BAY AREA QUAKE : THE QUAKE AT A GLANCE
Developments in the quake:
The Damage The state Office of Emergency Services now estimates damage at more than $4.2 billion, including about $1 billion to state highways and bridges. U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston’s office estimates total damage at $6.85 billion, including $2.5 billion in San Francisco alone. The OES estimates 159 houses and 295 apartments with major damage, 2,214 houses and 1,928 apartments with minor damage. Hundreds of buildings were damaged or destroyed, some by aftershocks. A levee on the Pajaro River at Watsonville is seriously damaged. The state estimates that 6,568 people were displaced from homes, 4,500 of them in Santa Cruz and 1,800 in San Francisco.
Casualties Deaths: Latest figures from the state Office of Emergency Services, supplemented by the Oakland police, show that 53 died, with 32 of the bodies found in the wreckage of the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland. Injuries: The state tally is 3,011, with 900 of them in Santa Clara County, 862 in Santa Cruz and 566 in San Francisco.
Services Bay Area Rapid Transit light rail lines carried 99% of normal passenger load Friday. Buses from Oakland and Berkeley shuttled commuters to BART stations and ferry terminals as the subway and ferries rallied to take passengers who normally drive across the closed San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Electricity was restored to most areas. Gas and water are taking longer because of repairs to broken lines. Telephone service to the 2.5 million Bay Area customers suffered little from the earthquake, except for overburdened usage. But officials worried that predicted weekend rain could knock out service in some areas by seeping through cable casings cracked or twisted in the quake.
Aid President Bush toured the area after signing a disaster relief declaration for seven counties. “Jesus!” he said as he stared at the Nimitz wreckage, and at the end of his Bay Area tour, commented: “It’s been a very moving day.” The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. offered a moratorium on foreclosures for homeowners whose properties were damaged.
Sports Football’s San Francisco 49ers will move Sunday’s game against New England to Stanford from the damaged Candlestick Park. World Series play is scheduled to resume Tuesday in Candlestick, although Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent said there could be further delays.
Aftershocks More than 1,400 aftershocks have been recorded, with 50 over 3.5 magnitude and at least 15 over 4.
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