Local News in Brief : Mission Damage Minimal

Despite cracks in its four-foot-thick walls, the two-century-old San Gabriel Mission is expected to be reopened after a survey is completed of damage from last week’s earthquakes.

“I don’t see that there’s any kind of life-threatening situation here,” said South Pasadena engineering consultant John Kariotis. “I’ve looked at a lot of buildings . . . that are much worse.”

The sheer weight of the massive brick, stone and mortar walls is likely to keep the mission standing by quickly sealing cracks that momentarily occur during an earthquake, Kariotis said.

The worst damage was to the mission’s baptistery, a dome-shaped room built in the late 1770s as part of the original structure. Its ceiling, which is decorated with a mural, was cracked.