Quake Aid Sought : County Emergency Declared; Aftershock Adds to Damage

With earthquake damage estimates topping $8 million in Orange County, Board of Supervisors Chairman Roger R. Stanton Sunday proclaimed a local state of emergency. The action is the first step in gaining similar declarations from Gov. George Deukmejian and President Ronald Reagan that would make county residents and business owners eligible for state and federal disaster relief.

The proclamation came only hours after a jolting aftershock from last Thursday’s earthquake shook Orange County at 3:59 a.m. Sunday. Measured at 5.5 on the Richter Scale, the temblor knocked a mobile home off its foundation in Cypress, and ruptured water mains, sprinklers and gas lines.

The state of emergency was the first declared here since torrential rains caused widespread flood damage in 1983.

“Still, “ Stanton said Sunday, “we’re thankful the (earthquake) damage here was relatively modest.”

There were no deaths and only minor injuries in Orange County from Sunday’s aftershock, authorities said.

If state and federal authorities agree to declare the county a disaster area, homeowners, business owners, cities and the county could be eligible for tax relief, low-interest loans, grant money and other assistance, said Christine Boyd, a county fire official coordinating emergency relief measures.

Hundreds of callers reported gas leaks Sunday to Southern California Gas Co.’s main Orange County office in Anaheim, said Paulette Leaman, a customer service representative. “No explosions or fires or anything like that,” she said. “They’re smelling gas. There have been a lot of leaks. It could be that the previous quake shook things loose.”

County fire officials reported no blazes as a result of Sunday’s aftershock, and a Southern California Edison spokesman said county electrical service was uninterrupted.

The California Department of Transportation found no damage to county freeways.

Much of the county’s $8-million damage estimate involved the badly shaken communities of La Habra, Los Alamitos and Cypress, and came partly as a result of new damage suffered in Sunday’s aftershock, according to Kathleen Cha, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Fire Department.

The state Office of Emergency Services estimated Sunday that damage from last Thursday’s earthquake totals more than $108 million statewide which does not include damage from Sunday’s aftershock.

The department’s switchboard was lit up Sunday morning with calls of broken water lines in Cypress and Los Alamitos, a dispatcher said. “It has been an absolute zoo,” she said.

In La Habra, the city probably hardest hit by last Thursday’s 6.1 temblor, already damaged chimneys broke from homes, windows shattered and many stucco walls cracked, but no homes had to be evacuated and no injuries were reported, according to police Capt. Herb Johnson.

“All in all, we’re faring very well,” he said.

“We’re just fortunate compared to next-door Whittier,” said Debbie Howard, standing in the driveway of her La Habra home on Capella Avenue. “The shock definitely woke me up. We would have had more dishes break again but they all broke last Thursday.”

In Cypress, the aftershock snapped a sprinkler head on the second floor of a bank, spewing 30 gallons of water a minute for almost six hours, police said. The water flooded two stories of the Security Pacific Bank at 10600 Valley View St., causing more than $500,000 damage.

The predawn jolt also knocked an unoccupied mobile home off its foundation, police said.

In Los Alamitos, a water main ruptured, flooding Ranger Drive and sections of Howard Avenue up to residents’ driveways, police said.

Little damage was reported elsewhere around the county.

A 33-year-old woman who fell down her stairs during the aftershock was treated for a sprained ankle at UCI Medical Center in Orange and released, a hospital spokeswoman said.