Cities Strive to Be Ready for Big One : Earthquakes: After the prediction that the area could face a major temblor, officials stress preparedness at the municipal and individual levels.

This week’s news that scientists believe the San Gabriel Valley and Pasadena area could face a major earthquake should be taken neither lightly nor in panic, regional officials say, but simply as a call to arms for disaster preparedness.

“That’s the only answer to earthquakes: Be prepared,” said Sierra Madre Police Chief I. E. (Bill) Betts, who is overseeing the recovery program in his small town, which was the focal point of the magnitude 5.8 quake that caused an estimated $44 million in damages in the region June 28.

Glendale officials and quake experts, however, emphasized that there is no prediction of an imminent temblor and that the full implications of the findings by scientists from Caltech in Pasadena and the U.S. Geological Survey are not known.

The warnings about an impending quake were issued Tuesday in San Francisco by two teams of seismologists who reported that during the last four years, a pattern of quakes from Whittier Narrows and Montebello to Upland and Pasadena indicate that the Sierra Madre Fault may be due for a jolt greater than magnitude 7. The fault cuts across the San Gabriel Mountains, passing under or near many foothill communities, in a line roughly from Sylmar to Upland.

In response to the report, state and local officials emphasized preparedness.

“The research . . . underscores the importance of the aggressive earthquake preparedness . . . programs under way throughout California,” said Richard Andrews, director of the state’s Office of Emergency Services.

Glendale officials said the city was making steady progress in its earthquake preparations even before Tuesday’s announcement. In September, the city named Gerald Shamburg to the new position of emergency services coordinator.

More than 125 city employees and representatives of businesses, hospitals and service organizations participated last month in a drill simulating a magnitude 8.3 earthquake on the San Andreas Fault, Shamburg said.

In addition, Glendale has stepped up enforcement of its seismic safety code, adopted in 1987, which requires that all structures of unreinforced masonry built before 1938 be reinforced with steel girders.

Owners of 700 buildings in the city were given up to six years to comply, depending upon a risk factor based on the occupancy of buildings.

Movie theaters and hotels, for instance, are considered high risk, said Sam Good, Glendale permit services administrator. The Alex Theatre at 216 N. Brand Blvd. and the Maryland Hotel at Wilson and Maryland avenues are among 164 structures that have not complied.

Many of those cases, she said, have been referred to the city attorney. She said permits have been issued for 57 buildings where work has not yet begun.

Often, she said, owners complain that they cannot afford the cost of reinforcing their buildings. “We are not trying to put people out of business,” Good said. “We would like to be nice guys. But it is not worth the risk, especially now, when we are even more in danger than we knew before.”

Improved emergency response procedures tested in Glendale this year included the use of “packet radios,” which link shortwave radios to personal computers without the use of power or telephone service, Shamburg said. The system was installed this year in the city’s emergency headquarters, located in the basement of City Hall.

Throughout the San Gabriel Valley, officials emphasized that they also are doing what they can to instill the notion of preparedness.

Said Alhambra City Manager Kevin J. Murphy: “We’re going to have a major earthquake. That’s the reality. It may be this decade, the next decade or it may be tomorrow. But we have to be ready.”

In his city, Murphy said, he wants to take the preparedness beyond the level of city departments simply being ready. Every resident, he said, has a responsibility to be ready.

Next year, the Police Department’s “Neighborhood Watch” crime prevention program will be training residents at the block level, he said, and setting up designated residents as responsible for emergency water or food or equipment for their streets.

The public is most receptive to talk of preparedness just after an earthquake or after such scientific news of an impending danger, said Pasadena Fire Chief Kaya Pekerol, who is the city’s assistant director of disaster preparedness.

The key to preparedness, Pekerol said, is to adopt the attitude that sailors must have: “When you decide you’re going to learn to sail, you need to learn to survive at sea--in case you sink.”