Year After Quake, Rural Areas Still Feel Impact : Disaster: Santa Cruz and Watsonville struggle to find housing for thousands and to rebuild businesses.

One year after Northern California’s deadly 7.1-magnitude earthquake, farm worker Jesus Garcia and his family are sharing a single room in a run-down Watsonville motel. The Garcias’ apartment was destroyed in the quake and their application for federal housing assistance is under appeal.

Brent and Erma Browning have not been able to move back into their damaged Santa Cruz mountain home because they are waiting for county building permits. They have been renting a small house in San Jose since the earthquake.

Michael Pecot continues to manage a health food store out of a tent-like structure in a Santa Cruz parking lot. Business is off by 60%, but he cannot move back to his previous location because it has not been rebuilt.

In the days after the Loma Prieta earthquake last Oct. 17, much of the nation’s attention was focused on the devastated Marina District in San Francisco and the collapsed upper deck of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland. But, proportionately, there was greater loss near the epicenter in Santa Cruz County--in smaller cities such as Watsonville and Santa Cruz, and in remote hamlets in the nearby mountains.

Today, many of those residents are still struggling. Almost 500 homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains were demolished and only a handful have been rebuilt. In downtown Santa Cruz, entire streets are fenced off, and gaping holes have remained unfilled since the earthquake.

In nearby Watsonville, many residents who work in the fields or other low-paying jobs are struggling to find even temporary housing. Dozens of people have been living in motels since the earthquake, and the population in the area’s homeless shelters has doubled.

County and federal officials say when an earthquake of this magnitude hits one of the smallest counties in the state and causes more than $1 billion in damage, it is unreasonable to expect all problems to be solved a year later. Although some residents are struggling, much progress has been made, they contend, and the majority of those whose lives were disrupted are back home and back to work.

The rebuilding process has been delayed, some residents say, because of inaction and ineptitude by various governmental agencies. They claim that county building permits were issued too slowly, particularly in the mountain areas; that federal officials have made it too difficult for the poor to obtain temporary housing assistance; that the reconstruction of downtown Santa Cruz should be further along.

In downtown Santa Cruz the Pacific Garden Mall, a six-block strip of small shops and quaint turn-of-the-century buildings, symbolized the eccentric and eclectic nature of the city. Before the earthquake, the open-air mall was filled with a melange of students, transients and button-down businessmen, and the stores sold everything from new-age clothing with crystals embedded in the fabric to organic pet food.

The earthquake destroyed more than a third of the downtown business district, including many historic buildings, and badly damaged numerous others. Today, this once distinctive area is barely recognizable. With its rubble-strewn lots and condemned buildings, much of the mall has remained unchanged since the earthquake.

None of the owners whose buildings were destroyed have begun reconstruction, and only a few have received building permits. The renovation of damaged buildings has gone slowly and it will be months until many reopen.

A key reason why progress has been so slow, critics say, is because the city does not have a plan to rebuild downtown. The design of the new downtown is not expected to be completed by a consulting firm until late spring--more than 18 months after the earthquake.

“The leaders of this city all have this laid-back, 1960s mentality . . . they’ve been pathetic,” said Pecot of the Santa Cruz Nutrition Center--the health food store operating out of a tent. “Because there’s no plan for downtown yet, nobody wants to start rebuilding. Who wants to have the first building on a block full of empty lots?”

Almost 100 of the city’s more than 600 businesses never reopened after the earthquake. Other merchants, whose buildings were badly damaged or destroyed, moved to Phoenix Pavilions, a collection of large, gray, tent-like structures dotting a strip of parking lots behind the mall. During last year’s Christmas season, most businesses reported record sales because Bay Area shoppers wanted to support merchants who suffered losses in the quake.

The novelty has worn thin. Sales are off by more than half, many merchants said, and most have no idea when they can relocate.

It could take more than five years to rebuild the mall, said Santa Cruz Mayor Mardi Wormhoudt. She acknowledges that “obviously, things haven’t gone fast enough,” but denies it is because of ineptitude among city leaders.

Bringing together disparate members of the community to agree on a design for the new downtown is time-consuming, she said. Disputes over whether to raze or renovate damaged buildings also has slowed the effort. Because of the downturn in the economy, she said, it is “harder for people to get loans to rebuild.”

For a city of 50,000, Santa Cruz suffered devastating losses in the earthquake--damage to the city was estimated at more than $100 million. The city continues to have financial problems. Because of the businesses that were destroyed, Santa Cruz has lost more than $1 million in sales and property tax revenue this year. If a proposed sales tax hike does not pass in next month’s election, Wormhoudt said, “We’ll be in trouble.”

Before the earthquake, affordable housing in Watsonville, which had a vacancy rate of less than 1%, was a serious problem. After the earthquake it was a disaster. Thousands were suddenly homeless and city officials had to dip into a capital reserve fund to keep the city of 30,000 running. Many of the newly homeless were Latino farm workers or low-wage earners who used to crowd into small apartments, sometimes three families to a unit.

Although many residents obtained funds for housing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or moved into one of the agency’s temporary mobile home parks, hundreds of families did not qualify. Because they shared housing with other families or lived in illegal units, such as converted garages, they did not have rent receipts or documentation needed to obtain housing assistance.

Legal aid attorneys in the Bay Area filed lawsuits contending that FEMA discriminated against the poor by refusing aid to families who were sharing housing before the quake, and to people who failed to prove they had lived in their residences for 30 days. The cases have not been settled.

Almost 100 people in Watsonville are living in motel rooms paid for by the Red Cross. Most were rejected for federal housing aid and have been waiting for answers to their appeals. Some residents are staying in the city’s homeless shelters, which are so crowded that people are sleeping on floors.

Garcia, his wife and young son were sharing an apartment with several families before it was destroyed in the earthquake. Because they have no rental receipts, they are forced to stay in the Midtown Motel, a ramshackle building with trash-lined corridors.

“I don’t want to have to raise my son in a place like this,” said Raquel Garcia. “But if we left here, we’d have to live in the car.”

Maryellen O’Neill, an attorney for FEMA, said sufficient documentation is needed to ensure that housing payments are going to the right people. She said an Oakland hotel with 75 rooms was damaged in the quake and “pretty soon several hundred families claimed they’d lived there . . . and that’s just not possible.”

An already difficult time finding permanent housing may worsen when the programs expire this spring. The city plans to build more than 200 low-income units, but this will only accommodate a fraction of the temporarily homeless.

Almost 10% of the city’s housing was destroyed in the earthquake, much of it where the city’s poor lived. Now, as these apartments are rebuilt, many landlords are taking advantage of the housing shortage to almost double the rents. Some are allowing only one family per unit.

“We’re seeing two-bedroom apartments that were renting from $500 a month now going for $800 and $900,” said Watsonville Councilman Oscar Rios. “And the people looking to rent are people who work in the canneries, the fields and in fast-food restaurants. When you make $5 or $6 an hour, it’s hard to pay that kind of rent.”

Residents have been optimistic about rebuilding the city’s commercial center where almost half the buildings were destroyed or badly damaged. Developers have made commitments to rebuild almost every vacant lot on the small-town Main Street.

The rebuilding process has gone slowest in the remote communities throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains. Most families whose homes were badly damaged have not begun rebuilding; many do not have county building permits.

“If we had our permits we could have spent all summer rebuilding and been back in our house before the holidays,” said Erma Browning, whose house was knocked off its foundation during the quake.

Browning and her husband live in Villa del Monte, a development where houses have spectacular mountain views and sell for more than $500,000. About 20% of the residents have not been able to move back into their homes, and others are living in damaged homes, unable to obtain the permits to rebuild, said Hank Meyer, president of the homeowners’ association. A few people, Meyer said, have sold their property at a loss because of the uncertainty.

Many mountain residents could not rebuild because the county required costly geological tests and other studies that took months to complete.

Last month, county officials allowed people to rebuild without requiring extensive geological studies if repairs cost less than 50% of the house’s market value.

“It would have been better if we would have had this policy from the beginning, but, along with everyone else, we learned a lot during the past year,” said Supervisor Jan Beautz. “And people have to realize this was one of the greatest natural disasters in the history of the state. It takes time to recover and rebuild.”

THE BAY AREA EARTHQUAKE STATUS REPORT When: Oct. 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. Magnitude: 7.1 Duration: 15 seconds Epicenter: 50 to 60 miles southeast of San Francisco in the Santa Cruz MountainsFatalities: 63 Injured: 3,757 Displaced Persons: 12,053 Dollar Amount Damage: More than $7 billion Area Damaged: 8,000 square kilometers Affected Areas: The following counties were deemed state and federal disaster areas: Alameda, SanFrancisco, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Monterey, San Benito, Contra Costa, Marin, and Solano, along with the cities of Tracy (San Joaquin County) and Isleton (Sacramento County). Aftershocks: More than 7,000 with magnitudes ranging from 1.0 to 5.4. DISRUPTIONS World Series: Occurred during the opening ceremonies of the third game of the 1989 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics. Injuries would have been much worse had it not been for the unusually light traffic at the time of the quake due to the fact that many people had left work early to watch the game. It was the first major league baseball game ever cancelled as a result of an earthquake. Electricity: 1.4 million people were without service following the quake. Gas: 150,000 customers without service Water: In Hetch Hetchi (San Francisco) between 35,000 and 50,000 people were without service for periods ranging from 4 hours to two weeks. The East Bay Municipal Utility District suffered scores of water main breaks with the greatest impact occurring in Contra Costa County where a 60-inch water main break affected 150,000 customers. Phone Service: Pacific Bell reported delays, but no equipment breakdowns. Air Travel: San Francisco International Airport was closed for the first time ever, for a 13-hour period. San Francisco: 13 deaths in the city, 369 buildings uninhabitable, 1,737 in need of repair. Status: 51 structures demolished, 78 remain uninhabitable, 886 have limited entry while awaiting repair. Total damage; $2 billion in private property, $500,000 in city property. The Nimitz Freeway (I-880) at the Cypress Street Viaduct. A collapse of a 1-mile section of the double-decked roadway killed 42 people. Status: An 1.8-mile section of the freeway has been demolished. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge: A 30-foot long, upper-level span collapsed resulting in the death of one person and making the double-decked bridge unusable for one month. Repair cost: $4 million. Status: Bridge has been re-opened. Southern Viaduct A 1.5-mile stretch of I-280 known is expected to reopen in December, 1991. It will remain a double-deck roadway. Projected cost: $44 million. Embarcadero Freeway (I-480):The 1.2-mile Embarcadero Freeway (I-480) and a series of connectors to the Bay Bridge will probably be torn down and replaced with a sunken roadway. The Central Viaduct of Highway 101: A 1-mile section remains closed. Caltrans plans to remove the top deck and widen lower deck to accommodate two-way traffic. Projected cost: $34.2 million. Marina District: Four deaths, more than a dozen collapsed buildings; several more destroyed by fire. Status: 11 structures have been demolished, 27 remaining uninhabitable and 160 damaged buildingshave limited entry. Watsonville: 856 structures damaged by the quake; 338 were determined to be uninhabitable, 71 were to be demolished. This figure includes 642 residential and 203 business structures. Total damage: $73.6 million Los Gatos: 850 structures damaged by the quake, including 104 commercial buildings and 746 residential structures. Status: 530 permits have been issued for both residential and commercial repairs. 43 residental structures remain uninhabitable. Three commercial structures condemned. 45 remain uninhabitable. Santa Cruz County: Five deaths. 365 structures were destroyed and 1,903 structures suffered major damage. Total damage: $290 million. Status: 6,291 permits have been issued for structural repairs, and one bridge remains closed. Private Property Damage: Homes: Destroyed: 1,018 Damaged: 23,408 Businesses: 366 destroyed 3,530 damaged QUAKE IN PERSPECTITVE: The 7.1 shaker ranks as the fourth largest in magnitude in California recorded history. Other top quakes rank accordingly: * 8.3 magnitude San Francisco in 1906, more than 600 killed, more than $400 million damage. * 7.8 magnitude in Kern Co. in 1952, 12 fatalities, $49 million damage. * 7.7 offshore San Luis Obispo Co. in 1927. * 7.2 northern coastal areas in 1923. Southern California Quakes * Long Beach, March 10, 1933 6.3 magnitude, 120 fatalities, $50 million damage, set into motion California’s earthquake building codes * Tehachapi, Bakersfield, July 21, 1952, 7.7 magnitude, 12 fatalities. * Sylmar San Fernando Feb. 9, 1971 6.6, $550 million damage to buildings, freeways and a dam, 58 fatalities * Imperial Valley, October 15, 1979, 6.4 magnitude, no fatalities, $70-$100 million damage. * Whittier Narrows, October 1987 had a magnitude of 5.9 over $350 million damage. Three fatalities, over 1300 injured . * Upland quake Feb. 28, 1990 5.5, 30 injuries, no fatalities $14 million in damages. Probability of Another Large Bay Area Quake According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there is a 67% probability that a large ( magnitude 7.0 or larger) quake will occur in the San Francisco Bay Area during the next 30 years. 1. 28% Hayward Fault, northern section. 2. 23% Hayward Fault, southern section. 3. 23% San Andreas Fault, peninsula section (south of San Francisco). 4. 22% Rodgers Creek Fault, Sonoma County. California Division of Mines and Geology’s Scenario of what would happen as a result of an 7.5 magnitude earthquake near the Bay Area urban centers: Fatalities: 1,500 - 4,500 Injuries: 45,000 - 135,000 Damage: $40 billion, all four main bridges will be unusable for varying lengths of time, airports will be closed with the possible exception of San Jose International Airport. Sources: Office of Emergency Services (OES), Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), Bay Area Regional Earthquake Preparedness Project (BAREPP) Small Business Administration, US Geological Survey, American Red Cross. Earthquake Country , Sunset Publishing, Cities of Watsonville and Los Gatos Compiled by Times editorial researcher Michael Meyers