Quake Losses Rise in Jarring 5.5 Aftershock : Damage Now Seen Passing $108 Million

By TED ROHRLICH

Oct. 5, 1987 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

A large aftershock rolled through the Los Angeles Basin before dawn Sunday. It frightened already jittery residents of hard-hit areas of the San Gabriel Valley, sent scores of people to hospitals and shelters and further damaged buildings weakened by last Thursday’s major earthquake.

No deaths were reported from the aftershock, however, and there were no major fires.

Disaster officials placed the episcenter of Sunday’s earthquake in the city of San Gabriel, about nine miles east of downtown Los Angeles and two miles northwest of the epicenter of Thursday’s temblor.

Sunday’s shaker registered 5.5 on the Richter scale at Caltech’s seismology lab. The U.S. Geological Survey’s earthquake center in Golden, Colo., put it at 5.3. Often, distance and varying interpretations of preliminary readings lead to different assessments of quake strength by seismological stations.

The readings mean the aftershock emitted between 20 and 25 times less energy than Thursday’s quake, which was measured at 6.1, officials said.

But to some badly shaken San Gabriel Valley residents, it seemed even worse. “The force was incredible,” said Karen Shaw of Rosemead, who was staying with her family at a Red Cross shelter in nearby Alhambra along with about 50 others left homeless by Thursday’s quake. “It was horrible. . . . Imagine (all these) people in a dark room and ‘Kaboom,’ the whole room is going, things are falling and people are scrambling and screaming and yelling and hysterical.”

Heart Patient Dies

Several heart attacks were reported on the heels of the aftershock. At least one proved fatal.

Disaster officials, meanwhile, released an updated $108-million damage estimate from Thursday’s quake and said that number is sure to rise when Sunday’s damage is tabulated.

The most striking damage Sunday occurred in the city of San Gabriel, where a bell tower crashed into a garden and into a room off the 1,500-seat Civic Auditorium, causing at least $500,000 in damage, city administrator Bob Clute said.

Clute said other damage in the city was mainly to brick walls and windows weakened by Thursday’s quake.

“Anything that was already weakened went,” he said.

That appeared to be the story throughout Los Angeles County.

“It appears as though the aftershock . . . caused some facilities that were already damaged to be . . . damaged some more,” said Ken Raske, assistant director of disaster services for the county. “It doesn’t appear there is much fresh damage.”

One new problem Sunday was apparent however: A number of water mains ruptured.

Also, rock slides closed some roads.

Limited Damage Area

The aftershock struck at 3:59 a.m. and was felt as far away as San Diego. But damage was concentrated in the already hard-hit communities of the San Gabriel Valley.

In Los Angeles, Police Detective Dennis Tilton said no reports of serious damage had reached his department.

In Whittier, however, police cordoned off a large part of the city’s badly damaged 24-square block Uptown Village business district for the second time in less than a week.

Police had closed the district as a precaution after Thursday’s quake. But late Friday they reopened it and many business owners had begun cleanups of their vulnerable old unreinforced brick and masonry structures.

Some had installed new windows only to have their work undone by Sunday’s temblor, which littered streets once again with shattered glass, bricks and tiles.

“The frustration level is on a little higher level today,” said Lane Langford, a bookstore owner and president of the Whittier Uptown Assn.

Many Structures Unsafe

Local authorities reopened the area to the public late Sunday but said that nearly half its buildings remain unsafe.

They said they do not know how many houses in Whittier are unsafe--only that they have received more than 1,000 requests from worried homeowners anxious for an inspection.

The Red Cross reported it was housing about 750 people at eight emergency shelters. Four are located in Los Angeles, one in Alhambra, one in Bell and two in Whittier, a spokeswoman said.

Some additional evacuations were reported.

In Alhambra, for instance, officials said 70 people were displaced from two apartment buildings and a hotel after inspectors concluded that the buildings had suffered serious structural damage.

In downtown Los Angeles’ Skid Row area, the 100-room Lincoln Hotel at 549 Ceres St. was evacuated after building inspectors said the building was no longer inhabitable. The Red Cross was attempting to find shelter for more than 100 displaced tenants.

In El Monte, police said a number of people left their homes and set up tents.

Good Use for Tents

The same was true in Montebello, where a fire official said: “Those people that had tents pitched them.”

Complete tallies of injuries were unavailable. But spot checks indicated that about 50 people were treated Sunday at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier, most of them for minor injuries, and 60 others at Beverly Hospital in Montebello.

One man was treated at Pasadena’s Huntington Memorial Hospital for a dog bite. His German shepherd dog bit him when he tried to comfort it, nurse Lisa Ryken said.

Arcadia Methodist Hospital reported the death of 66-year-old Mildred Robbins of Arcadia from a heart attack suffered at about the time of the temblor.

Meanwhile, it became apparent that a difference of a few miles could be all important.

In South Pasadena, for instance, Fire Capt. Roger Houston reported “lots of structural damage all over the city,” including one particularly dramatic incident in which a 10-ton chimney fell through an attic into an empty bedroom in a three-story home in the 900 block of Buena Vista Street, injuring no one.

“People are scared,” he said. “They’re calling us up for everything (including) cracks in the sidewalk.”

Effects in Pasadena

In neighboring Pasadena, police said the baroque-style dome of City Hall, built in 1927, may have been tilted by the quake. Engineers were to report on the damage today.

The Colorado Street bridge over the Arroyo Seco was closed at 4 p.m., after inspectors found large chunks of concrete had fallen from it, exposing steel rods, police said.

But other than that, Police Sgt. Dennis Gramer said the only damage was a few broken windows and a few ruptured water mains. “No one was running around in a panic,” said Gramer. “Like I said, nothing major to report.”

Added Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Collins, who is stationed in Pico Rivera: “It was a very routine morning in comparison to what happened Thursday.”

Sunday morning’s aftershock was by far the strongest of 26 significant aftershocks that measured at least 3.0 on the Richter scale in the wake of Thursday’s quake, according to the California Institute of Technology.

It is “suggestive that there could be some others over the next few days,” said Richard Andrews, an earthquake expert who is assistant director of the governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Troublesome Weeks

“This was obviously a significant aftershock from Thursday’s earthquake. It is part of what is clearly a pattern of aftershocks that may be expected to continue anywhere from a few days to several weeks.”

Michael Guerin, also from the Office of Emergency Services, said that while much of the damage Thursday was to “superstructures,” reports of damage Sunday from the aftershock had more to do with “infrastructure” such as water lines.

He said it is evident that the main shock Thursday weakened the infrastructure and that the aftershock Sunday was the final straw.

Ted Voyles, assistant chief of operations for the Metropolitan Water District, said an 18-inch pipeline that serves Pomona broke. He also said a smaller line ruptured in an unincorporated area south of Watts.

Six other water mains broke near 6th Street and Western Avenue in Los Angeles, the Department of Water and Power reported.

In downtown Los Angeles, county officials reported flooding from broken water pipes on several floors of the county Hall of Administration and the County Courthouse. But both buildings were expected to be cleaned up and open today, said Lou Hall, emergency disaster coordinator for the county’s facilities management department.

Some Lose Power

In addition, there were scattered power outages. A DWP spokesman said 165,000 customers lost power briefly.

Southern California Edison reported that 43,000 customers, mainly in the San Gabriel Valley, were without electricity, some for several hours.

The eastbound car-pool lane of the San Bernardino Freeway near Del Mar Avenue was closed for about eight hours because of quake damage, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Several other roadways, including a section of the southbound Pasadena Freeway and the Angeles Crest Highway, were closed for several hours while workers cleared them of rocks and other

By nightfall, all freeways were open, the CHP said.

AFTERSHOCKSHere is a list of sizable aftershocks that occurred between 7:42 a.m. PDT Thursday, when a quake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale rocked the Los Angeles area, and Sunday morning. The list is provided by the Caltech seismology lab, and includes only those aftershocks measuring 3.0 or more.

Thursday, Oct.1

7:45 a.m. -- 4.1

7:48 a.m. -- 3.5

7:49 a.m. -- 4.3

7:51 a.m. -- 3.6

8:08 a.m. -- 3.3

8:12 a.m. -- 4.4

8:13 a.m. -- 3.4

8:14 a.m. -- 3.2

8:17 a.m. -- 3.3

8:19 a.m. -- 3.2

8:21 a.m. -- 3.3