Quake Losses in Southland Now Fixed at $177 Million

Damage estimates from last week’s 6.1-earthquake jumped still higher Friday, as demolition crews prepared to tear down buildings in Whittier and building inspectors and social service workers in Los Angeles teamed up to allay the fears of hundreds of people still afraid to go home.

The latest damage total reached $177 million, Richard Andrews of the state Office of Emergency Services told a gathering of federal and state officials in the City of Industry, as they prepared plans to open seven disaster assistance centers Sunday.

An industry-supported agency in New York that tracks insurance catastrophes, Property Claims Services, announced that earthquake insurance will cover only about $30 million of the total property damage caused by the temblor.

The American Red Cross, which received a $50,000 donation for earthquake relief from the ARCO Foundation, reported it had served 40,000 meals and sheltered 2,200 people since the quake hit the area eight days ago.

Dispel Confusion

At Belmont High School near downtown Los Angeles, newly formed teams coordinated by the Red Cross worked to dispel the confusion still felt by renters, many of them immigrants who said they did not know where to go.

The teams were organized at the behest of Mayor Tom Bradley Thursday as part of emergency regulations issued to both expedite help to victims and protect them from potential abuses by their landlords. Teams included building inspectors and rent stabilization and social service workers who planned to interview everyone at the shelters. At Belmont, there were 514 people still there Friday.

By midafternoon, building inspectors had interviewed about 30 families. Sitting behind metal fold-up tables, they checked lists to determine the status of various apartment buildings. In some instances, they assured families that their buildings had already been checked and passed safety inspection. In others, inspectors accompanied groups of tenants to their apartment buildings for on-the-spot inspections.

There were some, however, who remained skeptical despite inspectors’ assurances.

Lucrecia Morales, for example, was told that it was safe to return to her apartment building. But she had lived through a 7.5 earthquake in her native Guatemala nine years ago and was taking no chances.

Expressed Fear

“I’m just not sure,” the 27-year-old said as she sat with her three young children in a sea of Red Cross cots on the school’s football field. “I’m afraid because if there is another earthquake, I don’t know how I’d get myself and the children out.”

Morales is typical, city officials said.

“Only about 1% of the people out there are there because of permanent damage to their homes,” Deputy Mayor Grace Davis told an emergency City Council hearing. “The rest of them are there out of fear.”

“There is a lot of confusion on the part of the victims about their rights and exactly what they can expect in the way of assistance from the government,” said Councilman Richard Alatorre, chairman of the Police, Fire and Public Safety Committee. The committee, along with the Grants, Housing and Community Development Committee, is preparing recommendations to the full City Council for improved city responses to the earthquake.

There was also some confusion about how many tenants had actually been victimized by their landlords. City housing coordinator Gary Squier repeated charges made by tenants rights groups that some landlords were unfairly taking advantage of the earthquake emergency.

“We’re seeing some landlords going through a de facto decontrol,” he said, “arbitrarily saying the building is unsafe” without a formal designation from city inspectors.

But when asked how many landlords were doing that, he said, “We don’t have a handle on that.”

Opinion Voiced

“It sounds like landlords are rushing in to decontrol their apartments,” complained Stephen L. Melnyk, director of the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles. “I don’t know of any. They should document it.”

Barbara Zeidman, director of the city’s Rent Stabilization Division, said she knew of “under 10” buildings where tenants had been subjected to what she called an “illegal lockout.” But in all but one case, she added, the landlord backed down and readmitted the tenants.

So far, of the 2,700 buildings inspected, 63 apartment buildings with 770 units were ordered partially or totally vacated, Frank Kroeger, general manager of the Building and Safety Department, told the hearing.

Partly Vacated

Forty-two of the buildings were unreinforced brick masonry, Kroeger said. He reported that the department found that only four of the reinforced buildings that had been strengthened as a result of of the city’s earthquake safety law had to be partly vacated.

Meanwhile Kroeger noted that the demand for inspections of damaged buildings “seems to be topping out.”

Recreation and Parks Department General Manager James Hadaway said the number of families that had piled into about 50 city parks, out of fear of going back to their apartments, had dropped drastically. For example, in Hollenbeck Park, he said, the figure had dropped from 100 families to seven.

In response to emergency regulations issued by Bradley, who ordered the City Housing Authority to set aside 200 apartment units for displaced families, agency Director Leila Gonzalez Correa told council members that it had 281 units available Friday.

In Whittier, where the quake hit hardest, City Manager Tom Mauk said demolition crews will start demolishing buildings in the Uptown District this morning at 8 a.m.

Demolition will start on the Emporium Building, a two-story structure at Philadelphia Street and Bright Avenue, Mauk said, adding that six buildings scattered throughout the downtown area will be demolished over a 15-day period.

“We have got to get them down before they fall on someone. This is a hazard to the public,” Mauk said.

He estimated that the demolition work would cost $100,000.

About 50 area residents carrying signs reading “Save Our Historic Buildings” gathered Friday night at the Lindley Building to protest the planned demolition of the oldest commercial structure in the city. The Lindley Building, at Hadley Street and Greenleaf Avenue, was built in 1888 and is scheduled to be razed today.

Michael Sullens, an organizer of the group, said, “We want to make sure all these older homes and businesses are preserved.”

Staff writers Mary Lou Fulton, Lee Harris, Victor Merina and Bruce Keppel contributed to this article.