EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Valley Firms Struggle to Resume Operations : Aftermath: With quake cleanup under way, Packard Bell’s plans to relocate out of state are put on hold.

Still shaking from aftershocks but with the cleanup from the first major quake well under way, businesses across the San Fernando Valley struggled to get back to business Thursday and put the worst behind them.

At Packard Bell’s six-building headquarters complex in Chatsworth, movers were busy loading files and equipment. For months the personal computer maker has been negotiating with several states about relocating its operations and 1,500 jobs, but the quake put those plans on hold.

Packard Bell said it was now moving its headquarters and part of its production to Westlake Village, where it will stay for at least a year before consolidating all of its operations under one roof, presumably somewhere else.

“This wasn’t our original plan,” said Mal Ransom, Packard Bell’s vice president of marketing. Ransom said the company had called back 350 workers so far, and most are expected to return next week.

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Moving plans will also be delayed for about 2,000 employees at the U.S. Postal Service’s mail-processing center in Van Nuys. The center, which sorts letters from the Valley area, was supposed to move to a new $100-million-plus complex in the Santa Clarita Valley this April.

But postal officials said that facility sustained heavy damage, including broken water pipes and cracked floors. Spokeswoman Terri Bouffiou said she had no idea when the move would be made.

“There has to be some explanation why there was so much damage there,” she said, adding that engineers have yet to inspect the facility.

Most other major employers in the Valley were wrapping up their cleanup work, but they were uncertain when their employees would be called back to work.

“The cleanup is going swiftly, but what we have to make sure is that we have tested all the electrical systems and water lines,” said Ian Campbell, a senior vice president at Great Western Financial Corp. On Thursday, only one of the 14 buildings in the company’s big complex in Chatsworth was open, and only 100 workers out of 3,000 were there.

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Working out of a trailer equipped with flashlights and walkie-talkies, Campbell said some employees were temporarily transferred to El Segundo, Los Angeles and elsewhere in the Southland where departments such as check-processing and customer services have been set up in temporary quarters.

All but five of the thrift’s 300 California branches were in business Thursday, he said. As for the 2,900 idle employees, he said they would get paid during their time off.

In Canoga Park, Rocketdyne said 750 people had been called back to work so far out of about 5,900. Jeff Charney, spokesman for the unit of Rockwell International, which makes rocket engines for NASA and commercial satellite launchers, said electric power came up Wednesday and cleanup crews were working round the clock.

Asked when the rest of the workers would return, he said, “It’s a gradual phase-in. We’re taking it one day at a time.” Charney said the company was busy setting up centers to help employees financially and to get through the shock of personal losses.

Among companies that reopened its headquarters Thursday was 20th Century Insurance Co. in Woodland Hills. For the last three days, the company took claims from policyholders in the parking lot where employees worked under canopies. By early Thursday, the insurer had received 5,000 homeowner and 700 automobile claims, said spokesman Ric Dinon.

“We are close to normal in our operations,” he said, only to quickly add, “close to normal under the circumstances.”

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It clearly was no ordinary work week. Top executives such as Jeff Ornstein, chief financial officer at Superior Industries, the Van Nuys wheel maker, came to work clad in jeans and sneakers, and with a flashlight. Like others, he spent most of this week picking up files and straightening out the office.

“The phone is up, the lights are on,” he said Wednesday. “Overall people are in good spirits.”

Almost all of the company’s 200 office workers were at hand by midweek, Ornstein said, and the company was making a limited supply of aluminum wheels Thursday. He said he hoped that production at Van Nuys would resume by the end of next week.

But most big employers in the Valley weren’t quite so sure when operations would be back in full swing. Glenn Hillin, spokesman for Hughes Missile Systems Co. in Canoga Park, said some workers would be called back on Monday. But he had no idea when all 1,100 workers would be back on the job.

Hillin said the quake, which significantly damaged two of the company’s buildings, would not affect the company’s plans to relocate to Tucson by the end of the year.

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Despite the gradual return of employees, workplaces remained tense. Aftershocks continued to rattle workers, and others tried to get through the days by sharing their experiences with a touch of humor.

“I find it a little difficult to concentrate,” admitted Keith Mordoff, spokesman for Lockheed in Calabasas, where more than half of the company’s 350 corporate employees were back by midweek. “People get frazzled” by the aftershocks, adding that during one of his phone conversations he told a caller, “I might have to finish this interview under my desk.”