'71 QUAKE'S LASTING IMPACT\Sylmar temblor forever changed scientific perceptions, public's\attitudes.

Byline: Tony Knight Daily News Staff Writer

A quarter century ago today, San Fernando Valley residents were rocked awake by the Sylmar Earthquake - an event scientists now see as the beginning of a new era of increased seismic activity in Southern California.

Before Sylmar, a strong temblor hadn't been centered in the greater Los Angeles area since the 1933 quake in Long Beach. But in the 25 years since, Southern California has been hit by a series of significant quakes - culminating in the devastating 1994 Northridge Earthquake.

"It was kind of a turning point in our recent seismicity," said engineering Professor Paul C. Jennings of the California Institute of Technology.

But perhaps its greatest impact was on residents, who said the quake changed their lives, and certainly their habits - changes that paid off when the Northridge Quake hit.

"I've always been cautious about where I place things since then," said Lake View Terrace resident Phyllis Hines, who lived in Mission Hills in 1971. "Things that I really treasure, a lot of them broke in 1971, and so I had the rest of them where they wouldn't move for Northridge."

Many other Valley residents still vividly remember being shaken from their beds 25 years ago into a sunny morning spoiled by the widespread destruction.

Fifty-eight people were killed and 2,543 were injured. In the northeast Valley where the shaking was strongest, two major hospitals were destroyed, four freeway bridges and overpasses collapsed, and part of the face of Van Norman Dam crumbled.

"We were afraid of Van Norman Dam breaking. We had to evacuate because they were afraid it was going to crack. That was the scariest part for us," Hines said.

More than 80,000 people in the Granada Hills and Mission Hills areas were evacuated for three days while engineers worked feverishly to reduce the water level in the crippled reservoir.

Pat Rundell, an administrator at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda, worked at the VA hospital that collapsed in Sylmar.

"It was awesome, it was horrible," she said. "I was the secretary to the director and I worked at the site in the days after the quake. The worst part was for four days they kept bringing people out of the rubble."

The earthquake caused $511 million in damage. Within the city of Los Angeles 25,467 buildings were damaged, including 12,000 dwellings.

The Sylmar Earthquake and its aftermath was the subject of a series of lectures Thursday at the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute's annual meeting at the Universal City Hilton.

The meeting will continue today and Saturday with a discussion of the lessons learned from the Northridge and Kobe, Japan, earthquakes.

Jennings, one of the keynote speakers at the EERI meeting's opening session Thursday, said the Sylmar Quake changed the public's perception of seismic risk and also the way people prepare for it.

Before the Sylmar Quake, he said, "It was hard to find a contractor who knew how to brace the foundation of a house. Now there are earthquake survival kits, stuff to fasten down artwork and things in the home. A ton of things have been done."

Bob Olson, the first executive director of the Seismic Safety Commission, said the quake was a wake-up call in Sacramento, spawning legislation to strengthen freeways, hospitals and other important public works.

"The San Fernando Earthquake probably led to the greatest number of policy changes of any earthquake," said Olson, another keynote speaker at the EERI conference. "We had mobilization of political will that certainly didn't exist before."

The changes made have been credited with saving lives and property in the quakes that followed Sylmar - including the 1987 Whittier Quake, the 1991 Sierra Madre Quake, the 1992 Landers Quake and the 1994 Northridge Quake.

In Los Angeles, the Sylmar Quake led to the passage of an ordiPnance requiring the retrofitting of more than 8,000 unreinforced masonry buildings, generally older buildings with the greatest risk of collapse.

City officials said more than 200,000 people were living in retrofitted brick buildings when Northridge hit and no deaths or injuries were reported from more than 37,000 units in 1,300 strengthened buildings.

After the quake, the state Legislature included hospitals in the Field Act that set seismic standards for schools, creating a new set of seismic standards for hospitals.

Another major result of the quake was the creation of the state Division of Dam Safety, which has inspected every dam in the state for seismic stability and required reinforcements or taken risky dams out of service.

During the Sylmar Quake, the lower dam at Van Norman Reservoir was holding 3.6 billion gallons of water when the earthquake hit, collapsing the top of the earthen dam to within six feet of the water level.

If the dam had been filled to the brim, officials said, it probably would have failed and could have killed more than 100,000 people. As it was, engineers were able to reduce the water to a safe level allowing the 80,000 evacuees to return after three days.

The Sylmar Quake measured 6.4 on the Richter scale, but it's seismic moment was magnitude 6.7, the same as the Northridge Earthquake. That means that the two quakes released identical amounts of energy.

The greatest tragedy was at the Veterans Administration Hospital, which collapsed - killing 41 people instantly. Six others who were pulled from the rubble died later at other hospitals. More than 100 people were in three wards that were leveled by the quake.

There were also three deaths from falling building materials at the newly completed Olive View Hospital, which was supposed to be quakeproof. Two patients on life support died when auxiliary power failed and one man was crushed by a falling piece of wall.

The month-old hospital was condemned and declared a total loss in the dPays after the quake. It was demolished and a new Olive View Hospital with steel sheer walls was built in its place.

The new hospital came through the Northridge Earthquake with no structural damage, but caused extensive damage to the building's piping systems and contents.

Three deaths were associated with collapsed freeway bridges, including two men in a pickup who were crushed when the bridge from the Antelope Valley Freeway to the Golden State Freeway collapsed.

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PHOTO

(1) The Rev. Pat O'Hagan sits in the chapel at the Sepulveda VA Hospital, which is graced by stained glass that survived the 1971 Sylmar Quake. (2) A plaque at Veterans Memorial Park honors those killed in the VA Hospital that collapsed in the '71 quake. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News