5.1 Aftershocks Rock Southland : Clinton Visits L.A., Vows Aid; Toll Climbs to 47 : Disaster: Commutes are slow and the safety of many buildings is still uncertain. Gov. Wilson’s office says the disaster could be the costliest in U.S. history.

President Clinton visited a still shaking Los Angeles on Wednesday as the city inched from the urgency of disaster to the grim reality of post-quake life: tediously slow commutes, uncertainty about the soundness of buildings and a death toll that rose to 47, with four new victims found in the hard-hit San Fernando Valley.

Clinton, who arrived in time to be rocked by two magnitude 5.1 aftershocks in the early afternoon, offered relief and federal money to rebuild communities and the region’s vital transportation links.

“This is a national problem. We have a national responsibility,” Clinton told an audience of elected officials and other leaders at a meeting in a hangar at Burbank Airport before returning to Washington. “This is something we intend to stay with until the job is over.”

It promises to be a multibillion-dollar job:

* Gov. Pete Wilson’s office told federal officials that the quake’s financial toll could conservatively rise to $30 billion or more and exceed Hurricane Andrew in 1992 as the costliest natural disaster in the nation’s history. The damage to public facilities and highways alone was pegged by the governor at $500 million. In light of the state’s economic troubles and the recent wildfires, Wilson asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for full reimbursement of that sum instead of the standard 75%. Clinton said he was considering a federal share of 90%.

* At a Caltech news briefing, scientists said the sequence of aftershocks has now become “very energetic” and “slightly above the normal” for such quakes. Seismologist Egill Hauksson said the center of the pattern of aftershocks, numbering over 1,000, had migrated about five miles northwest from the Northridge epicenter of Monday’s 6.6 magnitude quake.

* Residents and city officials braced for a rainstorm predicted for the weekend, which would add to the miseries of at least 18,000 people still camping in parks across the city, as well as those living with cracked roofs and walls. Anxious officials tried to get park dwellers to return to homes that were safe, sending out bilingual reassurance teams and launching a blimp flashing airborne messages and informational telephone numbers.

* More than 500 building inspectors fanned out across Los Angeles to determine how many of the nearly 2,000 structures damaged by the quake and aftershocks were still habitable, tagging total losses with red warning signs and those that were safe with green notices. On numerous streets on the Westside, residents ordered out of their condemned apartment buildings caused a run on rental moving vans.

* Even though many people tried to return to work, creating long ticket lines at the Metrolink station serving the Santa Clarita Valley and jamming surface streets near damaged freeways, many also struggled with continued disruption of their basic services: Water was expected to be shut off to as many as 40,000 homes for several more days and more than 30,000 Department of Water and Power customers were still without power by 5 p.m.

* An 11 p.m.-to-dawn curfew continued through this morning, although Los Angeles police said they made only 75 arrests during a second extraordinarily quiet night Tuesday. Even so, good citizenship was not universal: More than 100 people called the city’s anti-price gouging hot line with reports of merchants charging as much as $65 for a pizza and $10 for a gallon of milk. There were also reports of tension in Pacoima, where police increased patrols Wednesday night to counter threats of violence by gang members displaced from Roger Jessup Park by a dozen families camping there.

* Ventura County, where damage was estimated at $1 billion Wednesday, made the list of federal disaster areas, making county agencies eligible for financial aid and residents for rental assistance and low-interest construction loans.

* Hoping to get reimbursement for the quake-caused damage to Anaheim Stadium, Orange County supervisors Wednesday declared their county a disaster area, even though it was spared the kind of devastation wreaked in Los Angeles. County officials said FEMA urged the county to make the declaration, which also will help local fire and police departments seek help with expenses for assisting with problems in Los Angeles County. The Northridge temblor caused the 17-ton scoreboard in the city-owned stadium to tumble.

Tragedy Still Unfolding

It was the day that the emergency gave way to the hassles and uncertainties of post-quake life and the realization sank in that the impact of the disaster would linger for months and possibly years. Even so, the enormity of the tragedy grew as workers continued to dig the dead out of collapsed-house coffins.

On Sunswept Drive in Studio City, Michael Minkow, 49, his wife, Lola, 46, and mother, Rose, 75, survived when their four-story hillside house imploded and slid. But the body of Lola’s mother, Beatrice Baitman, 69, was found in the early evening Wednesday still in bed and buried under 20 feet of tile, concrete and glass.

The bodies of Robert (Sarge) Pauline, 72, and his wife, Judith Ng, 42, were found Tuesday night in their Van Nuys home in the 14200 block of Kittridge Street after neighbors alerted police patrols that they had not been seen since the quake.

Pauline, a retired photographer, artist and occasional movie extra, and Ng, who worked in the Los Angeles Housing Department, were found crushed under hundreds of pounds of books, model trains and the other collectibles that were their hobby.

“They were eccentric, but they were kind, friendly people,” said Jeff Ng, the victim’s brother, as he delved through hundreds of videocassette tapes hoping to find a recorded will. “They collected things, stacks of stuff. They had a pathway to get around.”

A 62-year-old man was found Wednesday dead of what was thought to be a quake-related heart attack suffered as he sat in a car in front of his partially collapsed Northridge home.

The Coming Rain

An estimated 18,000 people camped out in the city’s parks Tuesday night--about half of them children--and officials said it is their top priority to find them housing before the arrival of rain, predicted for late Saturday night.

Storms could pose other problems as well: Damage to quake-damaged homes and landslides on hillsides stripped of vegetation during last fall’s brush fires.

Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said there is a 40% chance of light showers this weekend and the possibility of several storms next week.

“We need to get those people out of the parks,” said Jackie Tatum, general manager of the Department of Recreation and Parks. “It’s unhealthy out there.”

Tatum said her department will provide centers for the distribution of rain-proof plastic sheeting that residents can use to cover damaged roofs. The sheeting is also being used in some areas to cover vegetation-bare hillsides that could slide if wet.

Increasing the prospect of homelessness, however, were additional evacuation orders Wednesday by city inspectors at scores of buildings throughout the earthquake zone. An estimated 3,000 buildings had been checked by Wednesday evening but many more still needed to be examined for structural soundness and other safety problems.

In addition, the continuing aftershocks tended to reinforce the widely held perception that returning to any quake-damaged building is unsafe. Police Chief Willie L. Williams said that is not necessarily true, especially if city inspectors have declared a building fit for habitation.

“A crack in the wall doesn’t mean that you can’t go back home,” Williams said.

The President Visits

As a small down payment on what Administration budget officials expect will be a multibillion-dollar federal relief effort, Clinton announced release of $45 million in emergency transportation grants to pay for removing rubble and beginning emergency repairs on freeways, and $95 million in Small Business Administration funds that will allow the agency to leverage up to $239 million in loans to area businesses.

During Clinton’s five-hour tour, he got an earful from those struggling with the devastating after-effects of Monday’s jolt. He walked briefly along Balboa Boulevard and Rinaldi Street in Granada Hills, shaking hands and listening to people whose homes had been destroyed and lives disrupted.

“No water. No electricity. I haven’t had a shower in three days,” said one man. Another told Clinton about a neighbor who had rescued his son from their crumbled house. And a woman who lost her house told Clinton she had seen stores jacking up prices for water and other necessities and had heard from friends who planned to try to cheat their insurance companies to gain extra money. People should “do the right thing, and we’ll be all right,” Clinton later said the woman had told him.

As he drove through the area, Clinton could see the sporadic and seemingly random nature of the earthquake damage--a crumbled house standing in a line with other houses apparently left intact, tents pitched in front yards and in a public park, a row of shattered windows covered with plywood.

Next week, once preliminary damage estimates are in, Clinton said he plans to send Congress a special budget request to cover the costs of cleaning up and rebuilding the region. Clinton may announce the request in next week’s State of the Union speech, officials said.

Toll in Ventura County

“It’s going up by the minute,” Ventura County Supervisor Vicky Howard said of damage estimates. “At first blush we looked around and said we came through this pretty well. But as the hours and days passed we discovered that there is much more damage than we first thought.”

Howard was part of a Ventura County delegation led by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) that met with Clinton at Burbank Airport.

“We told him we also have devastation in Ventura County,” Gallegly said. “In the east end of Simi Valley we literally have thousands of pieces of property with major structural damage. That area is less than seven miles from the epicenter.”

At a Red Cross emergency shelter at Royal High School in Simi Valley, temporary home to 70 people, Frances Echterling, 60, summed up the feelings of many Southland residents. Echterling’s house was damaged, first by the quake and then by a natural gas fire.

“It’s unbearable,” she said. “There are holes in the roof and I don’t even know if it’s safe to go in and I can’t even begin to think about what it’s going to cost to get everything fixed.”

Moving Out and Moving On

Rather than continue living with uncertainty for several more days, tenants of a damaged 48-unit apartment building on Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks hired a contractor to check out the complex.

“Our landlord just deserted us,” resident Kitty Rourke said. “The tenants took over the building.” The building turned out to be safe.

Sections of nearby streets were clogged with residents deserting uninhabitable apartments. On a short stretch of Willis Avenue there were 27 moving vans, and tenants warned not to linger for long in their sagging units darted in and out with the help of friends and relatives.

Fiorenza Lewis’ building tilted noticeably. Her two-bedroom, $875-a-month apartment was a shambles, its walls collapsed, its windows blown out. “It’s a total miracle we’re alive,” she said, waiting for a friend with a truck.

She and her husband, Mark, were going to move in with his parents in North Hollywood. All morning the couple had been running in and out of their apartment, depositing their belongings on the lawn: books, a television, a string of Christmas tree lights, several bottles of champagne, clothing and photo albums.

“They tell you not to go in but you go in anyhow,” said Lewis, an assistant in the feature music department at Universal Studios. “I know possessions mean nothing but you think of photos your parents gave you and you go back.”

Amid runs on food and water, flashlights and other supplies in many neighborhoods, the efforts to move to safer quarters and to secure belongings created new shortages.

Moving companies were overwhelmed by calls from residents and business owners, many of whom were trying to beat condemnation orders that would prohibit movers from entering an unsafe structure.

“People are calling to get out of their buildings before they are condemned and torn down,” said Tom Smith, president of L.A. Moving & Storage in Arleta. Smith’s company is moving about 30 households a day, mostly apartment dwellers in damaged buildings in Northridge, Sherman Oaks and Granada Hills.

“Every man and every truck that is available is out there working,” said Paul Bement, national accounts sales manager for Sylmar-based Security Moving & Storage, whose 40 movers are booked through next Monday. “It’s been crazy.”

Even places for storage were in short supply, particularly for those struggling to get by.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg took advantage of the President’s visit to insist that the city--and federal government--not overlook how the quake had displaced thousands of the area’s poorest residents.

Her immediate concern: untold numbers of poor, in Hollywood and elsewhere, who had no place to store what little they own and were refusing emergency shelters for fear that their few belongings would be stolen in the night.

Food Donations

As residents prepared to spend a third consecutive night under the stars, an informal private relief effort accelerated.

Food donations hinted at the city’s ethnic sprawl: 21,000 bagels from one company, 73,000 dinner rolls from another, more than 100,000 tortillas from a third.

In Reseda, hundreds of displaced residents waited patiently for two hours under the blazing sun to get their share of $250,000 worth of food, water and other supplies donated by Shell Oil Co. and its dealers.

Larry Eshelman, 33, of Riverside, came on his day off to unload 4,300 bags of ice.

“I am fine but it’s a little cold in here,” said Eshelman, standing in a trailer filled with bags of ice.

“I just wanted to help because I would like people to do the same if I am in their situation.”

In West L.A., police closed the busy intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Barrington Avenue because of the slow collapse of a six-story medical office building. The closure exacerbated traffic tie-ups caused by the toppling Monday of a section of the Santa Monica Freeway.

Rows of windows were buckled and shattered, more than a dozen yard-wide, X-shaped cracks cleaved supporting pillars. Shards of glass and chunks of concrete rained on the sidewalk.

“I’m part of this building and it breaks my heart,” said Kay Veach, who has operated the building’s coffee shop--Marshall’s--since 1967.

LAPD Sgt. Stan Schott said city building and safety inspectors pronounced the structure in immediate danger of collapse. Based on that decision, police closed off traffic along Olympic and Barrington, and about a dozen National Guard members helped redirect motorists.

“Public safety is our first priority,” Schott said, “then comes traffic.”

In Santa Monica, officials waived fees for earthquake repairs to more than 240 badly damaged buildings, and frazzled residents sought solace from a roller-coaster week of evacuations and unnerving aftershocks.

Building inspectors had checked out 500 buildings, labeling 100 of them unsafe to live in. More than 250 people crowded a Red Cross shelter at Santa Monica College Tuesday night, and city officials announced that a federal disaster-relief center will be set up Thursday to handle aid applications from people who had lost homes or property.

Frenzied residents loaded belongings into cars outside the beachside Sea Castle Apartment building, a city landmark crumpled in the quake. Rumors were flying among residents that the damaged building would be locked up. In fact, the building was deemed unsafe by city officials.

“Just look at the exodus outside,” one resident said. “They’re all panicking!”

Back to Work

Even as the scope of the tragedy continued to unfold, many tried to get on with their lives and sought to return to their jobs. They were greeted by choked traffic, packed Metrolink trains and crowded parking lots at Metrolink stations.

They quickly came to realize that however bad the current snarl, the coming days will be worse as more people return to work and school resumes.

“It’s gonna throw a hitch in everybody’s get-along,” said Kevin Butler, a Palmdale resident who took 4 hours and 15 minutes to get to the Burbank office of his fire door company. “I’m pretty drained.”

The flip side of Butler’s agony was that, generally, commuters who lived to the east, northeast or south of Downtown experienced few problems.

For Bob Kessler, a computer consultant for Arco, the bus commute from Westchester to Downtown was no longer than normal, despite detours, but when the vehicle was able to pull onto the virtually deserted Santa Monica Freeway at La Brea Avenue, it was like entering the Twilight Zone.

“What was eerie was getting on the freeway and there was no traffic because that was the first entrance open after the structural damage,” Kessler said.

Commuter Trains Full

Commuters who rode the Metrolink from Santa Clarita to Downtown Los Angeles seemed to fare much better than those who drove their cars and got caught in the nightmarish stream of traffic crawling through the Newhall Pass on Wednesday morning, where traffic was reported backed up for miles.

All four Metrolink trains from Santa Clarita to Downtown Los Angeles were full Wednesday morning, carrying about 4,000 passengers per train, said Brendan Shepherd, a spokesman for the commuter rail system.

Before the earthquake, Metrolink carried only about 500 people a day from Santa Clarita to Los Angeles. Since the earthquake, Metrolink expanded each Santa Clarita train to eight cars.

Motoring commuters from the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys, tens of thousands of whom use the Antelope Valley Freeway daily to get to work, woke up earlier than usual to begin their trek.

They were accepting, perhaps rudingly, that inconvenience and frustration have become a part of Los Angeles life, indefinitely.

* POWER OUTAGES: Neighbors cope as 45,000 remain without power. A3

* CLEANING UP: Construction firms stand to benefit from the quake. D1

* Other earthquake stories and pictures: A3-A9, B1-B9