Thousands Line Up for Relief : FEMA Centers Chaotic, Some Crowds Unruly : Disaster: Officials press effort to provide shelter as 14,000 are still in parks. Son of Dodgers announcer Vin Scully dies in crash of helicopter doing quake inspection.

Thousands of desperate earthquake victims overwhelmed 11 newly opened federal disaster relief centers Thursday and, as harried officials tried unsuccessfully to cope with the crush, the scope of damage broadened and the death toll hit 51.

Crowds started lining up 15 hours early, and chaos reigned as people angrily jockeyed for position when the doors opened. Gov. Pete Wilson and two federal Cabinet officials, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, found themselves in the middle of a surging crowd at the Winnetka Community Center, near the epicenter of Monday’s devastating 6.6 magnitude quake.

Those who waited illustrated the indiscriminate nature of the quake’s fury: Young and old, rich and poor, people of all races stood together looking for hope. “This is not the last resort. This is the only resort,” said Katriena McCord of Chatsworth, among the first in line when the center opened.

At the Federal Emergency Management Agency center in Southwest Los Angeles, where 1,000 people sought aid, a man grabbed appointment slips from a police officer and walked down the line, trying to sell them for $5 apiece.

In other developments:

* Wilson, in Los Angeles for the fourth straight day, offered an array of state help, including enough National Guard tents to house 6,000 of the newly homeless. One disheveled woman grabbed the governor at the Winnetka center and began to weep.

* City officials reported progress in their efforts to find shelter for the displaced. The number of people sleeping in parks dropped to about 14,000, from a high of about 20,000, while the number sleeping in 29 American Red Cross shelters from the Santa Clarita Valley to the Westside grew to more than 6,000. Red Cross spokeswoman Barbara Wilks said more shelters could be opened to meet the demand. “If it rains, we will have to open more shelters,” she said.

* Bilingual and multi-agency teams organized by the city of Los Angeles, using lessons learned six years ago after the Whittier quake, fanned out Thursday evening to try to persuade those still living under the stars to move inside as the weather turned cold and the prospect of rain loomed for the weekend.

* Two people, including the son of Dodgers announcer Vin Scully, died in the crash of a helicopter doing a post-quake pipeline inspection.

* The injury toll also mounted: In a bizarre accident, an apparently confused motorist was hurt when he drove his van off the end of a quake-abbreviated overpass on the Golden State Freeway and plunged 30 feet onto a bulldozer.

In Aftermath, Fresh Tragedy

Michael A. Scully, 33, of Bakersfield, and a 52-year-old helicopter pilot died about 9:25 a.m. after their craft apparently hit power lines during an inspection of an oil pipeline in the Tejon Pass.

The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the cause of the crash, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Carol Long said. The pipeline was operated by an Arco subsidiary.

Arco spokesman Albert Greenstein said the line had been shut down after the quake as a precautionary measure after a nearby line ruptured. That line spilled about 3,000 barrels of crude oil into the Santa Clara River.

Scully was an employee of Four Corners Pipe Line Co., a subsidiary of Arco. The pilot, whose name was not available, worked for Kern Helicopters

“It’s terribly tragic,” Greenstein said. “It was just the routine process of the start-up of a pipeline. Mike was somebody a lot of us knew. He was a very popular guy here.”

Later in the day, as 30 demolition workers watched, a van drove off the end of the quake-damaged ramp that once connected the Antelope Valley and Golden State freeways.

Using the jaws of life, Los Angeles County firefighters managed to extricate Antoine Moufarrege, 43, of Sun Valley, from the wreckage. He said, almost disbelieving, “I’m alive, I’m alive.”

Maria E. Castro, who was working at a catering truck nearby, said Moufarrege had dropped her off under the sheared ramp to provide lunch for the workers. “He must’ve gotten lost,” she said.

Moufarrege was reported to be in fair condition with minor injuries at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita.

Anger Among Help-Seekers

In a disaster center in the Crenshaw district, an area where quake damage had generated little attention, 1,000 people showed up looking for help, catching relief workers unprepared.

“We’re hurting here too,” said Lula Washington, whose West Adams Boulevard contemporary dance theater is located in a building where bricks fell and the roof shifted.

Among those trying to calm residents was City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas who, despite a police bullhorn, had his comments drowned out by angry talk from those who had little patience.

“Clearly, they (FEMA officials) were not adequately prepared for the crush,” Ridley-Thomas said. “They underestimated the extent of the crisis in this part of the city.”

Richard Andrews, head of the state Office of Emergency Services, said up to six more centers would be set up by Saturday. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) said federal officials have promised to fly 100 more FEMA workers here by today. Berman said that, despite warnings by area lawmakers to President Clinton and other top aides, the federal officials had seriously underestimated how many people would come forward seeking assistance.

Once inside the centers, aid applicants could get housing vouchers, state grants of up to $12,800 to help defray expenses and assistance in dealing with private insurance companies.

But only a few hundred were able to get appointments with aid agencies. Even the lucky ones will have to wait as long as a week for vouchers and checks to arrive in the mail.

Thousands more were given appointments for another day or told to call a toll-free information number--(800) 462-9029.

“It’s so much easier to call that number than to spend your whole day standing in lines,” said Francis Alvarez, manager of the disaster assistance center at the Sylmar Recreation Center.

A spokeswoman said 600 operators are handling 3,000 calls an hour to the line.

Shoving and shouting marked the opening of the Santa Monica Disaster Application Center as 400 applicants vied for position. Several people rushed the doors, cutting ahead of others who had waited up to five hours.

“Go to the back of the line!” yelled Jody Johnson, who was fifth in line. Police tried to restore order but the crush continued. Two men shouted at one another and almost came to blows.

Johnson had come to the center for financial help. She had been displaced from a third-floor apartment in the Sea Castle building that rented for $450 a month, utilities included, and had been staying in a hotel, spending credit card cash advances. But money was running out fast.

“I have the clothes on my back,” she said. “I have my cat. My boyfriend and I have a community toothbrush.

“I’ve been calling about apartments,” she said, “but they want a $3,000 finders fee. Who has that kind of money?”

The wait continued late into the evening for many. At 9 p.m., people were still standing in line at the Winnetka center--not for service but for appointments to come back later to begin the paperwork process. Even by mid-afternoon, appointments had been booked into the first week in February.

Aftershocks Continue

More than three days after the quake, aftershocks continued to rock the area and officials worried about the danger posed by seriously damaged structures.

A Santa Clarita Valley sewage treatment plant suffered $1 million in damage in Monday’s quake and, as a result, is releasing waste that does not meet standards into the Santa Clara River.

County sanitation officials, however, say they are surprised and relieved that the damage is not far worse. No major sewage spills occurred and inspections so far have turned up no broken pipelines.

“The treatment plant is operating at 70% of where we want it to be. It’s limping along,” said Joe Haworth, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts.

Police and National Guard troops barricaded a six-story building in Reseda that lost a concrete wall during the quake, while St. Johns Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica and UCLA’s Royce Hall were evacuated because of structural damage.

The office building in the 18000 block of Sherman Way was barricaded because of fears that the structure would collapse. Traffic was blocked on the westbound side of Sherman Way and all along Lindley Avenue adjacent to the precarious structure. Although authorities believe it to be salvageable, they said it posed a danger to passing motorists.

Police said they expect traffic snarls to continue on nearby streets as motorists try to get a glimpse of the damaged buildings across the city.

“There’s plenty of looky-loos trying to see buildings all over, and as building inspectors continue to inspect and condemn some buildings, there will be a lot of that,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Gene Leary.

Officials said it is up to the owner of a quake-damaged building to decide what to do about repairs.

“If he just walks away, we’ll cite him. It’s an imminent hazard to the street,” said Bob Harder, manager of the Van Nuys office of Los Angeles’ Department of Building and Safety.

In West Los Angeles, tenants of a collapsing office building at Olympic Boulevard and Barrington Avenue tried to get in to remove their files, but police and National Guard troops turned them away.

“It’s going to be major devastation,” said Kathleen Stambaugh, a periodontist who operates a dental practice in the building with her husband, Roger.

The pace of evacuations accelerated Thursday in Santa Monica, where fire officials estimated damage at $88 million; with 400 buildings yet to be inspected, the damage toll could rise to $200 million.

St. Johns, the biggest hospital in Santa Monica, was closed and all 191 patients were moved out Thursday afternoon as a state inspection found it to be unsafe. Hospital spokesman Gary Miereanu said the facility might be closed for as long as three months.

The scene at the 501-bed hospital was harried but under control during the evacuation. Some staffers stacked surgical equipment, furniture and files in the grassy courtyard as others called taxis for patients being sent home early. A line of ambulances whisked sicker patients to hospitals as far away as Long Beach.

Still in hospital pajamas, Norman Jonas, 68, waited in a wheelchair, clutching a foam pad he will sleep on at home. Jonas had expected to be in the hospital for four or five more days for treatment of blood clots.

“I think they’re making a wise decision,” Jonas said. “Obviously if the building isn’t safe, I’m happy to be going home.”

Santa Monica officials said 500 to 600 people have been removed from city hospitals and nursing homes since Monday’s quake.

Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center evacuated a damaged wing Monday, turning an auditorium into a makeshift emergency room and temporarily halting non-emergency admissions.

By Thursday, residents were forced to evacuate one of the city’s largest apartment buildings, a 16-story tower overlooking Palisades Park. The 117-unit Champagne Towers was judged unsafe Wednesday.

At UCLA, students scheduled for classes at Royce Hall were relocated to other buildings. Royce Hall is one of the four original buildings on the Westwood campus and a structure that has been featured as a college backdrop in dozens of movies.

Allen Solomon, UCLA’s assistant vice chancellor for facilities management, said the quake and its aftershocks had taken a toll on the building’s distinctive twin towers, prompting officials to cordon off the structure to keep students and others away in case the spires tumbled.

The Breaking Point

The sense of community that had been gallantly displayed since catastrophe struck began to deteriorate as nerves frayed and tempers gave way.

“Some of the bonding, sense of purpose and the need to do things together evaporates” a few days after such major disasters, said Bruce Steinberg, a Tarzana psychiatrist whose office was deluged with requests by patients seeking to reschedule missed appointments.

People longed for the routine: safe homes, mail delivery, stores that are open and nearby, regular garbage pickup and intact freeways. And in much of the quake-damaged area, residents got at least some of that back. Most electricity and gas has been restored, regular mail deliveries are to resume today and garbage collection is only a day or so behind.

But at some crowded emergency shelters, people chafed under the irritations of rambunctious kids, fitful sleep and, in at least one case, a brief scare about disease.

“The more people come, the more frustrating it gets,” said musician Derek Brown, hunkered down in the Hollywood High School gym among 400 disaster refugees. Rows of cots covered most of the gym floor, and sound carried easily. Brown’s wife, Kathy, said with young children “crying all night, people are not getting much sleep.”

Lisa Castillo, a mother of four driven from a damaged apartment, said tensions have been escalating over small things--name calling, people taking too much bottled water, middle-of-the-night arguments that wake up neighbors. “You cannot get too close to some people or they get mad,” she said, adding that an undercurrent of stress has settled in between some Latinos and African Americans. “We are divided.”

Enrique Santilla, 23, whose apartment ceiling collapsed in the quake, was scolded by others when he asked a boy who had been “running all day” to please play outside.

Compounding troubles, an 11-year-old boy broke out with chicken pox, and a Red Cross volunteer nurse discovered that one man who spent a day at the shelter was being treated for tuberculosis. The nurses at the shelter said they did not think either illness was at a stage that posed a risk of infection for others. And both the child and the man had been isolated from the general shelter population, they said.

But anxiety ruled the day at that shelter and elsewhere as people tried to get on with their lives.

Santa Clarita resident John Demos, who works in Burbank, spent two hours (instead of 45 minutes) driving to work Thursday morning via the car-jammed Sierra Highway. In the afternoon, when he decided to go by the FEMA disaster relief center in Sylmar to ask about a loan to repair his quake-damaged home, he got lost. The address the agency had publicized, he said, turned out to be “in the middle of the Tujunga Wash.”

Then, when he did arrive, “there’s 10,000 people out there waiting in line.”

“I don’t know,” he said, “it just all got to me today.”

Government Steps In

In an all-out drive to get quake victims to seek shelter before this weekend’s expected rains, city officials assembled eight “reassurance teams,” which fanned out into eight Valley parks Thursday night. The six-person teams--consisting of building inspectors, psychologists and housing department officials, among others--began to collect the addresses of park dwellers so their buildings will get priority for inspections.

There is a 30% to 40% chance of light showers in the Los Angeles area late Saturday and early Sunday, said Bruce Thoren, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc. He said skies are expected to clear by late Sunday, with no additional threat of rain until the end of next week.

The teams will also refer park residents to Red Cross shelters, federal assistance centers and help them find new apartments if their homes are no longer habitable. Teams used lists compiled by the Building and Safety Department of inspected locations to check if an individual’s home had been inspected and was considered safe. If it was, they urged them to return home.

“If we can’t get them back into their homes, we have to get them into the shelters before the rains begin,” said Raymond Allen, assistant general manager of the city’s Personnel Department. He conceded that it might take three weeks or more to persuade people to leave the parks for shelter.

Gov. Wilson hinted that he might favor a proposal for a $2-billion bond issue to raise money for rebuilding. He said it is still too soon to decide whether the state will need more money, or will be able to get by on aid from the federal government.

But he said he prefers a bond issue to a tax increase if more money is needed.

“At a time when Californians are attempting to recover from a recession, we don’t need additional tax burdens,” Wilson told reporters.

The governor also unveiled two programs to help businesses rebuild more quickly and issued an emergency order easing labor laws to make it easier for companies to place workers on flexible work schedules.

Richard Lee Colvin contributed to this story.