Public Jitters, Curiosity About Quakes Prompt Extension of Temblor Hot Line : Readiness: Service proves effective at controlling rumors and calming fears. Officials consider making it permanent.

There are the dog believers. The body bag adherents. The homemade seismograph watchers.

They are the ones who call the state’s earthquake safety hot line with theories on why the Big One is coming: Their dog is acting funny, they heard a rumor that the state ordered 10,000 body bags, or their suspended string on a living room brick is swaying.

It was not supposed to be this way--the earthquake hot line office originally was set up as a temporary place to provide safety information and brochures. But 6,000 calls later--about 67 calls daily since opening day, Aug. 5--the hot line has turned into an operation that people turn to for everything from inspiration to rumor control (The body bag rumor is false.)

“It’s like calling dial-a-prayer,” joked Stef Donev, the hot line’s public information officer.

State officials are so pleased with the unexpected response that they have extended the hot line’s operation through mid-November and are considering plans to make it a permanent service. The hot line was supposed to close in October.

The toll-free number is the only one of its kind in the country, said Tom Mullins, a spokesman for the state’s Office of Emergency Services. It is run by the office and several other state and local agencies. After the June 28 quakes at Big Bear and Landers, the consortium came up with the idea of a hot line to answer the surge of calls from a jittery public. The hot line, based in the Federal Emergency Management Agency Pasadena offices, costs the consortium about $13,400 a month.

On Oct. 21, 500 calls came in--the most since opening day’s record 695--after geologists predicted that there was a fairly good chance of an earthquake hitting the Central California town of Parkfield. During the 72-hour seismic alert, state officials kept the hot line open three hours overtime and recruited four Spanish-speaking FEMA employees as well as public information officers to answer the phones.

The hot line is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. The phone number is (800) 286-SAFE.

On a recent afternoon, the hot line phone rang about every 10 minutes. The office has a temporary feel, with mismatched chairs, boxes on the floor and memos stuck on the walls with pushpins. There is a 5-by-3-foot seismic map on the wall, and a rectangular table cluttered with resource guides, computers and telephones.

Six of the eight operators have no scientific background and got their training on the job. They take the phone calls that ask for brochures, basic information or reassurance. The other two operators are geophysicists, who mostly handle calls from science whizzes who are interested in such questions as degrees of liquefaction in a big quake.

“That’s the part I don’t understand,” geophysicist Sandra Steacy is saying on the phone, trying to answer a caller’s question, “the pounds-per-square-foot lateral load bit.” The calls are not always so complex. But the hot line has a following of regular callers, whom operators affectionately call “trackies,” for those who follow earthquakes as a hobby the way “Trekkies” follow “Star Trek.” These are those who ask for operators by name and track earthquakes on maps at home. A couple have built crude versions of seismographs. One 10-year-old boy who wants to be a seismologist calls every day, asking for the magnitude and location of the latest earthquakes.

“It’s sort of the new game, tracking earthquakes,” Steacy said.

The number and nature of calls have taken state officials by surprise.

“The initial concept was that people would call, and we would send them a pamphlet,” Donev said.

But people started calling with questions that indicate earthquake fears are permeating deep within the psyche of some California residents.

“It’s uniquely Californian,” Steacy said.

Questions include: Should I move? (Operators do not give a specific answer but advise residents to be prepared.) Will my house sink in an earthquake? (Probably not; that depends on the strength of the soil underneath and other factors.) Is the movie “Earthquake” realistic? (That movie depicts a magnitude 9.9 earthquake; geologists say the maximum possible magnitude of an earthquake on the San Andreas Fault is 8.3.)

These are not answers that people usually can get from the media or an earthquake textbook, Steacy said.

“What really helps people is getting information and a sense of control,” she said.

Sometimes, said hot line operator Valerie Shane, it just helps when callers can hear someone talk about earthquake preparedness in a calm, logical way.

“I’m finding I’m having to be a counselor, more of a psychological counselor,” she said.