Los Angeles Times Special Quake Report: One Year Later : Still Shaken / Coming Back : Santa Monica Struggling Back

At 6 a.m. three days after the earthquake, city staffer Katie Lichtig drove by the Santa Monica disaster application center, which was due to open at 1 p.m. that day.

It was a disaster area all right, filled with construction materials and tools, filthy and without electricity or furniture. Opening the center that day looked hopeless.

But not opening was unthinkable to Lichtig. She put out the call for help and at least 10 city work crews converged at the vacant storefront. Miraculously, the center opened its doors just one minute late, welcoming quake-ravaged customers who had been waiting in line for more than four hours to apply for relief.

Since then, Lichtig, a senior analyst in the city manager’s office, has crawled through condemned buildings, shaken hands with the President and held a $30-million government relief check in her hands.

That can-do spirit characterized Santa Monica’s early recovery efforts.

At last count, the city, which suffered $160 million in private and public property damage, had received $33 million to loan out to apartment house and condominium owners and $30 million ( to fix its damaged public structures.

The Small Business Administration has lent $115 million to Santa Monica property owners and businesses.

City Planning Director Suzanne Frick said 83 apartment units have been demolished and just 973 units, which formerly housed about 1,751 people, remain uninhabitable. That is a steep decline from the estimated 3,000 units initially out of commission. Thirty-four single-family homes remain unlivable as well.

While individual businesses are still scrambling for loans or fighting for permits, the city’s economic outlook is generally good, even bullish. And the quake has apparently not deterred tourists either: Revenues from the city’s hotel bed tax have surged.