Aftershocks Weaken, but Fear Remains

Aftershocks along the Whittier Fault weakened in intensity Tuesday but thousands of wary quake victims in Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley extended their stay at Red Cross shelters and camped out in improvised tent cities.

As state and local officials waited for President Reagan to consider Gov. George Deukmejian’s request for the declaration of major disaster areas in Los Angeles and Orange counties, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials were already preparing to open emergency offices in the afflicted areas.

Caltech seismologists said more than 100 aftershocks have been recorded since the first temblor, which registered 6.1 on the Richter scale, struck Thursday, killing three people, injuring hundreds more and causing an estimated $137 million in damage.

Since Sunday, when a violent 5.5 aftershock caused more damage in 20 cities, tremors have steadily weakened, seismologists said. Almost 24 hours had passed without a single aftershock above the 3 mark, until 4:36 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, when a tremor of that size was recorded, seismologist Nancy Durland said.

“The likelihood of another major aftershock is extremely remote at this point,” said Durland, who works at Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena.

Aftershocks along the Whittier Fault could continue for as long as a year and will probably recur frequently in coming weeks, but their diminishing power and frequency are good signs, Durland said.

That provided little comfort for thousands of jittery residents who remained at special shelters or slept in tents strung up in parks and on lawns and sidewalks. Red Cross officials said that more than 1,670 quake victims were housed and fed in 10 agency shelters Monday night.

Red Cross spokesman Ralph Wright estimated that about 10,000 quake refugees, mostly immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, still refused to go home.

More than 100 people, many of them immigrants who were forced from nearby apartment houses, pitched tents on the lawn of the vacant Los Angeles County Medical Services Building on Valencia Street. Some families fashioned canopies out of old rugs, blankets and sheets. For the latest earthquake information, they listened to portable radios and gossiped.

Some of the quake victims complained that they have lost radios and other possessions to transients who mingle among them. Paula Pedodona, who is living under a tent with her five children, said her radio was taken by thieves while she slept.

“I was scared at night, but I am even more afraid to go back to my home,” she said, grilling carne asada on a small hibachi.

Long-Term Housing

Red Cross officials said they were making progress in finding long-term housing for those who wanted to get off the streets and out of shelters. Agency spokeswoman Peggy McGinley said that more than 100 people were interviewed by caseworkers Monday and hundreds more were bused to six service centers Tuesday to find temporary housing.

“We have put out appeals to apartment owners and people who know of low-cost housing in the area,” McGinley said.

More than 80 people were interviewed at the agency’s Echo Park service center Tuesday. Concepcion Ayala, who is eight months pregnant, filled out paper work to get a grant for a month’s rent. “I feel much safer now that I am off the streets,” she said.

Red Cross officials said they had also made strides in replenishing the $1 million that the agency expects to spend on quake relief. More than $240,000, including a $100,000 contribution from the Gannett Foundation, has been pledged in the last few days. There were also reports that local supermarkets, bakeries and fast food franchises were donating tons of food and thousands of gallons of bottled water.

Moving Companies Called

Unwilling to wait for disaster aid, some nervous residents prepared to move permanently from their devastated neighborhoods. Moving companies in Whittier and other San Gabriel Valley cities reported dozens of calls from customers determined to flee their homes.

“Some people are so shaken up. . . . They just ask, ‘Can you move us?’ ” said Sue Fuhs, the owner of Mathis Moving and Storage in Whittier.

While state and local officials waited for word on the state’s application for federal emergency aid, government disaster workers were quietly readying to aid quake victims.

Verne Paule, a spokesman in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s San Francisco office, said that agency officials were already searching in the Los Angeles area for locations for field offices.

Disaster Teams in L.A.

“We have teams down there now,” Paule said. He added that the agency had also begun contacting retired government officials around the country who would be called to Southern California if more than 20 stricken cities are declared disaster areas.

Paule said that as many as 100 agency workers might be summoned to the Los Angeles area.

Donna Lucas, deputy press secretary to Deukmejian, said that although he is still considering convening a special session of the Legislature to speed additional disaster relief to quake victims, the call may not come quickly.

“A special session would not be held until the earthquake damage assessment is completed, which will take a while because the after-quakes haven’t stopped yet,” Lucas said.

In Washington, pressure for a disaster declaration mounted as Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) urged President Reagan to approve the state’s request. “We need to move quickly and with compassion to help those who lost their homes and workplaces in this tragedy,” Wilson wrote in a letter sent to Reagan on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, disaster workers and quake victims in hard-hit San Gabriel Valley cities continued to clear away debris and condemn buildings weakened by successive tremors.

In Monrovia, one charitable group that has worked to aid quake victims found itself displaced by the temblors. More than 100 relief workers for World Vision International had to vacate a three-story building on West Huntington Drive after city building inspectors ruled it was unsafe for occupancy because of structural damage.

Jerry Kitchel, a spokesman for the agency, said the city “gave us 15 minutes to get whatever we needed and get out” of the structure, which houses the staff that handles the charity organization’s correspondence and contributions. The agency has worked in recent years to aid the victims of various disasters, including the earthquakes in Mexico City and El Salvador.

Employees at the Ticor Title Insurance branch in Rosemead had to do without their usual office amenities--and their office--when they returned to work Tuesday.

While earthquake damage sustained Thursday is repaired, the firm has moved its clerical operations into a collection of tents and trailers outside its building on Walnut Grove Avenue. Once all the telephone and electrical lines have been connected, about 200 employees will occupy the makeshift office space, said Steve Bennett, the company’s senior vice president and Los Angeles County manager.

Damage to the 5-year-old building has been estimated at $10 million and Bennett said it may be a month before office employees can move back inside.

And in Westminster, 15 miles southwest of the quake epicenter, a Department of Motor Vehicles office was ordered closed for up to eight weeks because tremors have showered the building with asbestos dust.

Loss estimates continued to mount as inspectors tabulated the losses caused by Sunday’s 5.5 aftershock. Los Angeles County officials said that 51 county buildings suffered extensive damage from the two largest temblors.

The most seriously damaged facility was the Administration Building and nurses dormitory at County-USC Medical Center. Both buildings were evacuated and county officials said they probably will not be reopened, “if at all,” in the near future.

In Monterey Park, for example, where officials said $10 million in losses were caused by the first quake, a new damage estimate of $17.9 million was posted.

Losses included $500,000 in damage to the Monterey Theater and $750,000 to Luminarias Restaurant, both of which have been closed.

Times staff writers Jack Jones, Jeff Miller, Rita Pyrillis, Rene Romo, Curtis Taylor and Ted Vollmer in Los Angeles and Jerry Gillam in Sacramento contributed to this report.