Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Aid Pours Into Valley, More Structures Are Tagged Unsafe : Recovery: Requests for inspections mount amid headaches over huge traffic tie-ups. But officials believe most of the damaged buildings can be repaired.

Infusions of assistance, public and private, poured in for San Fernando Valley quake victims Tuesday, but more damage from aftershocks caused enormous traffic tie-ups and some high school students had to eat in wind-whipped tents after part of their cafeteria was condemned.

While hundreds of frightened residents continued to live outdoors in tents at Red Cross shelters throughout the Valley, building inspectors said Tuesday that for the most part, the aftershocks have not done a great deal of additional damage.

“We are receiving (requests) continually,” said David R. Keim, principal building inspector for the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety. “(But) mainly the damage from the aftershocks has been architectural or superficial.”

Figures released Tuesday by the city’s Department of Building and Safety show that 1,862 buildings have been deemed unsafe, affecting 13,860 housing units. Another 7,000 buildings have been posted with yellow flags that limit entry.

Nonetheless, Keim said building officials believe most of the unsafe buildings can be repaired. “We expect very few demolitions on these red-tagged buildings,” he said.

In other developments Tuesday:

* President Bill Clinton added $2 billion to his federal aid package for Los Angeles, bringing the total White House request to $9.5 billion.

* Elizabeth Dole, president of the American Red Cross, announced in Northridge that the agency is seeking to raise $50 million for disaster relief, including efforts in Southern California. The Red Cross has spent about $30 million providing shelter, clothing and serving meals for more than 7,000 people since the Jan. 17 quake.

* The “Earthquake Express,” a caravan of nine 40-foot tractor-trailers filled with food, beverages, diapers and other earthquake supplies donated by Teamster union members around the state, arrived at a Red Cross warehouse at the Van Nuys Airport. The goods will be distributed to earthquake victims at shelters.

* Mayor Richard Riordan visited two fire stations near the quake’s epicenter, including one that has been condemned because of earthquake damage.

At the confluence of the Hollywood and Ventura freeways in North Hollywood, cracks and exposed steel in concrete columns after Saturday’s 5.0 magnitude aftershock added to the traffic woes of thousands of San Fernando Valley motorists already coping with earlier quake damage to freeways.

Transportation workers have begun shoring up the damaged pillars, but the process forced them to shut down key transition lanes, leaving commuters bottle-necked during most of the day Tuesday.

“It was an entire surprise, but then again, it’s been an entire surprise since they opened the freeways,” said Tim Cochran, 25, whose half-hour commute from North Hollywood to his job at Warner Center Flowers & Gifts stretched into a 90-minute ordeal Tuesday.

The right lane of the two-lane transition road from the westbound Ventura Freeway-134 onto the westbound Ventura Freeway-101 has been closed, jamming traffic for miles during rush hour. Even in the early afternoon, the half-mile drive from Cahuenga Boulevard through the freeway split took more than 10 minutes.

Caltrans also has cordoned off one of two lanes in the junction leading from the northbound Hollywood Freeway-101 to the Hollywood Freeway-170.

Both transitions are off-limits to trucks, which “tend to cause bouncing on the connectors,” Caltrans spokesman Russell Snyder said.

The lane closures should last at least through Thursday as transportation crews reinforce the damaged columns with steel beams. The shoring work will cost Caltrans about $300,000, Snyder said.

By the end of 1995, the damaged interchange is scheduled to be seismologically retrofitted with steel casings for the columns and long anchoring rods. But “we’re focusing on the emergencies for now, so we don’t have a (precise) timetable for that,” Snyder said.

Meanwhile, at the Van Nuys Courthouse, employees and jurors were faced with a new problem Tuesday morning after the 2,000-space parking structure serving the two Van Nuys courthouses was declared unsafe.

The closure of the parking facility took workers and jurors by surprise--mainly because they had been parking in it for more than a week, since it passed inspection two days after the Northridge earthquake.

Superior Court judges were allowed to park in a makeshift lot next to their courthouse. But Municipal Court judges, attorneys working for the district attorney and public defender, and hundreds of jurors were forced to fight for limited parking in private lots and on surrounding streets.

The parking mess grew throughout the morning, growing worse when several nearby streets were closed because a gas leak forced the evacuation of the nearby Los Angeles Police Station in the Van Nuys Government Center.

Officials have developed contingency plans to provide parking to jurors and some court employees, but 200 jurors summoned for a death penalty murder trial set to begin today have been asked to report next week.

“Every minute, it’s a new crisis,” said Richard D. Johnson, chief of the Valley Division of the Los Angeles Municipal Court.

At Cleveland High School in Reseda, one of the dozens of Valley schools damaged during the quake, students were forced to eat lunches outside for a second consecutive day because of a quake-damaged cafeteria. But Tuesday, strong winds added another insult, depositing dust on students’ hamburgers and fried potatoes.

“There is so much dust . . . in the air still settling,” said senior Samantha Manchen, 17, who instead ate lunch at a Denny’s. Samantha said she will continue to eat out until she feels it’s safe to eat lunch at the new outdoor cafeteria.

Even though city inspectors declared the cafeteria and the dining hall structurally safe after the initial jolt more than two weeks ago, some parts of the covered walkway that wraps around the building--situated at the center of the campus--were deemed unsafe, cutting off access to the cafeteria, Principal Ida Mae Windham said.

So when the school reopened Monday, administrators hurriedly brought in a blue-and-white striped circus tent, which they set up near the back of the cafeteria. On Tuesday, strong winds bent one of the metal support bars, preventing workers from re-erecting the tent and forcing cafeteria staff members to serve lunches in the open.

Food service workers wheeled out carts filled with cold sandwiches, hamburgers and chocolate milk, but because of the long lines involved, his chicken patty was cold, senior Mike Knispel said.

But some did commend the school for trying its best to feed the students against all odds.

“For some students, this is probably the only hot meal they will have all day,” said Gohar Tokuzyan, a 12th-grader.

Mayor Riordan looked over one fire station condemned because of quake damage near the quake’s epicenter and at another he praised city firefighters who fought dozens of blazes and rescued several people trapped in buildings the morning of the quake.

“Thank you very much. You guys are heroes,” Riordan told firefighters from Station 73 on Reseda Boulevard. The station’s firefighters dealt with the collapse of the Northridge Meadows Apartments where 16 people died.

Firefighters told Riordan their biggest problem after the quake was battling the numerous gas-fueled fires that erupted after the temblor broke underground gas lines and residents were unable to turn off their gas lines because shut-off valves were either located underground or could be controlled only by a special key used by gas company employees.

“From a hill, within 15 to 20 minutes you could see a bunch of fires that--if not started by broken natural gas lines--were certainly aided by them,” Battalion Chief Richard Jioras said. “It was by far the most difficult thing we had to deal with.”

Responding, Riordan said, “Yeah, we really have to think of some ordinances” to correct the problem.

Earlier in the morning, the mayor viewed Station 70 in Northridge--about five miles north on Reseda Boulevard from the Reseda station. The 15-year-old building, which has been condemned, has not been used since the quake sent tiles and bricks raining down and caused deep cracks in the station’s walls and doorways.

Firefighters and equipment have been reassigned to other stations and a Fire Department spokesman said the building--which may have incurred $1 million in damage--might have to be rebuilt.

Timothy Williams is a Times staff writer and Thom Mrozek is a special correspondent. Times staff writers Henry Chu and Chau Lam also contributed to this story.