A CITY IN CRISIS : Days of Devastation in the City . . .

The worst urban riot in contemporary American history exacted its heaviest tolls in inner-city neighborhoods, but several other areas throughout Los Angeles County suffered as well. Last week’s violence--which left at least 45 people dead, about 2,000 injured and caused more than $550 million in property damage in the city of Los Angeles alone--extended south to Long Beach, north to the San Fernando Valley and east to Pomona.

Here is a recap of the tumult within the city of Los Angeles and in several of the communities surrounding it:

CITY OF LOS ANGELES

At least 35 of the riot-related fatalities occurred within the city as of 6 p.m. Saturday, authorities said. Of the about 7,500 arrests reported throughout Los Angeles County, more than 3,400 occurred within the city, a police spokesman said. The city Fire Department reports responding to 4,629 structure fires between Wednesday night and Saturday morning, although many of those fires at the end of the three-day period were rekindled or smoldering. Precise statistics for most neighborhoods within the city are not yet available.

SOUTH LOS ANGELES

A. (Roughly bounded by the Santa Monica Freeway, Alameda Street and Florence Avenue): The first apparent instance of violence erupted late Wednesday afternoon at the intersection of Florence Boulevard and Normandie Avenue, where citizens outraged by the not-guilty verdicts for the four police officers charged in the Rodney G. King beating started to throw rocks, chunks of concrete and bottles. As the anger escalated, motorists were pulled from their cars--including Reginald O. Denny, 36, the white driver of an 18-wheel cement truck whose brutal and repeated beating, captured by television cameras in helicopters, became a symbol of the week’s turmoil. Tom’s Liquor store near the Florence and Normandie intersection became the first business to be looted and then set afire. Although precise figures remain unavailable, scores of buildings were destroyed and at least 11 people were killed in South Los Angeles alone, including two men fatally shot by police Wednesday at the Nickerson Gardens housing project. Snipers wounded a firefighter in the cheek on Wednesday. In another incident Friday morning, snipers fired on and slightly wounded three police officers, including the brother of Dodger Darryl Strawberry. Looting, vandalism and fire claimed markets, drugstores and two public libraries--at 1005 W. 64th St. and 4301 S. Figueroa St.--as well as Broadway Federal Savings & Loan on 45th Street, a family-owned business that survived the 1965 Watts riots.

CIVIC CENTER

B. (A largely non-residential district dominated by government buildings between, roughly, Hill, Los Angeles and 1st streets and the Hollywood Freeway): Demonstrators massed at Parker Center, city Police Department headquarters, after the verdicts were announced. The demonstration turned violent about 9 p.m. Wednesday, as some in the crowd threw rocks and set fire to a kiosk. The rioters set fire to trees and a Jaguar parked outside City Hall. Windows were smashed at buildings including City Hall East and South (the main City Hall building was spared), the New Otani Hotel in neighboring Little Tokyo and the Los Angeles Times, which also suffered minor looting.

DOWNTOWN

C. (Roughly bounded by Temple Street, South Alameda Street, South Union Avenue and the Santa Monica Freeway): Vandalism and arson fires spread along Broadway on Wednesday and Thursday. Damaged buildings included the 81-year-old Palace Theatre at 630 S. Broadway, the city’s oldest movie house. The theater suffered peripheral smoke and fire damage, while dozens of nearby stores had their windows smashed and were looted.

KOREATOWN

D. (Roughly bounded by Western Avenue, Wilshire Boulevard, Pico Boulevard and Hoover Street): This community was among the hardest hit, with initial reports of more than 300 businesses burned and looted, some housing dozens of individual vendors. Damage was estimated at $200 million. In response to the lawlessness on the streets, many Korean merchants armed themselves and kept watch over their businesses. A group of retired Korean Marines formed a makeshift security squad, headquartered in the Wilshire Tower Hotel on 7th Street and Kingsley Drive. At least four deaths occurred in Koreatown; in one that gained wide attention, a 29-year-old private security guard on Olympic Boulevard was fatally shot by a looter fleeing a gutted electronics store. The facade of Cosmos Electronics on Vermont Avenue and 8th Street was battered by a rioter’s pickup truck, making way for hundreds of looters to follow. Businesses that were destroyed included several Korean- and Vietnamese-owned shops across the street from Cosmos and Im Du Taek Acupuncture Clinic on Western Avenue and 6th Street.

CRENSHAW DISTRICT

E. (Roughly bounded by Rodeo Road, South La Brea Avenue, Stocker Street and Van Ness Avenue): Widespread looting and fires devastated the area Wednesday night and Thursday. An as yet undetermined number of large and small businesses, in mini-malls and large shopping centers alike, became rubble, including most Boys’, ACE’s and Viva food markets within a four-mile radius. A Lucky supermarket at 3901 Crenshaw Blvd. and two Boys’--at Crenshaw and Rodeo and La Brea and Rodeo--are the only groceries left standing within this area. Dobson’s food market, which had been a fixture in Leimert Park for 50 years, burned to the ground. A recently opened community center near Coliseum and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard burned with most of a mini-mall. A Thrifty’s drugstore, a Kinney’s shore store, a large Wherehouse record store and a Security Pacific Bank were destroyed in shopping center fires at Rodeo and La Brea. Baldwin Hills Shopping Center suffered little damage thanks to private security guards who chased away would-be looters.

USC AREA

F. About 500 students were evacuated from their off-campus apartments along Jefferson and Adams boulevards and McClintock Avenue and crammed into dormitories as violence flared outside campus walls. Final exams were canceled amid the chaos, to be rescheduled this week. Although the university itself emerged unscathed, the surrounding commercial area suffered heavy damage from looting, vandalism and fire. A mini-mall at 36th Street and Vermont Avenue was destroyed, as was the La Sorbonne grocery and liquor store, a longtime neighborhood landmark. Other businesses damaged by the riots were the Trojan Liquor store at 30th Street and Vermont Avenue, and a Payless shoe store, a video store and a tanning salon in a mini-mall at Hoover and Adams. The Row mini-mall, near Greek Row at 28th Street and Figueroa, also suffered looting.

WEST ADAMS

G. (Roughly bounded by the Santa Monica Freeway, West Jefferson Boulevard and Maple Avenue). Residents of at least three, four-story apartment buildings along Adams Boulevard were left homeless by fire. Flames also consumed an A.N. Abells Auction building. A Viva supermarket and a Newberry’s department store in a large shopping center at the corner of Western Avenue and Venice Boulevard were looted and heavily damaged. The Mid-City shopping center at the intersection of Venice and San Vicente boulevards was heavily damaged by fire.

HOLLYWOOD

H. (Roughly bounded by Franklin, North Western and La Brea avenues, and Santa Monica Boulevard): Dozens of stores were looted and several destroyed along Melrose, Hollywood and Sunset boulevards, including many T-shirt and souvenir shops. The Hollywood Swap Meet building was razed by fire and Frederick’s of Hollywood’s flagship shop was emptied by looters carrying armfuls of lingerie. The Consumer Drugs Building, an Art Deco monument nearly 60 years old, burned to the ground. Shoreline Professional Video Systems and Samy’s Camera, two popular camera and video equipment stores frequented by the entertainment industry, were heavily damaged by fire.

MID-WILSHIRE

I. (Roughly bounded by 3rd Street, La Brea Avenue, and South Western Avenue): Extensive looting and arson fires reduced portions of the area to rubble. Damaged local landmarks include Bullocks Wilshire, housed in a 1928 building considered an Art Deco masterpiece. A fire at the Scottish Rite Temple was extinguished before it did much harm.

WATTS

J. (Roughly bounded by Alameda Street, Imperial Highway, Compton Avenue, and 103rd Street): The Martin Luther King shopping center at 103rd Street and Compton Avenue--the site where the Watts riots began--was looted and vandalized but not burned, and a recently installed statue of the civil rights leader for whom the mall was named was not damaged. But the Watts Labor Community Action Committee building at 109th Street and Central Avenue--which was founded after the ’65 riots to provide jobs and social services--succumbed to looting and fire on Thursday.

HARBOR AREA

K. (Including the city’s southernmost communities of Harbor City, San Pedro and Wilmington): Arson fires erupted in various locations, destroying a 40-room motel under construction at 22nd Street and Pacific Avenue in San Pedro and a furniture store at 253rd Street and Normandie Avenue in Harbor City early Friday, as well as other smaller business. The Free Clinic building on Anaheim Street in Wilmington also suffered fire damage. Merchants armed themselves against looters and barricaded their stores Friday, particularly at gun shops and Army/Navy surplus stores. Beatings were reported at two city housing projects--Dana Strand in Wilmington and Normont Terrace in Harbor City.

SILVER LAKE/ECHO PARK

L. More than a dozen businesses centered along Sunset and Santa Monica boulevards are looted in the communities of Silver Lake, Echo Park and East Hollywood. Included are two Radio Shacks, a Circuit City, Crown Books and several family-owned markets and convenience stores. A Payless shoe store at the corner of Vermont Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard burned to the ground.

WESTSIDE

M. (Roughly bounded by La Cienega Boulevard, the Santa Monica Freeway and Mulholland Drive): A mini-mall including a Radio Shack and Baskin-Robbins was gutted at La Cienega and Pico Boulevards. Another blaze destroyed Albee’s electronics store at Pico and Fairfax Avenue, as well as a string of Indian shops there. The Fedco at La Cienega and Rodeo Boulevards also was razed. A Vons supermarket at Fairfax and Pico is looted, as are a Kids R Us and a Circuit City at La Cienega Boulevard and 18th Street, and a Big 5 sporting goods store at Wilshire and San Vicente. Sporadic looting occurred in Westwood, Santa Monica and Venice.

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

N. The valley suffered comparatively limited violence, looting and damage. The brunt of rioting occurred Wednesday night and was aimed at the Foothill Division police station in Pacoima, where the four officers who beat King were assigned. About 200 to 300 demonstrators gathered at Hansen Dam Park in Lake View Terrace, near where King was beaten, and grew increasingly rowdy, throwing rocks and bottles at passing motorists. The crowd then moved to the Foothill station for a tense but largely nonviolent confrontation with police in riot gear. On Friday, a bomb threat forced the evacuation of the Foothill station and National Guard troops were deployed in the valley to protect that station, as well as area shopping malls. On Thursday night, a roving crowd of 200 broke windows and looted stores in Panorama City, Lake View Terrace, Pacoima, Arleta and Sylmar. A 15-year-old was killed in a drive-by shooting in Mission Hills on Wednesday in an incident that coroner’s officials linked to the citywide racial unrest. Two police officers and a Times reporter were among 17 reportedly injured. At least 675 arrests were reported--the vast majority for curfew violations. But one of those arrested was a 36-year-old Northridge resident charged with phoning in the bomb threat to the Foothill station. The man allegedly called using the 911 emergency line, which displayed his address.