BAY AREA QUAKE : Bush Pledges Swift U.S. Aid; New Response Plan Put to Test

President Bush pledged swift federal assistance Tuesday night to areas devastated by the Northern California earthquake and dispatched Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner to San Francisco to coordinate the federal response.

Bush also dispatched an Air Force plane to Rhein-Main Air Base outside Frankfurt, West Germany, to bring Gov. George Deukmejian back to the state. The governor had been in Frankfurt on a trade mission.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency established a command center in Washington to begin planning federal aid for quake-damaged areas under a new federal earthquake response plan drafted in 1987 but never used before.

FEMA officials were working late into the night, calling staff members back to the office from their homes to begin preparing for the response effort, officials said.

Under the earthquake response plan, federal responsibility for relief is divided among 26 agencies, ranging from the Army to the Environmental Protection Agency, with each agency handling problems that fall within its area of expertise, said spokeswoman Sandy Farrell.

All 26 agencies were placed on alert Tuesday night in expectation that the agency would declare the earthquake to be catastrophic, the trigger for putting the new National Earthquake Response Plan into effect, Farrell said.

A Pentagon spokesman said that several military transport jets had been placed on “runway alert” at air bases around the country in anticipation of orders to dispatch them to the Bay Area with airlifts of military supplies, rescue equipment or military personnel.

“We expect the word to come before the night is through,” Col. Miguel Monteverde said.

Bush received word of the earthquake as he was stepping away from the lectern of a downtown Washington hotel after delivering a speech to the Republican Governors Assn., spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.

“We handed him the note just as he was coming off and he read it and just said--mentioned something to Barbara, ‘Look at this. It looks like a very serious problem. Do we know anything more about it?’ ” Fitzwater said.

Later, speaking briefly to reporters outside the hotel, Bush said: “We will provide assistance in every way we possibly can. . . . The (FEMA) team will be operating, working here to see how we can assist.”

Skinner was scheduled to leave Washington at about midnight and was to “land as close as he can get,” Fitzwater said.

Marilyn Quayle, wife of the Vice President, was aboard Skinner’s plane and was “going out to be part of the assessment team,” Fitzwater said. Mrs. Quayle has taken a special interest in disaster relief activities. The vice president was in Southern California when the quake struck.

Two members of Congress who represent areas damaged by the quake, Reps. Don Edwards and Norman Y. Mineta, both San Jose Democrats, also planned to accompany Skinner.

The government’s new emergency response plan was tested for the first time in an early August drill called Response 89, when hundreds of state and federal disaster officials responded to a mock earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The massive drill simulated the reaction to a devastating quake of 7.5 magnitude along the Hayward Fault in the East Bay. Officials said the exercise would be studied extensively to find ways of improving the response of government agencies.

The Aug. 8 exercise was interrupted by a actual 5.2 magnitude earthquake, a moderately severe temblor. Its location on the San Andreas Fault prompted the state’s emergency services office to warn area residents to be prepared for future jolts.

FEMA coordinated the federal effort in providing aid to victims of Hurricane Hugo earlier this month. In that role, the agency was heavily criticized by local officials for failing to respond promptly.