Demolition of Nimitz Begins; Toll Now 63 : Disaster: Persistent rains intensify fears of mudslides. Seismologists upgrade strength of the quake to 7.1.

One week to the day after Bay Area quake, the region lurched toward normal as commuters battled another siege of rain squalls, workers began demolishing the Nimitz Freeway--the quake’s biggest killer--and officials raised fears that more damage, from mudslides, was on the way.

Underscoring the impact of the destructive quake, seismologists who have been studying it round the clock announced that the quake actually measured 7.1, roughly twice the strength of 6.9 magnitude originally assessed. Earthquake magnitudes increase exponentially, so that a quake that is 1.0 higher is actually 10 times more powerful. Scientists say that a .2 magnitude increase reflects a doubling of strength.

Waverly Person, director of the National Earthquake Information Service at Golden, Colo., said the new level was based on reports from seismological stations throughout the world, not the few reports initially received.

“Everything before was preliminary,” Person said in an interview. “This is the revised magnitude.”

Across the Bay Area, there was good news and bad. Authorities scaled down their estimate of the number of people still missing in the quake’s wake, indicating that the final death tally may be about

80, far below the early pessimistic estimates. But at the Nimitz Freeway, where all hope of survivors has vanished, workers found another body and raised the overall death toll to 63.

Persistent rains continued to add misery to the suffering of victims, soaking the tent cities that have sprung up along the ridges of the Santa Cruz Mountains near the quake’s epicenter and elsewhere in the Bay Area. But commuters grew accustomed--or resigned--enough to the new realities of Bay Area commuting that, rain and all, traffic moved relatively well.

Gov. George Deukmejian, who toured portions of the southern expanse of the quake zone in a driving rain, vowed that the state and federal governments would work to make victims whole. And once again, he would not rule out a tax hike to finance repairs.

“Businesses have been affected and are closed down,” he told reporters in Watsonville. “People are out of work. We’ve lost access to highways and buildings. We have to get back to some semblance of normalcy as quick as possible.”

As Deukmejian vowed to expedite state assistance, the federal government moved closer to forwarding a relief package of its own. The House, acting swiftly with President Bush’s endorsement, approved a $2.85-billion aid proposal. The measure will be taken up by the Senate today.

San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos, meanwhile, struck an optimistic tone at an impromptu press conference in City Hall, where he declared that “the people of San Francisco have already turned the corner on this whole catastrophe.”

“Everything seems to be back to normal here,” he said, referring to City Hall. But as he spoke, work crews were busy shoring up crumbled stonework. Huge sections of the building were determined to be unsafe and remained cordoned off.

The mayor also said, for the first time, that he had reviewed reports from structural engineers studying Candlestick Park, where the quake-delayed third game of the World Series is scheduled to be played Friday.

“I’m satisfied Candlestick is as safe as any structure can be before and after an earthquake,” said Agnos, who plans to attend the game with his family.

“It’s very easy to proceed with the World Series this weekend.”

Not only at City Hall but all around the Bay Area there were signs that the hoped-for normalcy would be a long time coming for many.

Estimates of total damage stood at more than $7 billion, confirming the quake as the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history--exceeding its seismic and geographic counterpart, the $5.8-billion, 1906 San Francisco quake. More than 108,000 homes were destroyed or damaged, and 7,000 people remain displaced, state officials said.

In new reports, Bill Honig, the state superintendent of public instruction, said Tuesday that quake-area schools face up to $100 million in repairs, but only two sites suffered severe structural damage. Separately, the Army Corps of Engineers said at least three dams it inspected were “unsafe for normal operation.” None is in immediate danger of collapse.

Warning on After shocks

To add to the woes confronting Bay Area residents, the U.S. Geological Survey warned that there was a 50-50 chance that an earthquake big enough to cause more damage will strike during the next two months. Officials said that in addition to the even chance of a 5.0 temblor, there is a 10% chance that a quake measuring 6.0 or larger will strike.

Malcolm Johnson, a USGS geophysicist, told United Press International that officials should worry about the dozens of buildings teetering after the big quake and its thousands of aftershocks.

“A 5.0 quake isn’t a big one but it could create problems in areas already damaged,” he said.

As if to confirm their fears, a 4.5 magnitude aftershock struck the Bay Area Tuesday evening. It jangled nerves and cracked plaster, but otherwise caused no significant injuries or damage, officials reported.

The aftershock and warnings of others came as fresh blows to the Santa Cruz Mountains, where officials were warily watching rains drench earthquake-tussled hillsides. Already, the chief of the USGS’s Landslide Information Center said that the quake had activated several historic slides, most of them on the western side of the mountains.

Several houses were evacuated Tuesday after concerns were raised about creeping landslides.

“Most of the (slide areas) activated by the earthquake are apparent by now,” said William Brown, the center’s chief. “Many of these have continued to move, a few inches per day, since the earthquake.

“Quite a few homes are affected. One of the largest slides we’ve discovered is a quarter-square-mile in area and involves 20 to 40 homes.”

In the urban areas, there was less fear of landslides than of gridlock. But under-fire Bay Area commuters continued with near-miraculous success to avoid it.

As they did Monday, they leaned largely on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system’s aluminum trains. Commuters once again arose before dawn, hoping to beat their neighbors to work--and found that their neighbors had tried the same thing. BART ridership numbers soared to more than 292,000 by 9 p.m., setting a record for the 17-year-old system.

Officials continued to marvel at how smoothly the commute ran, despite an early morning downpour that spawned several accidents on local freeways.

“Somebody is smiling on us,” said Michael Healy, a BART spokesman.

Scores of employers were using “flex time” to stagger their work schedules and allow employees to take more time to get to work. People were leaving earlier--or later--a phenomenon that spreads the rush “hour” over about five hours and avoids concentrating gridlock. About 5,000 cars crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on Tuesday morning between 5 and 6 a.m., for example--more than triple the pre-quake traffic of 1,400 cars for that hour.

Passengers appeared resigned to giving up their cars, at least for the months it is expected to take to repair the Bay Bridge, where workmen Tuesday began to remove the damaged lower span. Repairs to other major transportation routes--such as the Embarcadero Freeway, which was closed because its design mimicked the collapsed Nimitz Freeway--could take months or even years.

“There’s no other way to get around,” said John Sevieri, 27, of San Francisco, a construction worker who rode BART through the transbay tunnel Tuesday to reach his Oakland office.

A flotilla of ferry boats continued to transport commuters across the bay, but with considerably more comfort for passengers, as Monday’s gale-force winds and rumbling seas subsided.

But fears grew that Bay Area residents were lapsing into bad commuting habits. Ferry captains grumbled Tuesday night that their craft were under-used, and traffic jams began sprouting on local roadways. Mayor Agnos beseeched residents to use public transportation or, at least, to car-pool. He suggested that tolls at the Golden Gate and other bridges should be doubled for single-occupant cars.

“Somebody who comes in by themself ought to pay the toll and maybe a lot more because they’re not helping out,” Agnos said.

At the Nimitz Freeway, the grim work of removing the remnants of last Tuesday’s destruction continued. On Tuesday, the body of the 39th victim, Jackie Easton of Sacramento, was recovered.

Police teams were working round the clock to pin down the whereabouts of suspected victims as yet unaccounted for, according to California Highway Patrol spokesman Mike Garver.

“They’re interviewing passengers who survived, drivers who survived and anyone who might have knowledge of possible victim,” he added. “ . . . They’re making contacts with relatives, (victim’s) homes, and friends. . . . They’re just trying to put A, B and C together to get a match.”

By late Tuesday, the number of the missing had shrunk to six--a figure that may not include five people whose cars were found without drivers in the Nimitz wreckage. Earlier this week, the number of the missing was set at 52, a figure which would have pushed the death total past 100.

Garver said rescue crews will try to extract as many cars as they can before any demolition work begins on the collapsed section of the Nimitz--a job expected to take four weeks and cost about $10 million.

Despite the fact that some people are still missing, Garver said he believes that emergency crews that have burrowed through the freeway in the last week have brought out all of the bodies. In addition to the bodies, 56 vehicles had been found on the lower deck of the Nimitz.

“There are possibilities of a vehicle or victim somewhere up there (that) we cannot get to,” he said. “But we are at a point where we are saying we have a high percentage of confidence no one else is up there. . . . We’ve gone through that structure at least six full times.”

Crews have used dogs and fiber-optic cameras to inspect areas unreachable by human rescuers.

Near the collapsed portion of the freeway, meanwhile, workers began at dawn to dismantle a 360-foot segment of the Nimitz that--while it did not topple in the quake--was threatening to fall. The section to be dismantled in a three-day operation is located between 8th and 9th streets. Hundreds of residents were evacuated from their homes for the duration of the dismantling, which is expected to be completed by Friday night.

“That structure shifted during one of the aftershocks,” said Dave Paulson, a Caltrans spokesman.

“It had some initial damage and they noticed some of the cracks had widened, and we decided for safety’s sake to take it down.”

Workmen bashed away at the concrete on the top section of the Nimitz using two large jackhammers attached to the backs of a pair of heavy construction vehicles that resemble earth movers.

In what may prove to be the first sign of a wave of litigation, two Hayward residents on Tuesday filed the first damage claim against the state for injuries suffered in the Nimitz collapse, arguing that the state had known for at least a decade that the freeway was unsafe.

The claim, filed with the state Board of Control, seeks unspecified damages for Milton Wade Jr. and Askia Y. M. Hurts, who were returning from a job for a plumbing supply company in Wade’s car when the upper deck of the freeway collapsed, according to their lawyer.

For lucky Nimitz survivor Buck Helm, Tuesday brought improved health and continued visits from his family. At Highland General Hospital near the collapsed freeway, Helm remained in the intensive-care unit in serious condition but a hospital press release stated that he “continues to respond appropriately and is periodically awake and alert.”

Helm’s kidneys, which had shut down by the time he was rescued Saturday afternoon after four days of confinement in his compact car, also continued to improve, the hospital said.

Governor on Scene

Hospital spokeswoman Phyllis Brown said Helm “is able to respond to simple commands but he is unable to speak because he still has a tube down his throat.”

Toward the southern reach of the quake’s damage, local officials had a chance Tuesday to press for help from the state’s top elected official as Deukmejian traveled to Watsonville.

In the City Council Chambers there, he listened for half an hour to 14 local government leaders trying to pry aid from the federal and state governments.

Deukmejian then traveled next door to the second-floor emergency operations center, where a graph on one wall offered mute testimony to the quake’s destructive power. “Residential loss-- $150 million. Business loss--$175 million. Public property loss--$6.5 million. Utility property loss--$2.6 million,” the board read.

According to Watsonville Fire Chief Gary Smith, 195 homes, three apartment buildings and 106 mobile homes were destroyed in Watsonville alone. Another 235 homes, three apartment buildings and 234 mobile homes sustained major damage. Twelve-hundred people remained in temporary shelters Tuesday.

Some of the $2.85 billion in federal aid approved by the House on Tuesday on a 321-99 vote would be earmarked for immediate relief for those rendered homeless by the quake.

The package would be the largest disaster rescue package ever, but California lawmakers said that it is far less than is needed.

“We were hit by 10 times the amount of explosive power of all the bombs dropped in World War II,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said before the vote. “Please give us a chance to rebuild.”

The state’s senators, Democrat Alan Cranston and Republican Pete Wilson, said they will push to expand the package when it is considered by the Senate. They also said they will seek to loosen federal restrictions on aid, which typically draw complaints from victims.

State Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights), chairman of Assembly’s Joint Committee on Emergency and Disaster Services, led a delegation of 11 California lawmakers to lobby for earthquake aid.

The delegation met with most of the 45 members of the state congressional delegation, Campbell said. In addition, at a morning briefing at the Old Executive Office Building, next to the White House, the legislators met with HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner and representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration and the Office of Management and Budget.

At noon, the legislators met with both of California’s senators, Alan Cranston and Pete Wilson, in Cranston’s Capitol office.

“We think we have been very successful,” Campbell said. “I believe the White House put together for us one of the most high-powered briefings that a legislative delegation has ever had. We had all the key players in one room, listening to us and listening to our wish list.

“I think there’s a perception that California is the largest state (in population) in the nation, there are 45 congressmen, and as a result of being the largest, maybe they wield unnecessary influence. But this is the first time the California delegation has had unanimous agreement since World War II. We met together with Sens. Cranston and Wilson, which again is not something that happens every day.”

President Bush, who toured the devastated region Friday, has indicated that he will sign the relief package as approved by the House.

Times staff writer Robert W. Stewart in Washington contributed to this report.