Quake Relief Effort Picks Up : Tent Cities in Place; U.S. Pledges More Money : Disaster: Number still needing shelter drops, but rain remains a threat. Officials concede they underestimated impact. Meanwhile, Caltrans may install temporary bridges over freeway gaps.

Given at least a one-day reprieve from rain and rattling aftershocks, relief and repair efforts in Los Angeles accelerated Saturday as tent cities sprang up across the San Fernando Valley and the White House promised an additional $283 million in federal earthquake aid.

Officials preparing for this week’s expected commuter crush said they are considering whether to erect temporary bridges over gaps in the Simi Valley and Santa Monica freeways.

Five days after the Los Angeles area was rocked by a 6.6-magnitude quake, the developments suggest that agencies are improving delivery of relief services and that the efforts, though sizable, have not been enough to cope with what may surpass Hurricane Andrew as the costliest natural disaster in the United States.

“I don’t think any of us realized the magnitude of it all,” said James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In other quake-related developments Saturday:

* Estimates of those sleeping outside in parks and elsewhere dropped to 9,000 from 14,500 on Friday. Unseasonably warm weather helped Saturday, but there was a 60% chance of some rain by tonight, when temperatures could fall to the low 40s. With rain possible, crews hurried to open more tent cities, particularly in the quake-ravaged Valley. “The rain is going to be the next major situation out here,” County Fire Inspector Mark Savage said.

* The number of structures declared uninhabitable in the city climbed to more than 1,600, encompassing 7,421 housing units. Damage to those buildings reached $460 million--a figure that will grow considerably because building inspectors expect to be assessing damage at least for another week.

* The Los Angeles Unified School District planned to reopen most campuses Tuesday. Of 30,000 classrooms, 300 remained unsafe, virtually all of them in the hard-hit West Valley. School Board President Leticia Quezada said: “My hope is that all children will be able to attend school one way or another” next week.

* More creature comforts began to reach those displaced by the quake. At one Valley park, barbecued ribs were served up, a bookmobile was met by hundreds of reading-hungry people in another park, and plans were made to televise today’s NFL playoff games for those who have taken refuge in San Fernando Recreation Park.

* The Los Angeles County death toll stood at 55, though coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier said the number could change.

“There is a good chance that (rescuers and construction crews) may find something under buildings during the cleanup period, as happened during the riots,” Carrier said. Likewise, he said, the coroner could lower the number of quake-related fatalities now that overwhelmed medical examiners can re-examine some cases. “Some of these cases are questionable” as quake-caused deaths, he said.

* At an afternoon briefing at Caltech, officials said the aftershock frequency was decreasing. Although four aftershocks of magnitude 4 to 4.6 hit in rapid succession Friday, only four tremors--all magnitude 3.0 or less--were recorded by 10 p.m. Saturday.

* In Los Angeles, officials announced plans to open seven more emergency assistance shelters by Monday, bringing the total to 20. As many as 1,000 state workers might join in the FEMA assistance effort during the coming week, depending upon the need.

* And in Washington, one top FEMA official said that no decision on long-term recovery aid for Los Angeles has been made, but estimated that the federal government will spend at least $100 million on emergency provisions and shelter. Moreover, FEMA’s Dick Krimm said the federal government is mindful of how much the state--and particularly Southern California--has endured the last two years in riots, floods, fires and quakes.

“Over the last couple years, we have spent billions of dollars in California,” Krimm said. “Good Lord, we are very, very sensitive to the disasters of Southern California.”

Federal Help

Stung by increasing criticism of red tape, officials defended their relief efforts, arguing that they are setting up the largest assistance program in U.S. history to deal with the most damaging earthquake ever to be centered in a major metropolitan area.

The state has estimated that damages could exceed $30 billion.

“We are now dealing with the largest mass assistance of people in an urban area in the history of the United States,” Henry G. Cisneros, Housing and Urban Development secretary, said in Los Angeles on Saturday. He said the first quake victim to find housing under emergency federal assistance moved into an apartment Saturday night. The person’s name was not released.

In Washington, the White House announced the release of additional earthquake relief funds. Of the $283 million in new aid, White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said $140 million will be for Small Business Administration loans and the other $143 million for a range of activities such as grants for emergency housing and family support and to help localities pay for debris removal, emergency services and repair of damaged public facilities.

The Clinton Administration said Saturday it has provided a total of $639 million for SBA loans, $41 million for emergency highway repairs and $143 million for FEMA.

Cisneros defended the federal and state relief effort at a Los Angeles news conference along with Richard Andrews, director of the state Office of Emergency Services, FEMA’s Witt, and Art Agnos, who was mayor of San Francisco when the disastrous Loma Prieta quake struck there in 1989.

“This earthquake is at least twice as bad and the response of the state and federal government has been twice as fast,” Agnos said. “In 1989, I never saw the FEMA director until a week later on ‘Larry King Live.’ ”

Earthquake victims have expressed anger about long lines for relief applications and the inability of officials to offer tangible aid such as money for emergency housing and rebuilding. Their anger also has been directed at FEMA’s toll-free hot line for filing claims.

“We called and called and called, but we never got any response beyond a polite message to hold,” said Ared McCurchin, a South-Central Los Angeles carpenter who was among those in line Saturday at a new center at 421 S. Avalon Blvd.

But disaster officials said they are increasing the number of relief workers and centers, streamlining the application process for aid and sending “outreach” workers to wherever victims congregate.

FEMA’s Krimm acknowledged that the agency’s phone system was overwhelmed by the request for claims. “On Friday, we had 15,000 calls come in one hour,” he said. “That is far greater than we have ever had in any disaster.”

The state’s Andrews maintained that disaster workers had reduced the number of quake victims living in parks from 14,000 immediately after the quake to 3,900 by sending outreach workers to talk people into going to shelters and relief centers.

But that figure was disputed by city Parks Parks and Recreation Director Jackie Tatum, who said there still were 9,000 quake victims camped in parks Friday night.

Cisneros said disaster workers were distributing leaflets in Spanish assuring quake victims that they are eligible for aid regardless of citizenship under federal law. Many people near Downtown in the Pico-Union area, which has a large community of Central Americans, fled from tenements and have been camping in city parks.

FEMA set up a relief center in the area Saturday, flying experienced staff members in from Puerto Rico.

Quake victims are not the only ones exhausted by the events of the last week.

FEMA workers Luis Monge and Richard Rodriguez opened the Pico Union disaster relief office at the Central American Resource Center after flying all night from Puerto Rico to New York to San Francisco to Burbank, where they were given a van and a map.

After getting lost, they managed to open the office at 2:30 p.m. and begin interviewing the 400 people who had been waiting in line for hours.

Relief Arrives

The National Guard continued setting up tent encampments throughout the Valley Saturday morning, hoping to provide shelter for the newly displaced. However, at some sites, including Reseda Park and West Valley Park, Red Cross officials would not allow people to start moving into the tents because no cots were on hand.

Under bright sunshine, about 150 sweating soldiers hauled canvas out of the backs of trucks, pulled on ropes and drove stakes with wooden mallets at the Winnetka Recreation Center, where about 300 quake victims have been camping out all week.

By evening, officials said, the center would house upward of 1,000 temporary residents.

Guard members erected two sizes of olive drab tents and brought in water tankers called “water buffalos.” The large tents can house 30 to 35 people and the smaller ones 20 to 25 people.

“A lot of people say their homes are fine but they’re scared to go home,” said Guard Lt. Bill Lemna, 27, a Lodi food executive.

As Lemna was speaking, Jake Jaroszewski, 37, an employee of Baxter Health Care, drove up with a truckload of donated goods

“We’ve got food. We’ve got medical supplies. Where do we go?” Jaroszewski asked.

Lemna directed him to an open spot on the grass and a line immediately began to form. Baxter employees passed out bags of groceries and plastic jugs of water to the grateful park residents.

Officer Tony Jett of the Los Angeles Police Department stood beside the truck and shook his head in wonderment. “Trucks are driving up with all kinds of stuff--food, clothing, water, all the necessities. It’s so positive, it’s unbelievable, people coming together to help other people,” he said.

As he spoke, a large yellow van drove up and out jumped Jay Lenhoff, 37, director of operations for Tony Roma’s restaurant chain. The rear of the truck swung open and a team of Roma’s volunteers began unloading tables, portable barbecues, crates of chicken, beans, cole slaw and soft drinks. “We’ve got enough food here for 2,000 people,” Lenhoff said.

Among those contributing to the relief effort at Winnetka Recreation Center were a Redondo Beach couple--Rachel Ybarra, an office worker, and her husband, Tracy, an electrician. “We didn’t take much damage ourselves, so we wanted to help the people who did,” she said.

They drove onto the grass in a red pickup truck laden with supplies and another line formed immediately. “We brought juice, diapers, toilet paper, tortillas, all sorts of things. We took $250 from our savings to pay for it,” she said.

Nearby, five lines snaked out of a brick building in the middle of the recreation center. Hundreds of people were lined up seeking assistance from the Red Cross, FEMA, the Small Business Administration, state welfare officials, Los Angeles City Housing Authority, Internal Revenue Service and other agencies.

Although the scene was calm, there was still confusion about where to go for certain assistance. “This is a line for housing vouchers--or at least I think it’s a line for housing vouchers,” said Scott Sheridan, who works at a private school in the Valley. “But I’ve been in it for 25 minutes and it’s hardly moved at all.”

An extended family of 50 has been occupying a makeshift shelter--a plastic tent stretching over several automobiles and poles--at the Winnetka center since last Monday. “That’s a long time,” said Andres Ojeda of Canoga Park. “With the rain coming, the tents will be a whole lot better.”

A few miles away, 750 to 1,000 people had moved into tents set up by the National Guard at Lanark Park in Canoga Park.

Blanca Granillo, 19, said all the members of her extended family had moved into the camp, being administered by the Salvation Army.

“There are about 40 of us in here,” she said. “We were the first ones to get a tent Friday night. Before that we had been out in the open, and this is way, much better.”

The Salvation Army was providing three meals a day at Lanark Park. “Our basic staples are sandwiches and packaged foods,” said Salvation Army Maj. Dale Hill. “We don’t have any means of cooking anything right now. But the donations are generous and the food keeps coming in.”

One added feature at Lanark Park was a dental clinic set up under a blue plastic awning by the Loma Linda School of Dentistry. Instead of dentist’s chairs, patients were examined on plastic lawn furniture.

Getting Around

Mindful that nothing can return to normal if traffic cannot move, transportation officials were considering the use of temporary bridges on two crippled freeways critical to the region--the Santa Monica and the Simi Valley.

The makeshift structures would allow a partial flow of motorists on one side of the roadway while crews work to reconstruct the other.

On the Santa Monica Freeway, the busiest in the nation with some 340,000 motorists traversing it daily, a temporary bridge would provide four lanes--two in each direction, said Jerry Baxter, head of the local Caltrans office.

A temporary structure, however, would also drag out repair of the freeways, which Caltrans officials had pledged would be finished within one year, Baxter cautioned. Caltrans officials are analyzing the cost and delay that erecting makeshift bridges would entail, a strategy that was employed on certain Bay Area structures after the 1989 quake.

“Essentially, you would get half a freeway. It would be a considerable help and take an awful lot of the load off the city streets,” Baxter said. “It has the advantage of getting half the freeway open earlier but the disadvantage of delaying construction.”

Monday’s quake battered roadways, collapsing bridges, twisting asphalt and shutting parts of six thoroughfares--including major arteries such as the San Diego and Golden State freeways. In hopes of easing congestion, Baxter said engineers are now considering shoring up the sagging structure on the westbound side of the Simi Valley Freeway for use as a temporary route. The eastbound side of the freeway collapsed in Monday’s quake.

In other developments, Caltrans officials reopened all connectors between the Ventura and Glendale freeways Saturday. The interchanges were closed for one day. Work crews had cleared about 65% of the rubble on Interstate 5 at Gavin Canyon by Saturday. At the Simi Valley Freeway, workers removed about 45% of the fallen debris, said spokesman Russell Snyder.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan is expected to announce today part of a plan to diminish traffic on the city’s jammed streets. Riordan is considering converting some streets, such as Olympic Boulevard, into one-way thoroughfares. He also may ask trucking companies to make deliveries at night, avoiding the roads during commuter rush hours.

Similar initiatives were used during the 1984 Olympics, with Flower and Figueroa streets Downtown designated one-way. And, with the cooperation of trucking companies, an estimated 5,000 trucks--the traffic equivalent of 25,000 automobiles--were kept off the freeways during peak travel times.

Damage Toll

A more detailed profile of damage to buildings in Los Angeles started to emerge Saturday.

Two-thirds of the structures declared unsafe were built before codes were strengthened following the 1971 Sylmar quake, according to a Times analysis. Among these was the Northridge apartment complex where 16 people died.

But a handful of “red-tagged” buildings had been constructed within the last few years, confirming the capricious nature of the temblor. A red tag means that a building has been declared unsafe to occupy.

“Hopefully, most of the buildings can be repaired,” said Tim Thayne, senior building inspector. “Some will have to demolished.”

City Councilman Hal Bernson’s northwest Valley district was hardest hit, with 110 unsafe buildings. Next was Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky’s district, extending from the Westside to Sherman Oaks, with 94 unsafe buildings, according to the study by Richard O’Reilly, Times director of computer analysis, and Sandra Poindexter, data analyst.

The Times analysis also found that half of the unsafe buildings were purchased in the last five years and a quarter were bought since 1991. Apartments and condominiums accounted for 64% of the unsafe buildings. Single-family homes represented about 18%.

Offices, restaurants, stores and parking garages accounted for most of the remaining 18%.

Returning

Amid the scenes of tent cities and rubble-strewn sidewalks, there were signs that life was getting back to normal--and of people trying to keep some perspective, even some humor.

Throughout Los Angeles, parades of joggers took advantage of picture-postcard weather.

At Reseda Park, a Los Angeles Library bookmobile was parked and assistant branch director Fontayne Holmes said hundreds of books were checked out Saturday by people camping out.

A circle of children sat attentively at the feet of Michael Eisenberg, an assistant librarian, as he read enthusiastically to them from from a book entitled “Miss Nelson Is Missing,” pausing before turning each page to show them the pictures.

Efforts were being made to try to meet other needs of victims. Even the need for football.

The Downtown Hyatt Regency hotel planned to set up a big-screen TV in San Fernando Recreation Park today so earthquake victims would not miss the National Football League playoff games. The hotel also planned to serve breakfast to 1,000 quake victims at a Red Cross shelter.

Times staff writer Greg Krikorian contributed to this story.

To aid Southern Californians, The Times today provides a special guide to coping with the aftermath of Monday’s quake and preparing for the next one. Section U

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