Thousands Jam Relief Centers in Quake Area

Thousands of Los Angeles and Orange County area residents converged on seven federal earthquake relief centers that opened their doors for the first time Sunday morning.

Some arrived as early as 6 a.m., only to endure long lines and rain.

The centers, which will remain open “until the crowds diminish,” were set up in La Habra, Whittier and Alhambra, among other locales, to provide federal and state disaster aid information to those hardest hit by the 6.1 temblor of Oct. 1, a federal spokesman said.

“We had a report that there were 10,000 homes or businesses damaged or destroyed, so I think we were prepared for a lot of people,” said Margie Tiritilli, a spokeswoman for the state office of emergency services. “We kind of figured Whittier would be bombarded.”

She was right.

Hundreds Turned Away

Long lines were the rule in hard-hit Whittier, where nearly 1,000 people were turned away Sunday, but not before they were given appointments for later in the week, said Tom Mullins, another spokesman for the state office of emergency services. The situation at the center in Alhambra was much the same, officials there said.

But other centers reported periods of near-vacancy, so many who stood waiting in Whittier and Alhambbra were encouraged to try the other offices.

Orange County earthquake victims began lining up about 7 a.m. at the Senior Citizens Center in La Habra, but the line didn’t amount to much until shortly before noon, when the overwhelmed Whittier center started turning people away.

“I’m glad we got here when we did,” said Burt Kint, a La Habra homeowner, looking back in amazement at the line stretching into the parking lot of the disaster application center in La Habra.

Larry Oronoz, 30, of Whittier, and his wife, Maria, drove to the La Habra office after waiting an hour in Whittier. “Boy, it’s a disaster over there in that line,” Oronoz said of the Whittier center after only a short wait to get inside the La Habra center.

Difficult Wait

“You’re having a hard enough time. How can they expect you to wait four hours?” he asked, clutching photographs and newspaper articles of the devastated apartment the couple had to evacuate after the temblor.

While operations were sorely taxed at the Whittier and Alhambra disaster offices, inside the La Habra center the aid operation appeared to be running smoothly. At midday, before the large influx from Whittier, it was taking about two hours for most quake victims to go through the line, complete the forms and talk to various state and federal aid specialists.

Emergency service officials said 74 quake victims registered for aid at the La Habra center Sunday and that another 90 made appointments to complete the forms later in the week. In all seven centers, government representatives had processed 598 applications and set up 1,867 appointments, state officials said.

Most of the aid-seekers in La Habra were homeowners with cracked walls, broken windows and chimney damage, said Roma Cristia-Plant, a loan specialist with the federal Small Business Administration. By midday, only one shop owner had come in to request a loan, she said. He ran a La Habra ceramics shop.

Latest damage estimates for Orange County were put at $4 million for private citizens--mostly in the La Habra area--and $195,000 for public buildings, said James D. Glotz, a spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Services.

Hoping to Be First

In Whittier, some quake victims, such as Stella and Leo Franco, arrived at the makeshift disaster center office in the badly damaged Quad Mall about 6 a.m., hoping to be “the first to get in the door.”

More than 20 people had arrived before them, however, so the couple did not begin to wade through the red tape and paper work until close to noon.

Still, the Francos said they were grateful for the help they received.

“We got the information that we needed to get. Now we just hope we can get the house fixed,” Leo Franco said.

After talking to several officials, it appeared that the Francos qualified for a federal family grant, which should pay for at least part of the cost of repairing their collapsed front porch and the 20-foot hole torn in the front of their wood-frame house.

Grants of up to $5,000

Federal grants of up to $5,000 are given to disaster victims who are unable to meet their expenses or repay a loan. The program is aimed at those who were not insured or do not have sufficient credit to cover the cost of repairing quake damage, Mullins said.

Among the services most frequently sought were temporary housing, Small Business Administration low-interest loans and individual family grants, he said.

None of the thousands who appeared at the seven relief centers--other locations included Rosemead, Huntington Park, Silverlake and East Los Angeles--actually received financial assistance Sunday.

“They won’t walk away with any money after they’ve been here, but hopefully they’ll walk away with a better understanding of what assistance is available,” said Dale Keller, of the federal Emergency Management Agency.

Mostly, people left with an armful of application forms to shuffle through and complete. Those seeking aid have up to 60 days to file the applications. And the process of reimbursement from the government could take anywhere from two weeks to several months, officials said.

Yes or No in 30 Days

“We usually try and give a yes or no answer within 30 days of receiving a completed application,” said Cristia-Plant of the Small Business Administration.

Besides providing information to help begin the massive rebuilding process, the centers provided a place where many still-visibly shaken quake victims could meet and commiserate.

Just after the temblor hit her Whittier home with a vengeance, Diana Carl told her son that she knew she was supposed to do something, but she wasn’t sure what.

On Sunday, days after the initial shock, she still had not assessed all the damage to her house but decided to head for the nearest emergency relief office.

Carl, a single mother, said she was not sure what to do when she got to the center until a Small Business Administration representative patiently explained the steps to the shaky, tearful woman.

Carl said that when a brief, but thunderous, rain shower drenched those waiting outside the Whittier center, the thunderclap sent her running to the nearest doorway.

Nerves Shot

“My nerves are shot,” she said, her voice cracking. “That storm scared the heck out of me. Actually, whenever I hear anything that drops or makes a loud noise, I think it’s starting all over again.”

Less nervous, but frustrated over having to taking time off from the repair of his two-story brick building in East Los Angeles, Michael A. Fradkin sat in the foyer of the Hollenbeck Recreation Center, waiting to find out how much money he could borrow to salvage it.

The building, which has housed his shoe leather wholesale business since 1957, suffered $300,000 to $400,000 worth of damage from the temblor and aftershocks, he said.

Although the damage was major, Fradkin, 55, said workers and structural engineers were hard at it Sunday, trying to shore up the structure in the hope that city inspectors will not condemn it.

“Time is very important to us,” he said.

Time was also essential to 69-year-old Elena Avina, who was given only 24 hours to pack up and leave her Pico Rivera apartment after it was declared uninhabitable by county building inspectors last week.

Searching for a Home

Crippled by arthritis, Avina came to the Whittier center hoping officials could help her find a new apartment. Avina said she has been staying with a niece until she can find a place of her own. She said she had not slept well until Saturday night, when she finally relaxed and fell asleep while thinking of the help she would get from the government.

Bill Jimenez, a street maintenance foreman for the City of Alhambra, would have preferred not to have to turn to the government for help.

“I’ve always been the type not to rely on the government for anything,” he said after receiving an appointment for later in the week. “But I’ve never been hit with anything like this before.”

The earthquake shook loose the chimney of his home on South Marguerita Avenue and cracked walls in his kitchen and living room. Jimenez estimated the damage at between $8,000 and $9,000, an amount less than the deductible on his insurance policy.

Although there were representatives from more than a dozen agencies--including the Internal Revenue Service, Small Business Administration, Area Office on Aging and Veterans Administration on hand to help quake victims at each center, some of the people who filled out forms and asked questions of the representatives seemed mostly to need to talk about the quake, to vent their emotions about the experience.

T-Shirt Message

Natalie Madar Cabrera and her husband, Rene, sported matching T-shirts that seemed to sum up the prevailing sentiment at the center: a mixture of relief, resolve and anxiety.

The shirts bore the proclamation: “I Survived the Whittier Earthquake.” The word earthquake was depicted in crumbling block letters.

The Cabreras were trying to find temporary housing. Their home, although not officially condemned, was unlivable: the stairway leading to their apartment had swung loose during the temblor, and the landing outside their front door cracked, she said.

Although she survived the jolt physically, Madar Cabrera, a native of Somerset, England, said her psyche is still recuperating.

“I can still feel the shaking,” she said. “I sit on tenterhooks every day, every time I hear a car rumble, I get scared. You have to live through the experience to know what it’s like.”

Times Staff Writer Sheldon Ito also contributed to this article.