Quake Victims Line Up for Aid : Ventura County Starts Big Job of Rebuilding : Disaster: Gov. Pete Wilson consoles area residents. Relief offices open in Simi Valley and Fillmore. The overall death toll climbs to 51.

Disaster relief offices opened in Simi Valley and Fillmore on Thursday, and hundreds of earthquake victims began applying for tens of millions of dollars in government aid as Ventura County started to rebuild from its most costly disaster in history.

Staggering from $1 billion in damage countywide, earthquake victims showed up at daybreak for a 1 p.m. opening of the Simi Valley center to apply for loans and grants to repair or replace crumpled homes and businesses.

“We’ve been waiting for this,” said Dave Starr, owner of a three-story Victorian home near collapse in Fillmore. “We want to start (rebuilding) right away.”

The two Ventura County disaster aid centers were among 11 opened Thursday within 30 miles of the epicenter of Monday’s disastrous 6.6-magnitude Northridge earthquake.

The overall death toll climbed to 51 Thursday when a helicopter carrying two people checking Tejon Pass oil pipelines crashed. The pilot was not identified, but the passenger was engineer Michael A. Scully, 33, of Bakersfield, son of Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully.

As damage estimates stabilized at perhaps $30 billion across Southern California, Gov. Pete Wilson toured hard-hit areas, pledging an array of state aid. In Simi Valley, he comforted earthquake victims as they waited to apply for state and federal assistance.

“I appreciate the grit and courage and resiliency that you folks have shown in what is really terrible suffering,” Wilson said to quake victim Jim Coyle, whose Simi Valley house has cracked walls and a toppled chimney.

As hundreds of victims watched from a long, slow-moving line at the Simi Valley disaster center, Wilson said the state has arranged for private financial institutions to make “bridge loans” until federal businesses loans come through in several weeks.

“Governor, they seem like they all forgot us in Simi Valley, what about Simi Valley?” implored one middle-aged woman near tears. The governor said Simi Valley had not been forgotten and its disaster center was the first to be opened in the region.

Because of a 1 p.m. opening of the disaster offices and a crush of waiting victims in Simi Valley and Fillmore, most of the 1,300 quake victims were given future appointments instead of personal assistance.

“We didn’t get any questions answered, all we got were a bunch of forms,” said Jack Starnes of Fillmore.

Payments to earthquake victims could come within days for emergency housing, cleanup and repair, but housing and business loans will take weeks or months to process, said Kati Corsaut of the state Office of Emergency Services.

Hundreds of Simi Valley-area victims have appointments through next Monday, and about 100 more were scheduled for interviews in Fillmore through the weekend.

About 6,000 dwellings were damaged countywide, including more than 1,000 houses and mobile homes that have been declared uninhabitable at least temporarily. About 225 businesses, including 200 in Simi Valley, have sustained moderate to extensive damage, officials have estimated. But so far only 12 Simi Valley businesses have been declared too dangerous to enter.

*

As building inspectors surveyed the damage Thursday, there were hopeful signs. Several major east county buildings were found to be far less damaged than first thought.

The East County Courthouse and county library in Simi Valley are expected to reopen next week, the Moorpark College library and gymnasium suffered no structural damage, and all 27 Simi Valley schools may be back in session by the middle of next week, officials said. The Thousand Oaks library is also structurally sound despite a fallen roof.

“With everything in disarray, everything looks worse than it may be,” said Wendy Haddock, assistant director of county emergency services in the Sheriff’s Department.

In other developments:

* Simi Valley officials continued to struggle to patch two major water lines that broke during Wednesday’s strong aftershocks and to restore service to 5,000 east end homes that still cannot count on running water.

* Public school administrators estimated earthquake damage at $5 million in Simi Valley, $400,000 in Thousand Oaks and $175,000 in Fillmore’s small district. Fillmore schools reopened but fewer than half the students returned to class.

Thousand Oaks officials reported that city suffered more damage than was immediately apparent, especially in the exclusive 188-house Chanteclair tract. Damage to city property was estimated at $1 million.

* About 575 people were still in emergency shelters in Fillmore and Simi Valley Wednesday night, up from 485 the night before.

* The county assessor and tax collector said property owners with damage greater than $5,000 could apply for reassessments and delay their April tax payments.

* Ridership on the Metrolink train service to Los Angeles fell below pre-quake levels, and officials speculated that commuters were taking the week off to clean up.

* Caltech seismologists said Wednesday’s two 5-magnitude aftershocks did not take place on the same fault as the Northridge quake, but are part of a separate, continuing migration of aftershocks toward Ventura County.

* Forecasters said the county should brace for weekend rain that promises to make a bad situation worse by leaving ruptured properties exposed to water damage.

The amount of disaster aid Ventura County quake victims may eventually receive is uncertain.

But a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman said the county will get a substantial part of the $1-billion federal emergency fund being made available for the region’s earthquake relief.

“You’re certainly safe in saying that tens of millions will be going to Ventura County,” said FEMA’s Brett Hansard. “At this point, millions don’t even mean anything.”

Federal housing officials, who joined state and federal emergency workers at the disaster centers, said $4 million is already available to Ventura County residents for emergency housing and the rehabilitation of damaged dwellings.

“For the temporary housing, they have to verify that people are truly victims of the disaster,” said Corsaut of state emergency services. “But they’ll try to do that within days.”

*

Aid eligibility is determined case by case, officials said. Programs cover earthquake losses to homes, personal property and businesses not covered by insurance or other aid programs.

To avoid crowding in the first days, Hansard suggested use of the agency’s tele-registration number, 800-462-9029. “At some point they’re strongly encouraged to go in to the application center in person,” he said.

“It’s not first come, first served,” he said. “Anybody who qualifies for FEMA assistance is going to get it.”

In addition to opening the two aid centers, Thursday brought other signs of recovery.

“You know, I have a trickle of water today and I can’t tell you how good it feels,” said county Supervisor Vicky Howard, a resident of Simi Valley’s hard-hit east end. That water was available because repair crews worked all night to patch leaks in main lines.

Simi Valley officials said about 5,000 customers remained without water Thursday evening because of new breaks and leaks discovered as water pressure increased.

Residents without water included some who were cut off most of the time since the quake and others who had not lost service until early Thursday. City Manager Lin Koester said workers hope to have water restored throughout the city by early today.

All Simi Valley residents were advised to boil their water because of the possibility of impurities entering the system. Hundreds lined up for drinking water at distribution points in the city.

Contrary to expectations, Metrolink ridership was down on the first day that the commuter rail service resumed between Moorpark and Simi Valley and downtown Los Angeles.

*

Officials speculated that many residents are staying home to clean up or may not realize that service has resumed.

After saying earlier that they may extend Metrolink as far west as Oxnard, county Transportation Commission officials said they will ask FEMA for money to extend train service to Ventura for up to a year while Los Angeles County freeways are repaired. A decision on the extension is expected next week.

Meanwhile, the county was looking to the skies and hoping that a weekend storm brings only light rain.

Forecasters predicted at least half an inch of rain from Saturday evening until Sunday afternoon along coastal areas, and twice as much in the mountains.

But Haddock of county emergency services said the cities of Simi Valley and Fillmore are preparing for the worst.

Both cities are distributing information on how to use sandbags to divert runoff and landslides and the availability of plastic sheeting to cover houses and businesses, she said.