Recovering From Earthquake: Now the Commuting Questions

There are two immediate priorities as Southern California tries to pick itself up from the Northridge earthquake.

We must get as much relief as possible, as rapidly as possible, to the people in need. Food, drinkable water and shelter must be provided to residents of those San Fernando Valley neighborhoods hardest hit.

REPAIRING THE TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE: And efforts to repair the region’s transportation system must begin immediately. Even those Angelenos who got through the awful shaking without much damage to their homes or businesses will be sorely tested in the months to come by all this damage:

-- The Santa Monica Freeway. Interstate 10 from Santa Monica to downtown is perhaps the busiest freeway in the nation. The worst damage is in the area where the freeway crosses over La Cienega Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.

-- The Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) and the Antelope Valley Freeway/California 14. Both were severely damaged where they intersect in the north San Fernando Valley. The collapse of Highway 14 will hamper commuter traffic from the Santa Clarita Valley, Palmdale and Lancaster. The collapse also has blocked Interstate 5, the main artery between Los Angeles and both the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley.

-- The Simi Valley Freeway/California 118. Bridges on this major commuter road between Ventura and Los Angeles counties also collapsed. That will slow traffic throughout the northern San Fernando Valley.

-- The San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) was closed at two points in the San Fernando Valley because the roadway is buckled and at its intersection with Route 118.

In a region so wedded to the automobile, this freeway damage could create commuter nightmares of monumental proportions. One alternative that commuters may be able to look to is rail service.

THE SAFETY VALVE OF THE NEW RAIL OPTIONS: Fortunately, last year the region’s new Metrolink system began to run regular commuter train service from both the Simi and Santa Clarita valleys, as well as suburbs to the east. Although there is concern that some of the tracks may have been damaged by Monday’s temblors, they can be repaired more quickly than a freeway can. Officials will want to focus on getting all rail lines leading into and out of the region open, and getting as many trains running as possible.

For all the damage this latest earthquake did to the region’s transportation system, there may be a sliver of silver lining in the cloud hanging over us all. Hard to envision just now, of course, but the truth is that if this experience gets enough people out of their autos and traveling to work by bus or rail, this quake may help put Los Angeles on its way to a more efficient, far less vulnerable 21st Century transit system. If people will put the extra effort into taking public transit, as they did in the 1984 Olympics, a real transportation nightmare may be avoided. Thus transit officials will have to respond with their own special effort.

THE TIMING WAS A GREAT BLESSING: We can thank our lucky stars that the quake occurred early in the morning of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, part of a three-day weekend for many people. Because most were asleep when the first major jolt occurred, injuries were held down; and because of both the holiday and the time of day, roads were not clogged with work-bound traffic. A fearsome toll might have occurred in rush-hour traffic on a workday.

All of this is a reminder of our vulnerability, even with the best-laid plans for earthquake preparedness. One seismologist said that quakes such as Monday’s basically are report cards on California’s preparedness for temblors as severe as the giant 1857 Tejon quake and San Francisco’s in 1906. His assessment was that readiness has improved since the 1971 Sylmar quake--but, alas, is still not what it might be.

NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT ELEVATED FREEWAYS: One giant gap in our preparedness is the overall safety of our freeways. A good question can be asked about having any elevated roads at all in earthquake zones, in the wake of the damage caused by 1989’s Loma Prieta quake and by Monday’s, in which some elevated freeway sections were damaged even after having been rebuilt following a previous earthquake.

The Northridge earthquake should accelerate efforts to improve the safety of freeways--just as the collapse of an Interstate bridge in Connecticut prompted a major highway review in that state in the 1980s. Is the Harbor Freeway double-decking project not now worth a long second look?

Beyond the policy questions related to preparedness, there is plenty of room for ordinary Southern Californians to take stock of readiness in their own homes and workplaces. With so many demands on emergency personnel, having such things as the proper equipment for power outages--flashlights, batteries, radios--and knowing how and when to turn off the gas and the like are crucial.

All of this is a test of the character of each of us. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, in sensibly urging people to stay off the roads Monday and to take care of their safety first, pointed out that the people of this region are resilient, that they have been through much before.

President Clinton’s quick response was welcome and reassuring. It’s also comforting to know that the Federal Emergency Management Agency seems to have improved its ability to respond to disasters in the nearly two years since the Los Angeles riots, in which the federal agency was widely criticized for failing to deliver. Los Angeles can do a lot for itself, but for a while at least we’re also going to need all the help we can get.