GLENDALE : Structural Damage Hits $15 Million

Glendale sustained $15 million in structural damage from the Northridge quake, leaving about 600 people without homes, officials said.

“I’m one of the ones that was left on the streets and finding I cannot go home,” said Stephanie Avila, 34, who was reading a newspaper Wednesday outside a makeshift shelter at the National Guard armory in Glendale.

Avila, whose apartment complex on North Jackson Street sustained $150,000 in damage, returned from her mother’s home in Riverside the night after the Jan. 17 jolt and discovered that her kitchen walls had caved in.

Although city officials are thankful that Glendale escaped much of the devastation that struck the San Fernando Valley, they also realize that the city needs to embark on a recovery process of its own, which could take at least a month.

On Tuesday, the Glendale City Council tried to speed up that process by freeing up $600,000 in federal housing and local redevelopment funds for emergency relief to residents and property owners.

“The earthquake hit Glendale pretty hard,” Mayor Larry Zarian said after the council meeting. “We fared better than some, but not as well as others.”

In all, 1,000 residential, commercial and public buildings were damaged in the quake, with 32 declared unsafe.

No quake-related deaths, major injuries, water, gas or electrical problems were reported in the city, although most people were without power Jan. 17 until late in the afternoon.

In terms of dollar loss, parking garages in the city were hit hardest.

City officials reported a $2-million loss to the city-owned Glendale Fashion Center parking lot at Wilson Avenue and Isabel Street. The damage could hamper Fashion Center owners’ plans to revitalize the area with a cinema, restaurant, retail shops and specialty supermarket, redevelopment officials told the council Tuesday.

A 13-year-old city-owned parking garage near City Hall sustained $400,000 in damage after one of its top levels crumbled, crushing a city truck and a private vehicle, police said.

Public Works Director George Miller said he expects the garage to be repaired in a month. Meanwhile, it will be closed to the public--although city vehicles are parking on the first level.

Glendale Galleria officials continued to keep a 4,600-space, three-story parking lot on Columbus Avenue closed because of damage to the base of several columns on the first level.

Firefighters have evacuated 600 people from 32 buildings considered unsafe. Of those, one is a 50-unit hotel on East Wilson Avenue.

Two American Red Cross shelters remain open--at the National Guard armory, 220 E. Colorado St., and Wilson Middle School, 1221 Monterey Road.

Editor’s Note

This is one in a series of Focus reports spotlighting individual Valley communities and how they are faring in the aftermath of the Jan. 17 earthquake.