Wilson Studies Quake State of Emergency

Engineers, inspectors and construction crews fanned out through the foothill communities of the San Gabriel Valley on Saturday, dismantling fallen chimneys and replacing broken glass as frazzled residents recovered from Friday’s strong but sparing Sierra Madre earthquake.

With the threat of severe aftershocks looming, Gov. Pete Wilson said he would “likely” declare a state of emergency--a move that would bring loans and tax relief for hundreds of Californians whose homes and businesses were shattered in the 6.0 shaker. But he added that “relatively little” structural damage has been detected so far.

Very preliminary figures estimating losses from the quake--which killed one person and injured more than 100--approached the $20-million mark and were expected to grow.

In Pasadena, shoppers returned Saturday to the picturesque walkways of Old Pasadena; many of the trendy boutiques and coffee shops opened and much of the glass and debris that on Friday littered sidewalks had been swept up. Workers were still cleaning some areas, removing brick cornices that had toppled from some of Old Pasadena’s turn-of-the-century buildings, while glaziers installed window panes.

“It puzzles me how you can go down one side of the street and everything’s fine, and on the other side everything’s devastated,” Pasadena Fire Chief Kaya K. Pekerol said.

Pasadena tallied damage to 380 buildings and homes, including its elegant domed City Hall and the landmark Pasadena Playhouse. Among the most serious casualties were the Westminster Presbyterian Church--one of its huge stone turrets crashed through the sanctuary--and the historic machine shop at Carnegie Observatories, where the massive Mt. Wilson telescopes were assembled in the early part of the century.

Much of Southern California was jolted at 7:43 a.m. Friday when the long-dormant Sierra Madre Fault buckled under tremendous pressure caused by the movement of the Earth’s Pacific and North American plates. The temblor pushed the San Gabriel Mountains up a couple of inches and is expected to trigger aftershocks for a week or more.

On Saturday, the streets of the San Gabriel Valley cities where the quake did its most damage were filled with government and private inspectors surveying damage, with contractors who specialize in repair and with demolition crews removing crumbled chimneys.

Teams from the California Conservation Corps went door-to-door in Arcadia and Monrovia to help residents assess their losses, and Looky-Lous armed with video cameras were out in full force under the hazy sunshine.

In Sierra Madre, a quiet enclave 7 1/2 miles south of the quake’s epicenter, Sean Joyce, assistant city administrator, said officials had counted 150 homes and buildings with structural damage, including three residences that may require demolition.

In an emergency shelter at Sierra Madre Elementary School, Ronald and Loraine Hoonbout and their three children spent Friday night camped out on cots. Their home, they said, was a “total mess,” its walls wrenched from the ceiling to expose the sky.

It was when Loraine Hoonbout tried to clean up her living room that her family’s brush with death became real to her. She picked up framed hand paintings that her children had done as a school exercise.

“The only time it really hit me . . . was when I saw the crack in the glass (of the picture frame). It showed my children’s vulnerability.”

Saturday, when the Hoonbouts planned to begin searching for a new place to live, was the couple’s sixth wedding anniversary.

At the Highland Liquor Store, the force of the temblor hurtled bottles from shelves to the floor; on Saturday, the place still reeked of spilled spirits and the floor was sticky.

“I used about 10 cans of Pine-sol,” lamented owner Nabil Masannat, “and it still didn’t work.”

Sierra Madre resident Kevin Drolet watched Saturday as a caterpillar truck scooped the pieces of a cinder-block wall that, before Friday, had surrounded his property.

“I planned to take it down for landscaping, but you have to get permits to take it down,” Drolet laughed. “But guess what? God helped me. It’s an act of nature.”

In Monrovia, city spokeswoman Janet Bennett said 125 homes, buildings and other structures were damaged, plus another 331 chimneys were destroyed.

For 69-year-old Ruth Burke, a widow on Social Security who had lived at her home for 32 years, the emotional shock ran deeper than the cracks in her fireplace and porcelain bathroom fixtures.

“They say I’ve got to watch out for more shocks,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep last night. I had stuff packed up in case I had to leave in a hurry.”

On Monrovia’s Primrose Avenue, Linda and Don Ragan were loading a van that would carry their belongings to storage. Mattresses, tables and bookcases were propped up on the front lawn. Inspectors told the Ragans it would be four to six months before the family could move back in--if the home can be saved at all.

“We have earthquake insurance, but we don’t know how much will be covered,” said Linda Ragan, who runs a day-care center.

In Arcadia, where a falling steel beam at the Santa Anita racetrack claimed the quake’s single fatality, the heaviest destruction seemed to be at the Motel 6.

Don Alcorn, Arcadia’s emergency services coordinator, said at least 100 homes were damaged.

Incomplete, estimated damage costs were: Pasadena, $12 million; Monrovia, $6.5 million, and Arcadia, $1 million. A figure for Sierra Madre was unavailable.

All officials emphasized that the numbers were extremely tentative--perhaps even meaningless at this point--because damage reports are still coming in as inspectors survey neighborhoods.

“So much of the damage has yet to be uncovered,’S. Sen. John Seymour said as he toured the cracked buildings of downtown Pasadena. “The figures could double, triple, go up 10 times.”

Gazing at a brick wall that had tumbled near the Rose City Diner, Seymour added: “Boy, we’re so fortunate it occurred at the time it did, before people had gone in to all of these buildings. If more people had been in there we could have suffered a much greater loss of life.”

Wilson, speaking at a press conference in Sacramento, said he would study damage reports and expected to make a decision on declaring an emergency Monday. He said it was “likely” that emergency status would be activated to speed relief to homeowners who suffered the most damage.

Signs of normalcy were quickly returning to Pasadena.

A blase Antoinette Epstein, a Saturday morning regular at nearby Old Town Bakery, pointed out that people in Southern California are, after all, accustomed to the ground moving beneath them. Sipping a bowl-sized capuccino and nibbling on an oversized cinnamon roll, she told of editing a futuristic manuscript in which California earthquakes are so common no one pays any attention to them.

“That’s the sense I have now,” she said. “People are getting used to them.”

Indeed, college students Chris Santos and Doug Modena said they came to Pasadena Saturday for breakfast and a stroll. Viewing earthquake damage hadn’t even entered their minds. “We didn’t know where to eat so we thought we’d come to Pasadena because nothing’s going on at USC,” Modena said.

Those who did lug camcorders and cameras to the town found little to record. “I’m surprised there’s not more damage,” said a disappointed Steve Hughes, who had driven from Highland Park with his video recorder.

Steve Bostwick, his wife, Bonnie, and their 3-year-old twins, all of whom had come to view the earthquake damage, had to settle for watching a 12-story crane near City Hall. The crane was used to realign air-conditioning units on the Plaza Pasadena shopping center roof. The units had shifted during the earthquake.

The Bostwicks and five other adults and children sat on the curb as they waited for the crane to move, but the lack of excitement finally prompted young Chris Bostwick to complain, “Why isn’t it going?” while his brother whined, “I want to go home.”

Pasadena City Councilman Rick Cole made his own tour Saturday of Colorado Boulevard’s four-story Crown Hotel, now webbed by cracks in its brick facade. Owner Ken McCormick, who for the last three years had been debating whether to tear down the abandoned structure or rehabilitate it, said that the quake could mean up to $1 million in structural repairs if the building is to be saved.

Times staff writers Vicki Torres and Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this story.

Earthquakes: The Numbers

Earthquake magnitude is based on the amplitude of seismic waves generated by the temblor, and it is related to the amount of energy released.

Generally, quakes of less than 2 are detected only by instruments, and a magnitude 6 quake like the one that struck Friday morning falls right on the margin between moderate and major earthquakes.

Each full number of magnitude is a 10-fold increase over the preceding number. So a 6, for example, is 10 times greater than a 5.

Here is a look at some other California quakes.

YEAR MAGNITUDE San Francisco 1906 8.3 Owens Valley 1872 8.2 Bakersfield 1952 7.7 Lompoc 1927 7.5 Imperial Valley 1927 7.1 Loma Prieta (San Francisco) 1989 7.1 Humboldt County 1980 7.0 Coalinga 1983 6.7 Imperial County 1987 6.6 Sylmar (San Fernando Valley) 1971 6.5 Imperial Valley 1979 6.4 Santa Barbara 1925 6.3 Long Beach 1933 6.3 Imperial County 1987 6.2 Morgan Hill 1984 6.2 Sierra Madre 1991 6.0 Point Mugu 1973 5.9 Whittier Narrows 1987 5.9 Bakersfield 1952 5.8 Upland 1990 5.5 Lytle Creek 1970 5.4 Santa Barbara Island 1981 5.3 Malibu 1989 5.0