Family is still reeling from quake.

TEN years after the Northridge earthquake, the Hong family is reminded of it every single day. They see it in their cracked walls. They feel it in their uneven flooring. They know it when they watch the television placed strategically in front of their crumbled, useless fireplace.

"It makes me depressed. I don't want to see all those cracks," said Suk Cha Hong, 50, a waitress who has lived in the house near Koreatown for 17 years. "But I don't want to go anywhere. I just want to fix my home."

Most Angelenos have put the 6.7 magnitude temblor behind them, but Hong and her husband, O. Song, are among some 1,550 homeowners who claim their initial insurance payments covered only a fraction of the damage that occurred.

Like others, the Hongs took advantage of a 2000 state law that allowed Northridge earthquake victims to reopen their claims. Initially, the family received about $6,900 from Farmers Insurance Group after their deductible was subtracted from the damage estimate.

Last year, the family had its home inspected again by experts working for their attorney and the insurance company. They now hope to receive more than $100,000 from Farmers, though 40 percent would go to legal fees.

Their lawyer, Brian Kabateck, says the family's case is far from the worst he has seen, but it's typical for the homeowners who have reopened their claims and sought additional compensation. He says Farmers has made an initial offer of $105,000 to settle the case. The company declined to comment.

"It's a very garden variety type of post-earthquake claim, but whether it's the worst damage you have seen or not, they are entitled to their benefits," Kabateck said.

Unforgettable memories

The earthquake struck at 4:31 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1994.

Suk Cha and O. Song remember waking to violent shaking that toppled furniture in their dining room, shattered glassware in the kitchen and lopped several feet off their chimney, leaving a pile of bricks in their driveway.

But when daylight dawned, the Hongs thought they were lucky. The chimney had lost its top, interior plaster and the concrete stoop were cracked and the wood flooring was uneven at points. But the 60-year-old house was habitable.

The couple, who arrived from South Korea in 1980, were not even sure they would file a claim until Suk Cha insisted and an inspector came out several months later.

She remembers that he failed to go into the crawl space under the 1,500-square-foot home to check the foundation. Nor did he go into the crawl space above the ceiling to inspect the roof. "He took less than an hour, maybe a half hour," she recalled.

A few months later the couple received their damage estimate from Farmers: $19,978.95. After their deductible was subtracted they had a check in hand for $6,928.70. They were ecstatic. "I didn't expect any money at all," she recalled.

But that excitement didn't last for long.

The Hongs had just finished remodeling their home at a cost of more than $20,000 in the summer prior to the earthquake, patching up plaster, painting, fixing windows, replacing the plumbing and making other repairs. They had saved up for years to pay for it on a combined salary that today is only about $70,000.

O. Song, who goes by the name Ricky, realized the money would not be enough to hire a contractor to do all the work, so he began doing it himself. "I thought I could fix it myself. We tried to save money and repair it little by little," said O. Song, who works as a machinist.

He poured concrete sealer into the cracks in the stoop. He repainted the exterior. He tried to patch the cracked plaster, but it turned ugly.

The fireplace presented a problem, so he decided to level the top and seal it off until he had more money to work on it.

Two years after the earthquake, neighbors were getting their own damaged chimney fixed and he asked their contractor to give him an estimate. He was told it would cost $7,000. That caused him to change his thinking about his earthquake settlement.

"I felt that I had been cheated," O Song said.

At that point the couple figured there was little they could do. They continued to save for repairs, but doing so was difficult. And they also realized the inspector missed some of the damage.

In May 1995, they decided to take advantage of a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that paid to have the frames of houses bolted to their foundation. The workers said they noticed cracks.

"This is typical," Kabateck said. "Lots of times additional damage was found when a handyman came in, or cable TV was installed or a little remodeling was done."

Suk Cha also noticed after the earthquake how the old home's electrical system was malfunctioning. When she plugged in an appliance the circuit breakers would be tripped up. In August 1996 the couple decided to pay $3,300 to update the wiring, adding outlets capable of handling a higher load.

Meanwhile, the couple's two children were nearing college age--and there would be that additional expense to save for. They decided to simply cover the interior chimney damage by placing their television in front of it.

New hope

Four years ago, Suk Cha began hearing radio ads about the law that allowed Northridge Earthquake victims to reopen their claims.

At first she was skeptical but decided to contact an attorney who visited her home, saw the damage and took the case, filing a lawsuit against Farmers in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2001. The case has since been taken over by Kabateck, who helped write the law that allowed the cases to be re-opened.

Last year, a team of Farmers inspectors, along with one working for Kabateck, went over the house for eight hours, going into the crawl spaces, taking paint samples for asbestos and other measures. Beyond the obvious, they found problems with the foundation, and damage to the rafters and the roof.

In addition, the family spent $3,000 two years ago to replace their front sewer main after it was found to have a crack, which Kabateck's inspector believes was attributable to the earthquake.

Negotiations have just begun in the case, but Kabateck said that after the inspection Farmers made an initial $105,000 offer to settle--about five times the original damage estimate--indicating that much was missed in the initial inspection. He says the company appears to want to settle this and similar reopened cases quickly.

Kabateck says he does not fault Farmers for the initial inspection, noting that the insurers were inundated with claims and forced to import inspectors with no earthquake experience from out of state.

But he does fault the industry and the company for not launching its own effort years ago to re-inspect all damaged houses after it became clear that much of the damage had been missed. "Frankly, a lot of the insured homeowners were happy too to hear that they didn't have a lot of damage. They felt like they escaped (at first)," he said.

Under the 2001 law, 7,000 cases were reopened in California during the one-year window they were allowed. About 1,550 remain unresolved; the rest have been settled or dismissed.

The couple's son, Andrew, 25, who graduated from college a year ago and no longer lives in the home, hopes the case gets wrapped up soon. He said the damage has always bothered his mother the most, representing an obstacle in her vision to live out the America dream.

"She is not insanely greedy," he said. "She saved for six years to buy this house, and just wants a roof over her head."