelter that opened after the quake and housed a few dozen residents that night has now closed. In the next few days, the city expects to have a formal estimate of damage.

“It’s a learning experience,” Ferrier said. “We were lucky.”

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