S.F. Able to Cope With Traffic Despite Storm : Earthquake: Many roadways are clogged, but workers leave early and some stay home, easing the crunch. Wind causes havoc for water travelers.

A fiercely blowing rainstorm tossed ferryboats and snarled the freeways, but commuting to and from work in the Bay Area Monday--although mighty unpleasant--was actually manageable as many quake-shaken people heeded warnings to stay at home.

“We’ve got gale winds, heavy rains, and heavy traffic--your basic nightmare conditions,” California Highway Patrol Officer John Lash said as the morning commute began before dawn. “Somebody up there doesn’t like us.”

But except for traffic accidents caused by the rain and overcrowding of the ferries and Bay Area Rapid Transit district subway lines by unfamiliar users, the transportation system clicked along better than expected on the first day of work for many people since last week’s 6.9-magnitude earthquake.

“We are absolutely amazed that things are going so smoothly,” said Bruce Selby, a spokesman for the Golden Gate Bridge District--which operates ferries and buses as well as the famous bridge--in the morning.

By the afternoon, the rain had lifted and the wind weakened, at least allowing motorists a sunny, brisk scene to enjoy on the trip home. There was some confusion at BART stations and backups on freeways, but some major routes out of San Francisco seemed to flow better than on normal days.

Winds gusted at gale force and rain poured in sheets as the morning rush “hour” began well before sunrise. Commuters who had planned to leave early anyway were nudged into action even sooner by the weather.

They began showing up on freeways, at BART stations and ferry landings almost in the middle of the night. Traffic remained heavy until mid-morning.

About 30 people waited at the closed gates of the West Oakland BART station at 4:30 a.m., 45 minutes before the station usually opens. “We opened the grills and let them in . . . as a courtesy because of the rain,” said station agent Bill Bolden.

The BART system carried 273,000 passengers during the day, a 24% increase over the typical Monday load before the earthquake, which hit over a wide area of the Bay Area and Monterey Bay region just before the scheduled start of World Series game three.

Most commuters who ventured out stuck to their cars, and they may have been the lucky ones. Traffic was no breeze, but in some places it was no worse than a typical Monday at the 8 a.m. peak hour and in some areas was lighter than usual. The peak just lasted longer.

The Golden Gate Bridge, which assumed some traffic from the closed Bay Bridge, actually carried more cars than it usually would for a Monday. But traffic--though bumper-to-bumper as early as 5 a.m.--kept moving. The normal $2 toll on the bridge was waived.

It wasn’t that smooth everywhere. The Dumbarton Bridge in the South Bay area was backed up for miles for several hours early Monday. Northbound traffic on the operating portion of the Nimitz Freeway heading toward the Oakland area from San Jose also was at a standstill for much of the morning. Portions of U.S. 101 also became flooded in the morning rains or were snarled by accidents.

Trouble on the Waves

Commuters who chose to use the fleet of special ferries called in to move people across to San Francisco beneath the closed Bay Bridge may have had the hardest commute. The boats were knocked about by high waves on the bay and wind gusts above 55 m.p.h., and many got off in San Francisco looking ill.

“It was like being on a big, watery roller coaster,” said Mary Smith of Oakland.

Ferry officials had to reroute vessels arriving from Oakland after one of the boats tore a portion of San Francisco’s Pier 1, where it was supposed to dock. The first ferry from Oakland’s Jack London Square water terminus arrived more than an hour late in San Francisco.

Extra cars were added to BART trains, but they still ran a little too crowded for some people’s tastes.

Two passengers fainted after getting off trains at the Embarcadero Station in San Francisco after a morning trip under the bay.

“They were hyperventilating, I guess from being nervous in the tube,” said Debby Tudor, a technician with Westinghouse Elevator, who was dispatched to make sure the station’s escalators ran smoothly.

One alternative that hardly anybody chose was flying. It costs $66 one-way to fly eight minutes from Oakland to San Francisco International.

Others simply stayed home.

Peter Browning, a Berkeley electrician, decided to wait until today before returning to work.

“I’d rather work a weekend than to try to fight this,” he said. “I’ll just stay home until we have kinder, gentler weather.”

The bad weather forced the Navy to suspend use of a small fleet of boats assembled to help 3,200 civilians and Navy personnel commute to the Treasure Island base in the middle of the bay. Rough water and the unpredictable winds made it too difficult for boats to tie up at docks on the island and at both Alameda and Oakland. A Navy spokesman said they would use buses instead--forcing a long trip around the bay and through San Francisco.

Some Carry Suitcases

In Santa Cruz, where an estimated 30,000 make the 25-mile trek across the mountains to the Santa Clara Valley each morning, traffic on outbound highways was unusually light. Between 6 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., only about 1,000 cars had used California 17, the main link.

Some of those commuters carried packed suitcases in case they couldn’t get back.

“I’m really nervous about driving through, but it’s time to go back to work,” said Debbie Thornton, 28, who commutes to a travel agency in San Jose. She planned to stay with friends or family in the San Jose area, “wherever they’ll put me up.”

CHP officials estimated that a third of the Santa Cruz area’s regular commuters either stayed home or adapted to the situation by car-pooling, leaving the night before or delaying their commute until after the peak time.

But on the return trip Monday afternoon, a line nearly two miles long had formed to get through the narrow section of highway partly closed by landslides.

The CHP had planned to close California 17 to all but buses and car pools of three or more riders. But so many solo drivers turned up at the roadblock Monday morning they were given a break and allowed to pass, with only a 10-minute delay.

But beginning this morning, only car pools of three or more will be permitted.

“We wanted to give people a chance to arrange car pools,” said Capt. Steve Ellis, CHP commander in Santa Cruz. “We’re trying to be reasonable under the circumstances.”

Four passenger cars able to carry a total of 400 people were added to the morning and afternoon freight trains on a route from Salinas to San Francisco, via Watsonville and San Jose.

At many firms, most employees showed up.

At Apple Computer in Cupertino, about 95% of the firm’s 5,500 Bay Area employees came to work, spokeswoman Carleen LeVasseur said.

“It’s pretty much a normal day” said Larry Miller, spokesman for the Bechtel Group, which employs 4,000 people, a third of whom come in from the East Bay. “We don’t punch time clocks here, but our sense is that most people made it in today.”

Pleasantly astonished doctors, meanwhile, upgraded the condition of the quake’s miracle survivor, 57-year-old ship’s clerk Buck Helm, to serious from critical.

Dr. Floyd Huen, medical director at Highland General Hospital, where Helm was rushed after workers dug him out of the ruins of the Nimitz Freeway on Saturday afternoon, said the next two days are crucial for his recovery.

“If he continues as he has now, he will be out of the woods,” Huen said.

The rain stopped at about 12:30 p.m. in west Oakland, just as about 400 people were gathered at Taylor United Methodist Church to honor the quake victims.

‘I Want to Protest’

“I want to protest against the earthquake,” said Bishop Lyle Miller, the bishop of Northern California and Northern Nevada for the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Miller was one of 13 religious leaders who spoke.

“When innocent people die, I want to protest. When normal life becomes chaos, I want to protest. Tragedy is not a creation of God. He is always with us.”

At the Cypress portion of the Nimitz Freeway, Caltrans officials suspended work during the storm, but resumed when the weather improved.

Caltrans officials said they plan to dismantle a 360-foot segment of the roadway that is still standing because of quake damage discovered this weekend. Nearby residents were evacuated Sunday and will have to remain out of their homes during the demolition--and Caltrans was considering whether to evacuate people on the west side, as well.

The dismantling is expected to take 48 hours, but the move was stalled by the weather. Workers continued shoring up the collapsed section of freeway.

Oakland Police Lt. Kris Wraa said rescue workers were not being sent home, but she offered no optimism to those hoping that another survivor might be found.

“There is no one alive up there,” she said. “They’ve looked at all the areas there are to search.”

Confirmed deaths now total 62. The body of a Napa waiter was recovered Monday from a landslide on Bonny Doon Beach seven miles north of Santa Cruz, a day after his parked car was found nearby.

Gary Phillip West, 41, had gone to Santa Cruz to look at a Lincoln Continental he was thinking of buying. Family members gathered as rescuers with a search dog hunted for him beneath the slide rubble. His family said West liked to visit secluded beaches.

Two more victims also died of injuries suffered in San Francisco’s Marina District. No more bodies were found in the Nimitz Freeway ruins.

The injury count was refined downward to 2,435 as minor aches and scratches were eliminated, the state Office of Emergency Services said. Santa Cruz County, the least-populated, had more injuries than any of the seven other counties affected. Santa Clara, the largest county, was next.

A staggering 108,311 houses were damaged and at least 144 destroyed.

Repair crews late Sunday removed the second half of the 250-ton slab of upper-deck Bay Bridge roadway that collapsed onto the lower deck in the quake.

“It was a lucky thing we got it off last night because the heavy seas would have prevented us from doing it today,” Caltrans spokesman Bob Halligan said Monday.

San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos appeared formally before the Board of Supervisors for the first time since the quake, offering details of the city’s damage toll, now at $2.16 billion and rising.

Nine public buildings were made uninhabitable, 72 miles of roads and nearly half of the 56 fire stations were damaged, six concrete bridges cracked and 115 water mains ruptured. The large north wing of San Francisco’s main public library may need to be demolished and there was $20 million in damage to artworks in the city’s museums.

“The tax base in business and homes has been affected, and we cannot be sure yet what the impact on tourism may be,” Agnos said.

The following Times staff members contributed to earthquake coverage. In Oakland: Ashley Dunn, Andrea Ford, George Ramos and Scott Masko. In San Francisco: John Balzar, Jack Cheevers, Lily Eng, Ron Harris, Norma Kaufman, Dan Morain, Suzette Parmley, Louis Sahagun, George Stein, Victor F. Zonana and Warwick Elston. In Santa Cruz: Eric Bailey, Miles Corwin, Charles Hillinger and Marita Hernandez. In Los Angeles: Russell Chandler, Kristen Christopher, Cathleen Decker, Myrna Oliver, Kenneth Reich and Judy Pasternak. In Sacramento: John Hurst, Paul Jacobs and Richard Paddock.

STORIES, PICTURES: A3, B1, D1

HOW THE BAY AREA TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM IS COPING

The temblor that struck at evening rush hour last Tuesday kept thousands of Bay Area commuters home the rest of the week. But on Monday, the region’s transportation system had to face the grinding reality of coping without the Bay Bridge, major sections of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland and the Embarcadero and I-280 freeways in San Francisco. Here’s how the transporation system has been modified to deal with challenge and the locations of major trouble spots:

FERRY SERVICE--Commercial ferry service between East Bay and North Bay locations to San Francisco was significantly expanded. The fares will remain relatively high, ranging from $4.40 to $6 a round trip, depending on the route taken. It appeared that ridership would exceed the 10,000 customers who normally ride the system, but would not reach the overall capacity of 20,000. Four Catalina Cruises ferry boats sent from Long Beach have joined the flotilla, and officials in both Washington state and Canada have offered to send more ferries.

Trouble spots:

Many commuters were uncertain of where they could park and connect up with the system. And Monday morning’s storm made the ride uninviting to newcomers to the ferry system.

Some ferries bound for San Francisco were rerouted to Pier 41 after a docking ferry damaged Pier 1 at the foot of Market Street.

The Ferry Building, San Francisco terminus for all ferries, was closed one hour because of high waves.

BART--The Bay Area Rapid Transit system has expanded its parking facilities and added 50 coaches for an expanded rush-hour schedule. The system shifted to 24-hour operations for as long as the Bay Bridge remains closed. For first-time riders not familiar with the system’s automatic ticket machines, BART set up special tables to sell tickets. BART had transported 99,732 passengers as of mid-morning, compared to its average 69,638 for that period.

Trouble spot:

BART officials said they realize some riders are avoiding the system because they are afraid of using BART’s tunnel under the the bay.

BUSES: On both sides of the bay, officials have expanded bus service to accommodate ferry and BART riders on their way to work or home. SamTrans, which operates on the San Francisco Peninsula, expect an 15% increase in ridership. The service normally transports 70,000 riders daily.

Trouble spots:

Some minor detours because of flooding.

BRIDGES: Most Bay Area bridges did not collect tolls during the morning commute to expedite traffic. Most commuters diverted from the Bay Bridge were expected to use the Richmond-San Rafael, Golden Gate, San Mateo and Dumbarton bridges. The Golden Gate Bridge normally carries 129,000 to 132,000 vehicles daily. On Monday, bridge district officials reported that between 4 and 8 a.m., 15,295 vehicles crossed, compared to 13,609 by that time on an ordinary day. Many chose to get an early start: 1,114 crossed the bridge between 4 and 5 a.m., compared to 375 on a normal day. Only 4,394 crossed between 7 and 8 a.m., compared to the usual 6,855.

PARKING: Many parking lots of BART and the ferry services were filled. Some overflow was accommodated at newly formed satellite parking lots near the eight East Bay train stations. Impromptu lots at the Oakland Coliseum and the Golden Gate Fields horse-racing track in Albany and other locations, providing more than 6,000 spaces, were also used.

COMMUTER RAIL: Caltrains, the train system for the Peninsula, added an unspecified number of cars to its 52 weekday commuter trains. Caltrains reported an undetermined increase over its normal average of 17,000 riders daily.

Trouble spots

Officials said that many riders who travel to San Francisco were not aware of an expansion of Caltrains service to as far south as Salinas, instead of San Jose, its normal southern terminus.

THE QUAKE AT A GLANCE

The Damage

The state Office of Emergency Services now estimates damage at more than $6.5 billion, including about $1 billion to state highways and bridges. U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston’s office estimates total damage at $7.12 billion, including $2.5 billion in San Francisco alone.

The OES estimates 144 single-family homes, 104 mobile homes and an unknown number of apartments destroyed, and 108,311 single-family homes, 20 mobile homes and 320 apartments damaged.

The OES estimates 48 businesses and three public buildings destroyed, and 1,348 businesses and 24 public buildings damaged.

The state estimates that 7,362 people were displaced from homes, 5,000 of them in Santa Cruz and 1,100 in San Francisco.

Casualties

Deaths: Latest figures from the state Office of Emergency Services show that 62 people died, with 38 of the bodies found in the wreckage of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland.

Injuries: The state tally is 2,435 with 730 of them in Santa Clara County, 671 in Santa Cruz and 300 in San Francisco.

Services

Bay Area Rapid Transit added trains, buses and ferries and increased schedules to handle above-normal loads as transportation officials sought ways to ease traffic jams as people return to work.

Electric power, water and other utilities were restored to most areas, but Monday’s storm caused outages. Drinking water and portable showers were trucked into mountain areas like Redwood Estates, where water service will not be restored for days.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said seven one-stop disaster assistance centers opened Sunday. Victims can register for everything from temporary housing to grants and loans. One center is located in each of the hardest-hit counties.

Sports

World Series play is scheduled to resume Friday at Candlestick Park , although Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent said there could be further delays.

Aftershocks

More than 2,000 aftershocks have been recorded, with 52 over magnitude 3.5 and at least 20 over magnitude 4.