L.A. to Send Disaster Experts to Guadalajara : Response: City Council votes unanimously to heed Mexican request for aid.

As Cardinal Roger Mahony celebrated a special bilingual Mass on Friday for the dead and injured of Guadalajara, Los Angeles city officials prepared to send teams of disaster specialists to the stricken Mexican city and local organizations marshaled resources for a relief effort.

The Southern California Gas Co. also pledged to send its own pipeline safety technicians to Mexico’s second-largest city, where a chain of explosions in sewers this week killed an estimated 215 people and injured more than 1,400.

Hours before City Councilman Richard Alatorre called a morning news conference to announce the city’s plans, the county Fire Department dispatched a battalion chief and a firefighter to Guadalajara to assist Mexican authorities in monitoring what may be toxic substances in the city’s sewer system.

The disaster in the capital of Jalisco state touched a chord in the Los Angeles area, where 400,000 residents are Jaliscienses .

At his news conference, Alatorre noted that two members of his staff and many of his constituents in his 14th Council District on the Eastside are from the state.

“For these people here in Los Angeles, these past few days have been a very devastating and emotional experience,” he said.

That grief and shock, however, were being replaced by a resolve to aid in the rescue efforts and in making the city safe again.

After Alatorre noted that the Mexican government had asked for help, his emergency motion before the City Council requesting that it send disaster response specialists and waste-water and sewer experts, plus equipment, was immediately approved by a unanimous vote.

By Friday afternoon, officials in various city departments were making lists of appropriate personnel to send.

“I would be surprised if we are not out of here by tomorrow morning,” said Asst. Chief Gerald Johnson of the city Fire Department.

County fire officials had not yet decided if they would send more than two employees to Guadalajara. Dispatched Friday morning were Battalion Chief Gil Herrera and Firefighter Richard Diaz, both of whom are specialists in hazardous materials and urban search and rescue.

At a more grass-roots level, several groups have begun collecting money and other donations that will be sent to Mexico to aid victims of the disaster.

In the forefront was Federacion de clubes Jaliscienses, a coalition of 10 Los Angeles-based clubs made up of natives of Jalisco. This weekend, it will begin collecting food, clothing, medical and other supplies at California State University, Los Angeles, and at its offices in Southgate.

Many of those attending the Mass Friday at St. Vibiana’s Cathedral were natives of Jalisco, who still were not sure of the welfare of friends and loved ones in Guadalajara.

Lupe Palayo, a 34-year-old native of Guadalajara who now lives in Los Angeles and has many friends in the stricken city, said through an interpreter that she had not been able to get through to them by telephone.

She and others wept silently inside St. Vibiana’s vaulted sanctuary as Mahony urged them to allow their Christian faith to “pour out to all those people in Guadalajara.”