BAY AREA QUAKE : The Phone Lines Are Swamped : Communications: The public is urged to phone the Northern California area for emergencies only, so the phone system does not collapse.

Telephone calls rang off the hook Wednesday as thousands of Orange County residents sought information about friends and relatives living in or near the earthquake disaster area in Northern California, local Red Cross and telephone company officials said.

More than 10,000 calls were received at the Red Cross headquarters in Santa Ana, snarling the center’s 38 telephone lines and prompting the installation of 25 additional lines to handle the overflow of calls, said Sylvia Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross.

Representatives of Red Cross and Pacific Bell were advising the public to limit direct calls to Northern California in the 415 and 408 area codes to emergency situations only so the phone system does not become overloaded.

“We’re advising our customers in California and other companies around the nation are making similar recommendations to their customers to avoid calling those area codes at least until (Thursday) night,” said Linda Bonniksen, a Pacific Bell spokeswoman in Orange County.

Bonniksen said people will have some difficulty calling there because utility companies have placed a priority on calls going to or from medical and emergency agencies and other calls are being rerouted or delayed during the current emergency.

She explained that telephone networks controls can automatically filter customer telephone calls between specially designated essential users and others.

“The essential customers are the ones that deal with life and death situations, such as police departments, hospitals, utility companies and others. The non-essential calls being rerouted or delayed are those to a business or residence,” she said.

“We have to prioritize our calls to help keep our phone system from collapsing,” she said.

When customers do try to contact relatives in the two Northern California area codes, Bonniksen said, they may not get a dial tone immediately, or may get a slow dial tone.

“So you may have to try two or three times,” she said.

Meanwhile, more than 100 Red Cross volunteers have worked frantically since Tuesday night answering telephone calls inquiring about donations, loved ones and blood donations, at the Red Cross emergency operations center in Santa Ana, Red Cross officials said.

Anita Kramer, a computer company employee who got time off work to go to the Red Cross center, said giving a pint of blood made her feel better after the frustration of trying to reach her 92-year-old grandmother who lives in the Northern California city of Richmond.

“I did finally get through to her,” Kramer said. “She said she had fallen down when the earthquake struck. It literally knocked her off her feet, but she said she was OK.”

Inside the center, about 20 to 25 volunteers manned telephones around the clock.

HEAVY LOAD--A huge number of calls put an unprecedented burden on the long-distance system. A29