Bush Stunned and Moved as He Tours Quake Rubble : Rain, Cold Threaten New Misery

President Bush, looking stunned, said he was “deeply moved” by his grim tour of earthquake devastation in the Bay Area, where falling temperatures and the threat of rain heaped new misery today on thousands of people put out of their homes.

“Jesus,” the President muttered as he walked beside crumbled remains of the Nimitz Freeway in west Oakland, where rescuers worked to remove dozens of bodies feared entombed. The official death toll in the quake stood at 45.

“I am deeply moved by this,” Bush said, “saddened in some ways, yet very stimulated by this team effort.”

Bush flew into Moffett Field south of San Francisco at mid-morning and was met by Gov. George Deukmejian, Sen. Pete Wilson and other officials. A helicopter took the entourage to Oakland, and Bush came by motorcade to the site of the collapsed freeway.

Bush then flew to the Presidio, a U.S. Army post in San Francisco, to meet with Mayor Art Agnos and view scores of toppled homes in the Marina District. He flew later to Santa Cruz, the coastal city 75 miles south where the main quake leveled stores.

Bush also taped a television public service announcement that sought to reassure Bay Area residents that help is in the pipeline.

Damage estimates topped $4 billion, which state officials said today are “conservative.” A private economist, Frank McCormick of Bank of America in San Francisco, said damage is likely to reach $10 billion.

The President announced he was appointing Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner to coordinate federal relief efforts.

Skinner, traveling with Bush, said, “I don’t think anybody can tell you at this moment exactly how much is going to be needed.”

Agnos, one of three mayors accompanying the President on his tour, told Bush: “We need fast action. We need checks written on the spot.”

Scientists roaming the mountains that isolate Santa Cruz from the Bay Area pinpointed the epicenter of Tuesday’s 5:04 p.m. quake, a magnitude 6.9 shocker, in the northeast corner of Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, said Joseph Cotton with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park.

The site is about 57 miles from San Francisco and very near the San Andreas Fault. Heavy damage was reported throughout Santa Cruz County, the closest populated area to the epicenter.

More than 700 people spent the night in Red Cross shelters in Santa Cruz, and about 500 camped out in a Watsonville park. As many as 4,500 people in Santa Cruz County may have been displaced from their homes, the state Office of Emergency Services said.

Morning temperatures in the Santa Cruz area were expected to fall into the 30s in mountain towns where hundreds of homes were seriously damaged and rain is due by Saturday.

A magnitude 3.9 aftershock, considered moderate, rumbled across the Bay Area and Santa Cruz County at 1:13 a.m., said Rick McKenzie at the Seismographic Station at the University of California at Berkeley. It was centered about seven miles southwest of Los Gatos.

Lt. Kristina Wraa of the Oakland police department said today that 167 people are still unaccounted for in Alameda County.

This story was written in Los Angeles by Times Staff Writer Kevin Roderick, based on staff and wire reports from the Bay Area.