State Panel Told of Quake Hazard at Schools : Preparedness: L.A. Unified officials tell senators that funds are needed to secure light fixtures, ceilings before next disaster.

Poorly secured light fixtures and ceilings could prove fatal to Los Angeles schoolchildren during the next earthquake, school district officials told a state Senate panel Friday.

Many light fixtures and ceiling tiles at schools near the epicenter came crashing down during the Northridge temblor. But because the quake struck before dawn, no children were hurt.

But next time the schools may not be so lucky--especially because the Federal Emergency Management Agency is paying to replace only some of the fixtures, said Margaret Scholl, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s director of earthquake recovery.

“If this had happened later in the day,” said Judith Steele, a legislative analyst with the city, “our children in the schools would have been killed.”

FEMA has promised $3 million to replace broken lights, but the district has asked for an additional $70 million to anchor lights at all its campuses.

Given the current budget-cutting mood in Congress, Scholl said she is worried the district will not get the money.

The LAUSD was one of many organizations fretting about a possible cutoff of federal disaster relief at Friday’s hearing before the Senate Select Committee on the Northridge Earthquake. Officials said damage from the 6.7-magnitude temblor is still being discovered.

Senators meeting at the Van Nuys Government Center said they should concentrate on preparing for the next quake without Washington’s help. Some voiced support for an idea being considered by the Los Angeles City Council--creating a community bank that would give high-risk loans to quake victims.

Senators and city officials also said more building inspectors must be available after the next quake, citing a shortage after the Northridge temblor.

Tom Tobin, executive director of the California Seismic Safety Commission, also suggested several measures to improve readiness:

* Make one individual responsible for seismic safety on each construction project. Now, subcontractors are responsible for ensuring only that their component of the structure is safe.

* Require continuing education for designers and engineers in the latest seismic-safety techniques.

* Improve building inspection procedures.

* Assign one individual to oversee California’s complex seismic-safety building codes.

* Have local governments identify seismically vulnerable buildings.

State Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), the committee’s chairman, said he called the meeting to get an accurate assessment on the cost of the quake. He asked about 80 nonprofit groups to account for their funding in addition to querying city and county officials on how much they have spent.

“I think there are some groups that may be applying for, and may be receiving, funds that perhaps don’t have priority,” Rosenthal said. He targeted nonprofit groups that offer counseling as opposed to organizations helping people get back in their homes.

The hearing was held the same day that FEMA closed its remaining service centers in the area, to the dismay of community activists, who said many people still need assistance.

“You still have people trying to get through the FEMA system, through the Small Business Administration system,” said Kimberly Hall, director of the Valley Interfaith Project’s earthquake response effort. She said those people need face-to-face discussions with caseworkers. “A phone call is not going to cut it,” she said.

Experts said the recent killer quake in Kobe, Japan, should be a lesson to the Golden State. “What happened in Kobe could happen many places in the United States, could happen in California, and that is a denial that the earthquake risk is real,” Tobin said.