Southland Rolls With the Punch of a Moderate One

This time around, there was little call for a wrecking ball, and barely a bulldozer was needed. No bridges had collapsed, no city blocks were ablaze, no World Series was postponed. The Jaws of Life were held in reserve, awaiting the next freeway smashup.

Call it the handyman’s earthquake, more a fix-it job than a catastrophe. The Moderate One was made to order for a putty knife in the hands of a glazier, and a good excuse for do-it-yourselfers to stay home from work. The Builders Emporium in La Verne witnessed a run on flexible gas lines for water heaters, while Montclair’s Home Club sold dozens of a newfangled earthquake alarm that is designed to give a few seconds warning before a shaker.

For many, Wednesday’s earthquake meant Thursday’s profits, with more to come.

“Sure, we lost some stock, but it’s good for business,” Greg Johnson, proprietor of Claremont Paint & Glass, said as he took an empty aluminum frame from a customer. By 3 p.m., Johnson had taken more than 20 orders for new windows--and he only handles residential work. “A lot of big picture windows,” he said.

Broken glass is an immediate priority, but there are also chimneys to rebuild, foundations to check, and picture frames to repair. There is an abundance of work for masons, contractors, engineers and insurance agents who serve Upland, Pomona, Ontario, Claremont, Montclair, San Dimas and other communities roughed up by the 5.5-magnitude temblor.

Business was busy--but, it seemed, not overwhelming. Some contractors and glass companies said they had received only a few calls more than normal, nothing they couldn’t handle.

At Mission Glass, Pat McArthur had an ominous theory about that. “I guess everybody’s waiting to see if it’s over,” she said.

Such thinking prevailed at the big hardware centers.

“After the quakes, they get concerned and try to think of things to do to prevent more damage,” said Dave Urquidi, manager of the Builders Emporium. Plywood was a popular item, and water heater supplies were another. The shaking had cracked many gas lines.

Urquidi estimated that 60 pieces of line were sold Wednesday night, exhausting the store’s supply. The store placed an order for more and sold 150 pieces Thursday, he said.

That item was also a big seller at the Home Club, said manager Steve Fellin, as was an alarm called “California Quake Awake.”

David Elliot, president of California Quake Awake Inc., said the alarm, like an animal’s ears, reacts to a quake’s sound frequency, or “P wave.” If the alarm is 60 miles from the epicenter of a temblor, a beep will provide a 12- to 15-second early warning, Elliot said. The alarm, on the market since January, 1989, and priced at about $25, is selling “very well,” he said.

Waiting out aftershocks is only one reason why homeowners and business people may wait to call on contractors. For some, contractor Greg Anderson predicted, there are dealings with insurance companies to determine whether damage will exceed the typical $10,000 deductible on quake insurance,

“This quake was by no means as bad as Whittier,” said Anderson, whose San Dimas firm handled several major home reconstruction jobs after the October, 1987, quake.

On the road to several non-quake-related job estimates Thursday morning, Anderson said he noticed dozens of cracked and damaged chimneys.

“We might get some jobs in the next couple weeks,” he said, “but the real work will come months down the road, after people get their low-interest government loans.”

While some contractors blanket quake-damaged neighborhoods with leaflets advertising their services, Anderson said: “There’s no reason to rush out. It makes us seem like vultures.”

But for glaziers such as Johnson, the pace was fast. Several customers, he said, were planning to replace their picture windows with tempered glass--”safety glass” that disintegrates into small pieces rather than dangerous shards.

At Wolfe’s Market in Claremont, glazier James Benson of College Glass & Mirror was glad to be outside replacing three large storefront windows--one of several jobs this day. Jeff Hodges, an upholsterer by trade, was assisting. “He’s jammed up and I’m not,” Hodges said.

When the Moderate One hit, Benson recalled, he was in the firm’s storeroom, and he didn’t think that it was so moderate. He made a run for it, and heard 30 sheets of 5-by-8-foot glass panes crash to the floor.

“That would have been the worst place to stand around,” Benson said.