Grave Advice Shaking Up City of Roses

Mild tremors rocked Pasadena with the arrival of the current issue of the city’s official newsletter, which offers suggestions on how to keep the genteel city smelling like roses after the Big One hits.

Among the helpful earthquake hints residents received: Wrap human corpses in clean sheets and store in a cool place; and “bury human waste in trenches at least 2 feet deep and cover with a thin layer of lime. Use this same procedure in disposing of dead animals, increasing the depth to 3 to 4 feet (use only if service provided by veterinarians and the Humane Society is not available).”

The information, derived in part from a booklet created by Libbey Lafferty of La Canada Flintridge, is based on the assumption that the city will have difficulty providing basic services--including waste disposal--for at least 72 hours after a major quake, said Carol Brown Spencer, the city’s public information officer.

Jack and Jerry Siegal, who have owned and operated Jay’s Antiques in Pasadena since 1947, were among the 53,000 households to receive the newsletter with their city utility bills.

‘It Scared Me a Lot’

The October, 1987, Whittier quake knocked antiques off shelves in their store, which they’re now preparing to have “earthquake-proofed.” Since then, “I go to sleep every night hoping I’ll be awake the next morning,” Jerry Siegal said.

Then the city newsletter arrived.

“It scared me a lot,” Jerry said. “. . . I put it down. I sort of felt funny about it.”

While they had taken the standard procedures--storing canned goods and water--neither had thought about such matters as disposing of sewage and bodies, they said. But both agreed that such concerns need to be addressed.

Shaking people out of undue earthquake assurance was part of the plan, said Spencer, who compiled the four-page flyer.

Other cities have used their official newsletters to educate residents about earthquake preparedness, but “I’m not sure that anyone has been as frank as I’ve been here,” she said. “. . . By talking about things like sanitation and possible death, we get them to focus on the issue. I don’t think it’s going to be enough with the big quake just to have the flashlight by the bed.”

So, in addition to food and other emergency items, the newsletter suggests residents keep:

--”A portable camp toilet, sturdy bucket or small trash can with tight-fitting lid to use as an emergency toilet--with a good supply of plastic bag liners, twist ties, toilet paper and disinfectant.

--Powdered chlorinated lime, household disinfectant, deodorant and insecticides--may be added to the sewage.

--Ziplock plastic bags to meet short-term sanitary needs in the car or at work.

--Large plastic trash bags to use as sanitary receptacles for the smaller bags. Keep in large covered metal trash cans until disposal service is resumed.”

For the most part, people in Pasadena seem to think the information is a good idea. Anyone who has lived in the area any length of time has been rocked by at least small quakes. Many said they have had art objects topple and walls crack, but few knew anyone who has died in a quake, and none had experienced any of the real hardships recent quakes have inflicted on other parts of the world.

But at the Rose City Diner in Old Town Pasadena, for instance, the only memories some employees have of the October, 1987, quake is that it shook loose some of the thousands of cellophane-topped toothpicks and miniature parasols stuck into the ceiling.

Hostess Amy Hochstein, 25, giggled when she read the newsletter’s advice on body disposal. “I don’t know if I’ll go and keep body bags in the pantry,” she said.

But, she added, such information isn’t “gross or anything. It’s necessary.”