Residents Huddle in Dark to Remember Fateful Day : Anniversary: Former neighbors reunite to mourn or party. Clinton gives an upbeat speech at CSUN.

The remembrances began in darkness and ended in darkness Tuesday, like the scenes of communal terror they commemorated.

At 4:31 a.m., a year to the minute after Angelenos awoke to a living nightmare, a crowd of 500 stood at the vacant lot that once was Northridge Meadows, the apartments where 16 tenants died in their beds as the 6.7-magnitude temblor brought the ceiling crashing to the ground.

And 15 hours later, another candlelight procession filed by the chain-link fence surrounding the empty lot that marks the site of the Northridge earthquake’s most enduring symbol.

In between came a bustling day of anniversary rites: an upbeat speech by President Clinton, whirlwind appearances by Mayor Richard Riordan, reunions of former strangers drawn together in that day of crisis and, at last, the emergence of earthquake humor in “Come As You Were Parties.”

But hopes of healing the memories with laughter or ritual eluded many as the day’s observances resonated with the news of a far more destructive quake striking Japan with cruel coincidence on the anniversary day.

“People of Kobe, We Sympathize,” said one of the handwritten memorials posted to the fence surrounding the Northridge Meadows property.

Some saw it as more than a coincidence.

“It says that we’re going to be shaken again here too,” said Phyllis Greenwald, a department store employee at the Sherman Oaks Galleria. “So, batten down the hatches.”

Public officials, including Clinton, treaded lightly on the suffering in Japan, sticking to their messages of hope and confidence.

Surrounded by thousands of well-wishers outside a partially rebuilt Cal State Northridge library, Clinton hailed the federal earthquake relief effort as proof of his argument against Republicans that government “can work.”

“Some people say government is inherently bad, always gets in the way and never amounts to anything,” Clinton said.

Then, gesturing at a landscape of heavy construction equipment and newly repaired campus buildings, he asserted: “I say, look at the difference.”

The federal assistance program has funneled about $12 billion to approximately 600,000 Californians, and in the process helped raise Clinton’s standing in the state. The President, who traveled to the Sacramento area afterward to inspect flood damage, said that he would renew his pledge to continue the effort until the job was done.

As some local officials noted, however, it is still uncertain whether Clinton and Congress will be able to come up with the $3 billion to $6 billion that Administration officials have estimated may be needed to complete the quake recovery.

Appearing beside Riordan, Clinton lauded the Cal State Northridge campus for reopening just weeks after the quake, despite an estimated $350 million in damage.

“You are now the symbol of the ability of the people of this state to keep coming back after adversity upon adversity,” he said.

He also wryly praised a Northridge Little League team, dubbed the Earthquake Kids, which won the national Little League championship and “did something the pros couldn’t--kept baseball going.”

Making the theme of his day rebuilding, Riordan got started with a slew of local, state and federal dignitaries at Art’s Deli, the 37-year Studio City landmark that burned to the ground following the Northridge quake but was rebuilt nine months later.

Speaking to about 100 diners and an army of television crews, Riordan said Art’s represents the resiliency of Los Angeles. And, besides, “wherever there is lox and bagels, there is love and caring,” the mayor said.

Later, speaking before a disaster-response conference at Universal City, Riordan said the quake forced the city to modernize its outdated emergency response equipment and put more energy into preparing for the next disaster.

“We’ve come a long way and we will continue to improve our emergency response programs,” he told the conference, which was hosted by the state Office of Emergency Services and attended by about 200 city officials. “We will continually push the envelope to keep Los Angeles prepared for action.”

Echoing Riordan’s message, a nonprofit business assistance group, the Valley Economic Development Center, handed out “phoenix” awards to businesses that overcame overwhelming damage to rebuild after the quake.

Among the 33 business owners honored at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City was Dan Sandel, owner of Devon Industries, a medical supplies manufacturer in Chatsworth who got a $9.1-million loan from Small Business Administration, the largest disaster loan in U. S. history. Sandel persuaded SBA officials to grant him an exception to its $1.5-million loan cap.

“The year was incredible for me because I learned the power of the government,” he said. “It made me a believer.”

Late Tuesday night, at least 500 worshipers flooded Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge. After singing the hymn “Be Not Afraid,” the group heard Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs of Temple Kol Tikvah say that the experience of the Northridge quake increased sympathy for those afflicted by Tuesday’s deadly quake in Japan.

“We know that our own problems caused us to reach out to those who suffer also,” he said. “It is a day never to be forgotten here or in Japan. We know we live on the very edge of life . . . in the middle of the word life is a big if.”

Then candle-carrying worshipers then paraded west on Kinzie Street and south on Reseda Boulevard to the Northridge Meadows site. There, state Sen. Tom Hayden (D--Santa Monica) told them that “sometimes we think that engineers are a priesthood that we believe can save us from nature,” but “we will have to rethink our building codes and find a new way to live.”

Also on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Community Development Department opened the city’s first permanent Earthquake Recovery Community Service Center in Pacoima, a working-class neighborhood a few miles northeast of the quake’s epicenter.

The center is meant to integrate government services already available, such as housing and loan assistance and insurance information.

“We don’t want to provide more stuff ,” Community Development Department Director Parker Anderson said. “We just mean to link them in a rational way, to make them more effective.”

The unsettling images from Japan, however, caused Riordan’s staff to make one exception to the mayor’s determinedly optimistic front, canceling a “Tonight Show” appearance in which host Jay Leno was to play the straight man in a comic skit about the quake.

“It would be unseemly to do a comic routine on the anniversary of the Northridge quake when a greater disaster has happened in Japan,” said press deputy Jane Galbraith.

No such reservations kept a handful of regulars at the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center from attending a luncheon with an earthquake theme.

Wearing what she had on when the quake struck last Jan. 17, Valerie Lesher, 78, of Valencia, came to the center in leopard-skin pajamas and carrying her teddy bear. Bea Flatz, 73, of Newhall, recapturing the smallest details, wore her green curlers, nightcap and fuzzy blue slippers.

But for most who observed it, the anniversary remained a time for painful personal reflections.

A group of Reseda condominium owners were up before dawn Tuesday for a glum vigil outside their vacant Sherman Way building, which has now fallen into receivership.

“We are basically in the same position we were the day of the quake, standing outside our homes and looking in at the wreckage, not knowing what was going to happen to them or us,” said Janet Smith, a first-time homeowner and the mother of an 18-month-old boy.

But even in their misery, they found some meaning.

“I remember last year,” Christine Sabatta said. “We all started coming out together, recognizing each other. The cold didn’t matter then, we were just glad to be alive, and I guess it doesn’t matter now.”

The Joslyn Adult Center in Burbank was one of several agencies that offered earthquake counseling sessions.

Several of those who attended said they still have difficulty sleeping and live in fear of being caught alone during the next quake.

Jean Moore, 73, said she lives in nearly constant fear of another temblor--which is aggravated by images on television and in the newspaper.

“I can’t get over it,” she said. “It’s the media, every time I reach a point where I’m getting over it. They say, ‘The Big One is coming, the Big One is coming,’ and it scares me again. I’ve been glad today to get it out of me. Sometimes just talking about it helps.”

Most of the former tenants of Northridge Meadows Apartments stayed away from the early morning observance, afraid of the painful memories the vigil might rekindle. But the pre-dawn service, sponsored by the Interfaith Council, offered others an opportunity to heal.

Their notion of family and home forever altered, five Northridge Meadows survivors clasped hands and cried at the site of their former home.

A few minutes later in an interdenominational service at nearby Northridge United Methodist Church, former tenants Cary Erdman, Lorraine Ellison, Bea Killiam, Leo Kossin and Margaret Figueroa, together again, were a powerful force as they joined hands in the front pew and sang “Amazing Grace” in strong, clear voices.

“We’re family,” Erdman explained, fighting back tears. “We’ve come to be family even though we’ve all moved to different areas.”

Many of the others who came had been residents displaced from other apartment buildings just a few blocks away.

“We lived up the street. We just thought this was a good way to put it behind us,” said one woman as she chased a tiny dog she’d named FEMA, after the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which dispensed federal dollars to quake victims.

During the early morning Northridge Meadows observance, Nicole Tolila stood perfectly still, her fingers interlaced in the chain-link fence.

“I live around the corner, where the 19 houses burned down,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep at night, so I ran away to New York. I sleep fine in New York, but I don’t sleep at all here.”

And so they came, to face their fears and lay them to rest.

“Every little bit helps us,” said Lee Rich, as he tearfully clung to girlfriend Kristie Berthiaume. “By being here with others, it helps us let go. We’re holding on to it. Our hearts are still here in Northridge, in our apartment.”

“We’ve moved three times,” Berthiaume explained. “We can’t call anywhere home.”

Times staff writers Sharon Bernstein, Errol A. Cockfield, John M. Glionna, Hugo Martin, Ann W. O’Neill, Paul Richter, John Chandler, Marc Lacey, Jocelyn Y. Stewart and L.D. Straub and correspondent Mark Sabbatini contributed to this story.