Aftershocks Add to Fear and Damage : Quakes: New injuries occur in area rattled Sunday by twin temblors. Nerves begin to wear thin, and efforts to restore water are hindered.

By ASHLEY DUNN and JENIFER WARREN

June 30, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. —

The earth continued to churn beneath the Southern California desert on Monday, collapsing a commercial building, hindering repairs to disabled water systems and stoking the fears of people whose lives were jerked askew by the twin shakers that struck a day earlier.

Hoping that Monday would bring relief from the terrifying tremors, desert dwellers instead were jolted by four big aftershocks that caused three dozen injuries, sparked two fires and prompted some rattled residents to plan extended vacations.

“I’m thinking of taking the Amtrak and going home to Mama for awhile,” said Darlene Puluti of Joshua Tree, a recent New Hampshire transplant who was among 600 people who ate free meals and sought consolation in emergency shelters Monday.

Scientists, meanwhile, continued to puzzle over the extraordinary earthquake sequence but disagreed over whether it portends a Big One on the notorious San Andreas Fault. They still agreed, however, that there is a 50-50 chance that an aftershock of at least 6.0 will occur this week.

Adding to the seismological intrigue, an unrelated 3.9-magnitude earthquake centered near the Rose Bowl in Pasadena struck just before 4 p.m. Monday.

About 13 hours earlier, a 5.6-magnitude temblor rolled across the Nevada desert, jostling casinos and hotel guests in Las Vegas. No injuries were reported, but that shaker, said to be unconnected to those in California, sparked new criticism of a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, located just 20 miles from the epicenter.

In the high desert of San Bernardino County, the biggest worry on Monday remained water--and the searing desert heat. More pipes were broken by the day’s fiercest aftershocks--which struck in the morning and ranged from magnitude 4.9 to 5.4--and about 5,200 households were still without water at nightfall.

“The situation today is a lot worse than we thought it was,” said Roger Duran, president of the Hi-Desert Water District.

Duran said repairs to 100 leaks in his system, which serves 4,000 homes in Yucca Valley, could take several days. The company that supplies the remote town of Landers expected its 1,200 customers could be without water for a week. Thousands of people who had water were instructed to boil it because of fears of contamination.

Sweltering in the summer temperatures, hundreds of residents lined up to fill plastic jugs from public taps and tanker trucks brought in by fire departments, the U.S. Marine Corps and private companies. Others swarmed damaged stores seeking bottled water, and the Red Cross deployed volunteers to make deliveries of water and food to the elderly and infirm.

“You do what you have to do,” building supply salesman Joe Selva said as he filled five-gallon jugs from a water district tap in Yucca Valley. “I keep asking myself, ‘What would a Bedouin do in a situation like this?’ I’m eating sandwiches, salads--stuff you can cook really easy and not use a lot of water.”

In Landers, Ray Gilham, owner of CG Domestic Water Delivery, skipped his regular route Monday to deliver emergency supplies to residents.

“You wouldn’t believe this day,” said a weary Gilham, whose truck holds 2,000 gallons of water. In the previous 24 hours, he said, he filled the tank six times at a fire hydrant at the Yucca Valley Airport.

Juan Jimenez and his son, Homer, gratefully siphoned 50 gallons of water from Gilham for cooking and cleaning. “Out in the desert without water?” Homer Jimenez said when asked about his predicament. “Die.”

Whether homeless or merely unnerved by the scores of aftershocks, hundreds of people planned to spend a second night in shelters or camping in parks, front yards and vehicles. Red Cross shelters distributed food, diapers, toiletries and other essentials to victims, and they offered cots, cribs and playpens to those who wished to bed down. Outside one shelter in Yucca Mesa, victims got a lift from a fiddler who played lively tunes beside a water truck.

As residents discussed their plight, many displayed remarkable pluck and a can-do spirit in coping with the quakes and confronting the future.

“You’ve got to go on living,” declared Evelyn Keeser, 76, who runs Yucca Valley’s High Desert Inn. “When it’s your time to go, it’s your time--no matter where you are.”

Others, however, had clearly lost their composure after the powerful aftershocks, some of which were felt as far away as Arizona. In poignant scenes throughout the stricken areas, children whimpered and anxious parents hunted for ways to explain the constant rumbling.

“It’s like being in the war again,” said Joyce Szabatura, 59, comparing the jolting to shelling she endured in Great Britain in World War II.

Szabatura and her husband, Joseph, slept on a mattress in the bed of their pickup truck Sunday night. Weeping quietly over a breakfast of eggs and French toast at a shelter in Yucca Mesa on Monday morning, she said, “‘My husband ate, but I can’t eat. I just can’t. . . . It’s my nerves. I just can’t swallow anything.”

In Big Bear, Monday’s aftershocks caused no new structural damage. But the psychic trauma finally got to Michael Johnson and Cobi Yandelle.

“I ain’t been this scared since I was a kid,” said Johnson, a martial arts instructor who stands an imposing 6 feet, 6 inches. “I never jump, I never panic in an earthquake. But now I do, because these tremors keep coming back.”

After a restless Sunday night sleep interrupted by aftershocks, the couple decided they had had enough. After visiting with relatives in Long Beach and Ohio, they plan to move to Colorado.

“It’s got mountains too,” Johnson said as the couple washed dishes and briskly tidied up their cabin, preparing to leave. “I’m never gonna forget this.”

Other quake-related developments Monday:

* Eight people suffered respiratory problems after inhaling gas vapors from a City of Industry plant whose equipment malfunctioned as a result of a quake-triggered power failure on Sunday.

Gases escaping from Packaging Corp. of America, which makes products such as foam cups, formed a low cloud for two to three blocks about 11 a.m. No one at the plant was affected, but eight workers at another business were exposed to the gas, ethyl benzene, a solvent. Three were treated at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina.

Seventy-five other employees from a total of three businesses were evacuated for about 90 minutes until fire crews finished their work.

* Two highways remained closed because of quake-related damage--California 38 in the San Bernardino Mountains and California 247, the main road that passes Landers. Both could be closed until Friday.

* Southern California Edison officials said 266 customers--most of them in the high desert--remained without power through Monday evening. All service should be restored by today, the utility said.

* As residents began to hunt for financial help with home repairs, state officials said a public quake insurance fund would cover up to $14,000 in structural damage for homeowners. The fund, begun after the Loma Prieta quake in October, 1989, covers damages not met by private insurance.

* In Washington, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), who represents the areas hardest hit by the two earthquakes, asked President Bush to declare San Bernardino County a federal disaster area--a move that would free up more aid.

As scientists sought to unravel the seismic details surrounding the quake sequence, officials continued their tally of damages. The human toll remained remarkably low, attributed to tougher building codes, the timing of Sunday’s 7.4-magnitude quake--just before dawn--and its location in a sparsely populated area.

“If you put this epicenter in the middle of Los Angeles, you’d see a lot of damage and a significant number of deaths,” said John Hall, associate professor of civil engineering at the California Institute of Technology.

Instead, Joseph Bishop, 3 1/2, who was crushed by falling fireplace bricks, was the lone fatality. Joseph, of Newbury Port, Mass., was visiting Yucca Valley with his parents, who were attending a high school reunion. The injury total rose to about 385 with the new aftershocks.

Property losses were estimated at $16.3 million for San Bernardino County and $81,000 for Riverside County. Those figures were expected to rise as inspections continue. In San Bernardino County, 20 homes and 10 businesses were destroyed, and another 1,100 homes and 33 businesses were damaged.

In Landers, more than 150 structures were considered uninhabitable. In Big Bear, city officials conducted a door-to-door inspection Monday and were disappointed to find considerably more damage than was initially detected. Although the city appeared normal to the casual observer, fluttering yellow tape was a signal that many buildings had substantial structural damage.

“It seems like in some areas there are whole rows of houses that have lost their chimneys,” said Kate Earley, assistant to the city manager. “I would consider the damage extensive.”

Nonetheless, the forested city was eagerly preparing for the highlight of its busy summer season--Fourth of July weekend.

“Life has to get on,” said Hans Bandows, mayor of Big Bear Lake. “Everybody is working hard to get ready. There should be no problems for the weekend.”

Times staff writers Gebe Martinez and Richard Simon contributed to this story.

STAYING WHERE THEY ARE: Quakes or no quakes, many in desert don’t intend to move. A3