BAY AREA QUAKE : BIRD’S-EYE VIEW : Sen. Campbell Surveys Damage, Promises Hearings

Hovering 1,000 feet over the ground, the California Department of Forestry helicopter banked sharply and turned toward downtown here to view the devastation wrought by one of this generation’s most powerful earthquakes.

Aboard was state Sen. William R. Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights), who as chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Disaster Services, had requested the aerial excursion Wednesday over the earthquake-devastated San Francisco Bay region.

Campbell and his entourage flew over the worst of the tragedy--a mile-long concrete coffin for hundreds of unsuspecting, rush-hour motorists who were crushed Tuesday when the top level of Interstate 880 collapsed during the temblor.

From the air, the concrete looked like a gray snake.

“Never before in history have we seen pillars collapse like this,” Campbell said of the concrete columns that had supported the upper deck of the Nimitz Freeway.

“Did you see that they were pancaked flat? Each car underneath is no thicker than the license plates on that car,” said a stunned Campbell.

The helicopter then turned west and flew past a section of the Oakland Bay Bridge, where a chunk of the upper level of roadway had caved into the lower level, looking much like a gaping concrete jaw.

Because of those scenes--as well as the view of the still-smoldering Marina district in San Francisco, where the remnants of an apartment building had slumped into the street like a sort of crooked wedding cake--Campbell said Wednesday that he intends to convene special hearings of the Senate disaster committee to determine what the state can do in the future to prevent similar damage in future quakes.

But Campbell, whose own district was severely hit in the 1987 Whittier temblor, said his aerial tour still gave him reason to be impressed with how the Northern California region weathered Tuesday’s severe jolt.

“Here’s a city that was hard-hit, but an overwhelming number of buildings are still standing,” he said, as the setting sun shimmered off the water in front of the skyscrapers.

“The system has worked,” Campbell said of earthquake codes imposed by the state on newer buildings, as well as San Francisco’s emergency backup supply of bay water to fight fires.

“In the 1906 earthquake, the fire that destroyed San Francisco after the quake was larger than the Chicago fire. This time we had only a few fires, and this time the buildings withstood.”