More Quake Victims Seek Aid : Simi Valley Residents Regain Water Service : Recovery: About 3,400 Ventura County people have sought government help. Rain is expected Sunday, which would force thousands from parks.

As the slow, frustrating process of earthquake recovery continued Friday, water service was restored to beleaguered Simi Valley and the number of Ventura County disaster victims seeking government aid rose to about 3,400.

The county’s principal water supplier also began to replenish its supplies of imported water for the first time since Monday’s earthquake after patching breaks in giant lines from the San Fernando Valley, the quake’s epicenter.

“All the people can take a shower again,” said Mike Sedell, assistant city manager in Simi Valley after service to 5,000 homes and businesses was restored.

A new round of aftershocks as strong as magnitude 4.6 also rolled through Southern California on Friday, as the region braced for a Sunday rainstorm that would force 14,500 displaced people out of parks where they have stayed all week.

If hundreds of Ventura County residents remain camped in their yards Saturday night rather than re-enter their quake-damaged homes or find other accommodations, they could also end up wet by Sunday morning.

“People are still pretty jumpy,” Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said. “It doesn’t take much of an aftershock to see that their adrenaline goes up. It’s hard to return to normal.”

In other developments:

* Regional transportation officials announced that Metrolink commuter rail service to downtown Los Angeles will be extended west to Camarillo next month. A county proposal to extend the run to Oxnard and Ventura is still pending.

* Jobless claims at the Simi Valley unemployment office nearly doubled to 800 this week as businesses closed by the earthquake began laying off workers.

* The county’s top prosecutor asked the Board of Supervisors and officials in 10 local cities to enact laws prohibiting price gouging during emergencies. Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said his office had received numerous complaints of huge price hikes for water, milk, bread, gasoline and plumbing supplies.

* Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros made good on his promise to deliver $738,000 in federal community development grants to Simi Valley. City officials said the money will provide shelter for quake victims and help repair city buildings, including City Hall, the police station and senior center.

* Owners of dozens of shattered stores in historic downtown Fillmore brought architects and engineers to their shops to decide whether it is worthwhile to rebuild. At least two--owners of the Masonic Building and the Fillmore Theater--immediately decided that it was not.

* The American Red Cross announced that it will open two emergency centers in Simi Valley and Fillmore this morning to provide counseling and emergency financial aid to quake victims.

* About 600 people remained in emergency shelters in Fillmore and Simi Valley Thursday night, and the American Red Cross expects the numbers to increase through the weekend with cooler weather and rain.

* Caltrans officials announced that follow-up inspections on all bridges and freeway overpasses countywide showed them to be safe.

* Despite looting at two Simi Valley schools, reported crime has remained below normal throughout the county since Monday’s disaster.

* Simi Valley City Manager Lin Koester waived fees for building permits and safety plan checks for repairs to quake-damaged buildings. The City Council is scheduled to confirm the emergency order Monday.

The promise of loans and grants for emergency housing and reconstruction created long lines for the second consecutive day at the newly opened Simi Valley disaster aid center. Far fewer victims showed up in Fillmore.

The snafus, fights and shouting matches that marked disaster aid efforts at the region’s 12 assistance centers outside the county were not obvious in Ventura County.

More than 600 applications had been processed by late Friday in this county. But about 2,800 earthquake victims left the centers here with only appointments to come back again--and some not until Feb. 3.

And one Simi Valley applicant was furious that President Clinton’s promises of immediate aid had not translated into a rental voucher or quick placement in hotel or apartment.

“This is not immediate,” fumed Addie Inzalaco, 53, who is staying with a daughter in Simi Valley because the mother’s Northridge home was destroyed. Inspectors will be unable to verify her claim for 10 days, she was told.

But many other applicants accepted the delays without complaint. Especially those seeking long-term loans said they understood that claims must be confirmed.

“They’ve really been helpful,” said Barbara Shrode, 52, who applied for a loan to rebuild block walls around her Simi Valley home. “You have to have proof (of damage). Anyone could say they lost their house.”

In a policy shift late Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that operating hours at application centers would be increased by three hours a day. Those centers now will be open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.

While efforts to aid earthquake victims moved forward, several local officials said Friday that inspectors are finding that many buildings with visible damage are structurally sound and can be repaired.

Nonetheless, officials said early estimates of $1 billion in damage countywide may still be accurate.

Preliminary surveys have found about 6,000 dwellings damaged countywide, including about 1,000 that have been declared uninhabitable at least temporarily. About 130 businesses, including 72 in Simi Valley and 50 in Fillmore, have been declared seriously damaged or of questionable safety after follow-up examinations.

Fillmore officials on Friday increased their total of moderate or severely damaged buildings from 413 to 509, as a dozen inspectors nearly completed detailed examination of the small city’s battered central district and aging east side.

“These are our totals out of the older areas,” said Dave Lussier, who is coordinating the inspection teams. “These were the tough ones. We should blow through the others and be done by tomorrow night.”

In Simi Valley, where three-fourths of the city has not yet been inspected, officials have found 500 to 600 uninhabitable mobile homes, 66 other houses with moderate to extensive damage, and 72 commercial and industrial buildings damaged enough to limit entry.

Sedell said inspections so far are not the best indication of damage in Simi Valley. Better indicators are that 3,000 residents and business owners whose reports of serious damage have not yet been checked, and the thousands of people who have gone to the city’s disaster aid center for help, he said.

“Those two things are better indicators than anything the government can come up with in numbers,” he said. “If you want to look at the human toll, that’s the way to look at it.”

The earthquake’s toll in human discomfort diminished substantially Friday when a 78-inch main line from the San Fernando Valley finally held water and 5,000 customers in eastern Simi Valley could again count on a steady supply.

Four days of around-the-clock repairs by crews from Calleguas Municipal Water District, the Southern California Water Co. and the city also repaired Ventura County’s second main water supply line.

That line began pumping water into Bard Lake, the east county’s principal drinking water reservoir, late Friday. The lake usually gives Calleguas’ 500,000 Ventura County customers, in cities as far west as Oxnard, a two-week reserve supply.

But its level had dropped by 25% this week, despite conservation efforts in Thousand Oaks and Camarillo plus Oxnard pumping its water exclusively from its own underground reserves, Calleguas planning administrator Eric Bergh said.

“We want to continue to stress conservation until we are sure our system is stabilized,” he said.

Simi Valley residents should continue to boil water for drinking and cooking for several days because of residual impurities in the lines, he said.

In another move to make the post-quake lives of county residents more comfortable, the regional rail transportation authority Friday approved a Ventura County Transportation Commission request to extend daily commuter service to Camarillo. That will allow commuters to avoid the Los Angeles County freeways where traffic backups are expected for months as freeways are reconstructed.

Ginger Gherardi, commission executive director, said the new station will open in February. County officials also are hoping to use additional federal earthquake relief money to open Metrolink stations in Oxnard and Ventura.

“The station in Camarillo is part of our definite plan,” Gherardi said. “Beyond that I really can’t say what we’ll be able to do.”

Beginning at 9 a.m. today, the county chapter of the American Red Cross expects to open two service centers that will offer emergency aid vouchers to pay for groceries, medicine, new clothing, emergency home repairs, tools or other household items, said Brian Bolton, executive director of the Ventura County chapter.

Service center hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, Bolton said. The centers are located at the Sycamore Drive Community Center, 1692 Sycamore Drive, in Simi Valley, and at the Fillmore Senior Center, 533 Santa Clara St.

“We receive no government funding for this,” Bolton said. “It is all donated dollars. We are here to assure that no one falls through the cracks.”