Northern County Is Shaken but Largely Unscathed : Quake: A Glendale woman suffers a fatal heart attack and panic sends others to hospitals. Rockslides and scattered power outages are also reported.

The San Fernando Valley and its neighbors withstood Friday’s earthquake relatively unscathed, with reports of incidental damage, scattered rockslides in mountain areas and few casualties, authorities said.

In Glendale, a 68-year-old woman suffered a fatal heart attack that a hospital spokeswoman said was apparently caused by the “stress and anxiety” of the 6.0 temblor. Barbara Southerland was rushed to Glendale Adventist Hospital where she was pronounced dead, the spokeswoman said.

Bearing in mind the raw nerves produced by the quake, Rocketdyne in Canoga Park delayed an Atlas rocket booster test nearly 3 1/2 hours to avoid scaring residents with its earth-shaking thrust.

“We were afraid some people would think there was an aftershock in the area,” said Paul Sewell, manager of media relations for the aerospace manufacturer. The engine test, which generates 423,000 pounds of thrust, had been scheduled for 9:30 a.m. but took place at nearly 1 p.m.

Panic accounted for an undetermined number of residents sent to hospitals, according to police and other public officials. These included a McDonald’s Restaurant worker who survived a severe earthquake in her native Guatemala and fainted from fright when Friday’s earthquake struck.

Lila Oliveras, 21, of Arleta was at the McDonald’s at 18761 Sherman Way in Reseda when Friday’s quake struck at 7:43 a.m. and “she became extremely frightened and she fainted,” McDonald’s spokeswoman Kelly Jacobs said.

Oliveras was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center for observation and released. The hospital also treated a 75-year-old woman and a 36-year-old man for minor injuries received during the quake, a spokeswoman said.

In Glendale, a Glendale Federal Bank employee was pinned to his desk by a fallen filing cabinet and room partition. The employee, whose name was withheld, was quickly extricated by co-workers, treated at a local hospital for minor injuries and released.

On Soledad Canyon Road near Capra Road in Canyon Country, fallen rocks were strewn over a 150-foot stretch of the highway, closing the southbound lane for an hour, California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Odle said.

Rocks were also scattered on the Angeles Crest Highway between La Canada and George’s Gap, one mile west of Angeles Forest Road. The highway remained open, but Caltrans was advising motorists to stay away, spokesman Russell Snyder said.

No injuries were reported in either rockslide, authorities said.

About 1,600 households in Van Nuys and Reseda were left without electricity immediately after the quake. But power was restored by 9 a.m., said Stacy Geere, a spokesperson for the Department of Water and Power.

In Glendale, about 1,000 homes also lost power for about five minutes, said Tommy Wu, the city’s power management administrator.

All in all, northern Los Angeles County was fortunate.

“We were so earthquake-prepared we wouldn’t let the quake cause any damage,” quipped Sheriff’s Sgt. Carl Deeley in the Antelope Valley, quickly adding: “Actually, we were lucky.”

In the small town of Acton, the Acton Market shook so strongly that nearly all its merchandise tumbled from shelves, causing an unknown amount of damage but no injuries.

“I was in the liquor department getting one of the registers ready to open and all of a sudden, all the bottles started rattling,” clerk Cindy Davis said. “Man, I took out the front door. I wasn’t going to stick around for it.”

In Glendale, Hallmark card shop owner Jennie Marmo feared that her insurance might not cover the wreckage.

“I have a window that’s completely demolished,” Marmo said. “I lost a lot of stuff in the store--picture frames, figurines, mugs and glass boxes. I’m trying to keep calm.”

Stores in the Glendale Galleria received similar damage, but the mall was humming with shoppers as usual and shopkeepers said they were grateful their problems were only incidental.

Ida Abramian, manager of The Music Box, said she arrived at work to find many of the store’s fragile dolls and music boxes on the floor. But on closer inspection, she found none had broken.

“I think God must love me so much. It was a miracle,” Abramian said.

Times staff writers Amy Kazmin, Martha Willman, Jocelyn Stewart, John Chandler and free-lance reporter Gary Thornhill also contributed to this story.

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