EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Volunteers From Seattle and Texas Pitch In for Santa Clarita : Relief: Workers serve meals to Santa Clarita’s homeless quake victims. Metrolink’s parking lot is expanded. And the damage toll grows.

To witness Santa Clarita bouncing back Saturday from last week’s earthquake, you just had to stop by a few parking lots.

Firing up huge kettles, relief workers from Texas were cooking ravioli for homeless quake victims in a K mart parking lot on Valencia Boulevard.

A few miles away, city workers were compiling new damage reports from inside tents in a parking lot beside a quake-battered City Hall.

In a parking lot at the local sheriff’s station, physicians and medical aides from Seattle were setting up an emergency treatment center for those injured or displaced by the quake.

Finally, a paving crew was creating more parking spaces at the city’s jammed Metrolink lot to encourage local commuters to use the train instead of the clogged highways near Santa Clarita.

Despite the widespread moves toward recovery, the damage totals continue to be grim.

At a midday briefing, Santa Clarita officials said 1,010 private buildings and 528 public structures had been damaged by Monday’s earthquake, bringing the toll to $127.8 million within the city limits alone. Santa Clarita inspectors had examined more than 1,000 buildings as of 11 a.m. Saturday. Forty-six structures--21 homes, 18 businesses, six apartments and one church-- were ruled uninhabitable.

Officials also marked 76 buildings for limited entry, allowing residents to remove their belongings. They included 51 homes, 11 apartments, 13 businesses and one church.

They also warned that the picture could grow grimmer.

“We think this number will continue to grow as we get more information,” said City Manager George Caravalho.

He said the city’s figure did not include damage to three local libraries operated by the county.

As city leaders reviewed the physical damage, relief workers sought to feed those who had been forced out of their houses by the quake and others who were simply afraid to return home.

Working out of a bustling parking lot behind a K mart store, local Red Cross volunteers joined a Baptist church men’s group from Texas collecting supplies and preparing meals for quake victims.

Donated goods included canned food, cleaning supplies and other necessities. “We’ve gotten almost a warehouse full of diapers donated by one firm,” said John Anson, an assistant Red Cross supervisor.

Members of the Saugus High School football and basketball teams helped unload donations and distribute them to local shelters. The Red Cross served meals at Saugus and Canyon high schools, Newhall Park Center and the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center in Newhall.

Many of the meals were being prepared by a nine-member Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief crew, which drove in by truck from Texas. On Saturday, the Texans cooked vats of scrambled eggs for breakfast, then made sandwiches for lunch and ravioli for dinner.

“We’ve had a little trouble rounding up enough lunch meat,” said John La Noue, who was supervising the crew’s Santa Clarita relief effort. “We’re trying to make 2,000 sandwiches!”

Other out-of-state assistance to Santa Clarita included the Seattle-King County Disaster Team.

Deployed by FEMA, the 37-member medical team includes emergency physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, a structural engineer and a counselor. The team will be stationed in the back parking lot of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station and will operate from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. until further notice.

The Salvation Army sent crews from central and Northern California to aid quake victims, including those camping out in Newhall Park. On Saturday afternoon, the team was serving hot dogs to people living in makeshift tents.

“We’ve given out hundreds of blankets,” said Salvation Army Lt. Lola Downey, from the Fresno area. “We’ve given out clothes, meals and water.”

She said some of the people in the park were too frightened to sleep inside the shelter provided by the Red Cross. “We’ve made sure they all have blankets and are warm at night,” Downey said. “But I’m not going to force someone to go inside when they’re uncomfortable about it.”

Red Cross officials believe the number of residents using evacuation shelters in Santa Clarita has stabilized, but they said they were concerned about forecasts of rain.

About 660 residents slept in the four Santa Clarita shelters Thursday and Friday nights, a decrease of about 60 people as senior citizens displaced from nearby convalescent homes were relocated by Los Angeles County. Red Cross personnel served 4,815 meals Friday to Santa Clarita residents, up from 2,500 Thursday.

Clyde Smyth, an aide to Rep. Howard (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), said all beds were filled Friday night at the Newhall Park shelter, with another 150 people camping outside. Because of the rain predictions, Red Cross officials were planning to open a second shelter at a nearby school.

Nurses were stationed at each shelter to provide basic medical aid.

Santa Clarita officials continued to operate Saturday from a tent in the City Hall parking lot, coordinating building inspections and providing information to residents via a 24-hour phone bank.

They planned to return to work Monday in the building, which has been declared structurally sound but needs $2 million in repairs, city officials said.

An estimated 600 calls have come in daily from residents wanting inspections of their homes and workplaces, according to Gail Foy, city public information officer.

Major roads inside and outside of the city remained congested Saturday. The California Highway Patrol closed the north- and southbound on-ramps to the Golden State Freeway at the Magic Mountain Parkway because of their proximity to the Santa Clara River bridge, which is considered unstable, said Sgt. Ernie Garcia.

At times on Saturday, traffic on the southbound Antelope Valley Freeway near Santa Clarita was backed up for two hours, according to Garcia.

CHP officers blamed some of the congestion on sightseers trying to get a glimpse of some of the most dramatic earthquake damage. They urged motorists to stay away from the quake-damaged areas.

To encourage more residents to travel by train instead of by car, Santa Clarita city officials said they had ordered the paving of a vacant lot near the Santa Clarita Transit Center, adding 500 parking spaces to the present 1,200 spaces for Metrolink commuters.

Farther north, the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale were working through the weekend on Metrolink platforms that can be used when the service is extended to the Antelope Valley on Monday morning.