Quake Loss $125 Million; 10,400 Buildings Damaged

State disaster officials, making final preparations for a request for massive federal emergency aid for quake-weary Los Angeles County, said today that last week’s major temblor caused at least $125 million in losses and damaged more than 9,000 homes and 1,400 businesses.

Officials still do not have new overall damage tallies from Sunday’s aftershock, which registered 5.5 on the Richter scale at Caltech’s seismology lab. But Tom Mullins, a spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Services, said that new figures developed for the request for federal disaster aid showed that area homes and businesses suffered more than $117 million in damage from last Thursday’s earthquake, which emanated along the Whittier Fault and measured 6.1 on the Richter scale.

State figures show that 9,164 homes were either destroyed or damaged, Mullins said. At least 1,455 private businesses also suffered some degree of quake damage. Mullins also said that public property, including government buildings and local roadways, suffered another $8 million in damage.

‘Best Figures We Have’

“These are the best figures we have right now to paint a picture of damage for the federal government,” Mullins said. The state’s application will probably be submitted “within the next few days,” he said.

Just after midnight today, another aftershock caused hundreds of frightened residents to flee their homes and Red Cross shelters. The tremor, 3.4 on the Richter scale, was the 22nd since last Thursday to be measured at above 3.0.

Red Cross spokesmen said that more than 1,100 people spent the night in shelters. Some of them took to lawns and sidewalks outside after the latest aftershock.

“Psychologically, these people are in pieces,” said Frank Sapien, the director of a Red Cross shelter in Whittier. “I think a lot of the people are in some state of shock.”

As local temperatures began their brutal climb toward the 100-degree mark again today, members of the California Conservation Corps from Pomona and San Pedro were out in force to help clean up after Sunday’s aftershock.

Another 42 corps members worked in Alhambra removing debris, cleaning up after demolition and helping residents with damaged homes. At least 52 members were doing the same in Whittier.

Local disaster officials said that one woman died of a heart attack moments after Sunday’s 5.5 aftershock, bringing the total of fatal quake-related coronary cases to four.

Bell Tower Collapses

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

Clute said much of the damage was confined to homes and businesses already battered by last week’s quake. “Anything that was already weakened went,” he said.

The situation was much the same in Whittier, where police cordoned off a large part of the city’s stricken 24-block Uptown Village business district for the second time in less than a week.

Police had closed the district after the first temblor but reopened it later so that merchants could begin sweeping up the debris left from the first wave of damage. Some installed new windows only to find their remains littering the street Sunday when the aftershock subsided.

Quake stories and photos on Pages 4 and 5.