SUN VALLEY : Quake Victim Buried; City Regains Calm

The campers have left the park and the damage to property seems to be minimal in Sun Valley, but last week’s earthquake left one resident dead and nerves throughout the community badly shaken.

Twenty-year-old Lionel Ventura was buried Thursday after a bilingual service at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Glendale, with about 50 family members and friends in attendance.

Ventura was on a respirator at Holy Cross Medical Center when the earthquake knocked out power to his life support. He had been hospitalized since a Dec. 17 traffic accident left him in a coma.

The Sun Valley man, who dreamed of making it big as a musician or a disc jockey, seemed to have been improving, moving his arms and starting to focus his eyes on visitors, before the earthquake hit, said friend Michael Owens.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who grew up in Sun Valley and whose mother still lives there, set up phone banks to call residents and assess damage in the East Valley district he represents.

“My guess is that Sun Valley suffered less damage than most,” said Alarcon, who added that volunteers had called 3,000 residents by Wednesday night.

Some who were called said they did not want their homes to be inspected, Alarcon said, but others welcomed the call. Those who declined inspections might have feared that their homes would be condemned, the councilman speculated.

“One of the things that I didn’t expect was that senior citizens said they appreciated the call, because no one had checked on them yet,” Alarcon said.

Sun Valley Park, which had been crowded with overnight campers in the days immediately following the earthquake, has been empty for about a week, said Ricardo Davis, the park’s recreation director. Last weekend, Davis said, he made the park available for use as a Red Cross Shelter, but it was not needed.

“It’s calm,” said Randy Kelly, director of Stonehurst Park, another Sun Valley park, which has been used as a Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster Application Center. “There are people waiting today, but there is no line.”

One reason for the lack of activity, he said, is that the center no longer gives out food vouchers.

The FEMA center at Stonehurst has been open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., although the doors close at about 8 p.m., Kelly said.