Quake Damage Over $64 Million : Aid Pledged to Hardest-Hit Cities; 200 Schools, Colleges Are Closed

More than $64 million in earthquake damage confronted Los Angeles-area residents Friday as government officials pledged disaster aid to Los Angeles County and the hard-hit cities of the San Gabriel Valley, ordered the temporary closure of nearly 200 schools and colleges and condemned at least 60 buildings.

Volunteers manned temporary shelters for more than 500 displaced people while homeowners and merchants began sifting through debris and planning repairs to houses and businesses crippled by Thursday’s earthquake.

The temblor--6.1 on the Richter scale, the strongest recorded in the area since the Sylmar earthquake of 1971--killed three people and injured scores of others.

There were no noticeable aftershocks on Friday but there may have been dozens registering below 3 on the Richter scale, said Caltech spokesman Robert Finn.

Strength of Quake Seen

As building inspectors and government disaster teams fanned out through neighborhoods with the most visible damage, they found ample evidence of the power of Thursday’s quake. The most serious destruction was reported in the San Gabriel Valley, where cities near the Whittier Fault sustained an estimated $59 million in damage.

In Rosemead, which straddles the Whittier Fault, officials estimated damage at more than $26 million. The Ticor Title Building and the California Computer Center, both built over the fault, suffered extensive interior damage and ruined equipment amounting to more than $20 million in losses.

In Alhambra, city officials said that businesses and homes suffered an estimated $19 million in damage. The Alhambra and the El Rey theaters will have to be demolished and extensive damage was reported at two city fire stations and the Ramona Convent, a private girls school.

The historic Mission San Gabriel, rebuilt after an 1812 earthquake that toppled its bell tower and caused its high-arched roof to collapse, had interior damage that forced the 182-year-old mission building to be closed indefinitely, according to the Rev. Arnold Gonzales, the parish pastor.

In Whittier, at least 150 homes had major damage and 30 commercial buildings were ordered condemned. Officials said quake damage topped $12 million. In the city’s neighborhoods, where the owners of 900 homes reported some degree of damage, thousands of residents picked through shards of glass, dishware and rubble.

Gov. George Deukmejian, after a brief tour of Whittier’s still-cordoned off Uptown business district, said the loss of life and property from the disaster was “very tragic, very sad” and declared a state of emergency for the city and for the neighboring community of Monterey Park.

Deukmejian’s tour followed a visit by Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), who said he believed the damage was extensive enough to warrant federal aid. Applications for aid are expected within a few days, said Richard Andrews, assistant director of the state Office of Emergency Services.

Friday evening, Deukmejian declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County, acting on a request earlier in the day from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The declaration was needed before county officials could apply for state and federal aid to repair and replace buildings, homes and other structures damaged or destroyed by the quake.

Whittier’s most famous son, former President Richard M. Nixon, sent a condolence telegram Friday to the town’s mayor, Gene H. Chandler. “Mrs. Nixon and I were deeply distressed to hear the news report about the effects of yesterday’s earthquake in our hometown. Please extend our best wishes to all those whose homes and businesses were damaged,” Nixon said.

In Los Angeles, where the quake damage was estimated at $5 million, at least 60 buildings were termed unsafe for occupancy. The city’s Convention Center suffered more than $500,000 worth of damage. Inspectors said ceiling tiles fell, walls cracked and a massive glass chandelier plunged to the floor during the temblor.

The Police Department’s downtown headquarters, the 1950s-era Parker Center, was riddled with structural cracks. And hundreds of tenants from at least 10 multistory apartment buildings throughout the city were displaced after the structures were closed on the orders of city inspectors.

Los Angeles Fire Battalion Chief Dean Cathey said fire calls, which had come in at more than double their usual rate on Thursday, were back to normal. The Fire Department responded to 67 natural gas leaks and 36 structural fires immediately after the temblor, Cathey said.

500 Buildings Examined

City building inspectors have already combed through 500 buildings and done drive-by inspections of 2,600 sites, said Art Johnson, a spokesman for the city Building and Safety Department. Officials declared 30 downtown buildings unsafe for occupancy.

Throughout the region, public utility and highway crews put finishing touches on repair work that had continued for more than 24 hours.

The state Department of Transportation reopened the interchange between the Santa Ana (Interstate 5) and San Gabriel River (Interstate 605) freeways after engineers buttressed a damaged overpass with temporary pillars.

Southern California Edison Co. spokesman David Barron said “everything is fully operational” the day after blackouts cut off power to 263,000 customers on Thursday. The situation was the same at Pacific Bell, although officials said they were still trying to return phone service to 27,000 customers in South-Central Los Angeles and Rosemead.

At least 12,595 homes--mostly in the Southeast area, Pasadena and San Gabriel--were still without gas service. Spokesman Dick Friend blamed the delay in restoring service on the great number of “people turning off their gas after the quake.” Friend added that residents should only turn gas off if they smell gas or hear a hissing sound.

Find Evidence of Strain

Although buildings with severe structural damage had already been evacuated, inspectors at some sites found more evidence of strain. When officials found new damage at the Braewood convalescent center in South Pasadena, they evacuated the center’s 67 patients and housed them in neighboring homes, Fire Chief Gene Murray said.

Emergency Services official Andrews told a press conference that more than 190,000 students were out of school Friday throughout the Los Angeles region as engineers inspected 196 campuses in 15 school districts. Also closed were four Municipal Court buildings and seven libraries in Los Angeles County, authorities said.

School officials said that in most areas, students would be returning to classes on Monday. In Montebello, however, four elementary schools and three junior high schools will be closed through Wednesday, giving more than 7,500 students an autumn holiday.

In the eastern San Gabriel Valley, where dozens of commercial buildings and residential apartments showed the scars of Thursday’s quake, inspectors found several structures had suffered damage that could not be measured in dollar value.

The 98-year-old administration building of the Ramona Convent Secondary School in Alhambra will probably have to be torn down because of structural damage, said Principal Sister Annunciata Bussman. Damage to the school is listed at more than $8 million.

Historic Structure

The building, considered one of the most historic in Alhambra, had been the focus of a restoration campaign, after school officials planned to tear it down last summer because it didn’t meet earthquake safety standards.

Throughout the San Gabriel Valley towns that suffered the most extensive damage, residents began combing through the wreckage of shattered lives. Diane Wilson, who drove from Orange County to the Whittier apartment of her mother, Lois Morgan, found the place littered with books, trinkets, glass and food.

As she loaded broken glass and food from the kitchen floor into a trash bag, Wilson cracked: “We had a hell of a party.”

Many residents who were afraid to spend Thursday night in their homes or apartments for fear of another earthquake returned, but apprehension lingered and police and Red Cross volunteers planned a sweep of urban parks to find people still without shelter.

“I’m leaving my door open so I can run,” said Hedy Tewes, who was back Friday in her apartment building on Newlin Avenue near the hardest-hit section of Whittier.

Peggy McGinley, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles branch of the American Red Cross, said that eight temporary shelters had provided cots, meals and clothing for at least 500 displaced residents on Thursday night. She said volunteers were prepared for more.

‘Scouring Neighborhoods’

“We have 180 volunteers out there,” she said. “They’re scouring through the neighborhoods and the parks and finding where the affected areas are. We’re handing out information flyers wherever we come across pockets of homeless people, so that they know where to go for shelter.”

Los Angeles police spokesman Bill Frio said the department planned to make spot checks at city parks, where thousands of Latino residents camped out Thursday night, afraid that another major quake was coming.

“There were 3,000 of them in the Rampart Division (west of downtown) alone,” said police Lt. Dan Cooke. Hundreds of other refugees were seen in MacArthur, Echo and Pico parks, Frio said.

Cooke said the city officials took to the airwaves over a Spanish language radio station, reassuring the immigrants that their homes were safe.

Times staff writers Sue Avery, Mary Barber, Randa Cardwell, Ashley Dunn, Andrea Estepa, Jeff Miller, Ed Newton, Hugo Martin, George Ramos and Siok-Hian Tay contributed to this story.