LOS ANGELES REGAINING STABILITY, CONFIDENCE : NORTHRIDGE EARTHQUAKE: BY THE NUMBERS.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

It may be hard to believe, particularly if the Northridge Earthquake three years ago still has you arguing with your insurance company or living in an apartment while your house is being fixed, but overall, Los Angeles has done pretty well rebuilding from the nation's worst-ever disaster.

``It's still not total (recovery),'' said Los Angeles Councilman Hal Bernson, who serves on the state Seismic Safety Commission and is himself still finishing repairs to his damaged Valley home. ``This is something that's going to be with us a while. But we're moving forward.''

The Northridge Quake caused a whopping $25 billion in damage to buildings and infrastructure. But researchers and local officials say the area is much farther along in rebuilding than is the Bay Area, still digging out seven years after the Loma Prieta Earthquake caused $7.5 billion in property damage.

``In many senses, the city deserves its self-congratulation,'' said Mary Comerio, an architecture professor at the University of California at Berkeley who has published a series of studies on the two areas' quake recovery efforts and is writing a book on the issue.

Los Angeles city officials say the 17 ``ghost towns'' - neighborhoods where as much as 90 percent of the housing was left vacant after the quake - are 89 percent rebuilt.

A few areas, such as North Hills, still are struggling to rebuild, said Gary Squier, the Los Angeles Housing Department general manager.

But thanks to a variety of factors, most other housing has been substantially replaced, infrastructure has been repaired and the economy has largely moved on, officials said.

For instance, more than 12,000 housing units have been rebuilt through a city-run loan program alone, and less than 10,000 other units remain damaged, according to city figures.

``Three years later, we're largely recovered from it,'' said Squier. ``We've got a ways to go but we're on the last leg.''

Some big projects, such as the Van Nuys City Hall repairs, remain mired in negotiations with the federal government. But the city already has $897 million in commitments from the federal government to repair the estimated $1 billion in damage to city-owned properties, said Pat Bonino Canfield, who heads the city administrative office's recovery program.

``From the city's standpoint, we've made excellent progress,'' said Canfield.

The city also has changed or is changing several parts of its building codes, to deal with problems that surfaced during the Northridge Quake, said Richard Holguin, chief of the city Building and Safety Department's engineering bureau.

They include requiring more plywood and other additions to stiffen wood-frame buildings, requiring stronger weld materials in steel buildings and suggesting additional supports in ``soft-story'' or ``tuck-under'' buildings, which are like Northridge Meadows, where 16 people died when the underground garage collapsed, Holguin said.

Los Angeles County, which had more than 1,100 of its buildings damaged, also is making progress, securing a $400 million settlement with the federal government to help replace County/USC Medical Center, and millions more in insurance settlements to rebuild the San Fernando Courthouse, said Carol Kindler, who heads the chief administrative office's emergency services office.

In response to the earthquake and other troubles, the county has built a snazzy $26 million emergency operations center in East Los Angeles that coordinates responses to disasters big and small, said sheriff's Lt. Dennis Beene.

The center, with cutting-edge computer systems that map incidents and track responses, is one result of the string of disasters that afflicted the county in the early 1990s, said Beene, who helped rewrite the state's emergency management rules.

``I think the county's done a good job emerging from all the disasters we've had,'' Beene said. ``We've experienced a lot of things and we've learned.''

Federal aid helped Southern California recover from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, which killed 61 people, injured scores of others and contributed to billions of dollars in damage. Here's a total accounting of the damage:

Total economic loss, direct and indirect: $40 billion.

Total property loss: $25.3 billion.

Congressional aid authorization: $20 billion.

Total insurance payout: $12.3 billion.

Total severely damaged or destroyed housing units in city of Los Angeles: 65,000.

Total housing units rebuilt under Los Angeles city loan program: 7,158.

Total housing units under construction under city loan program: 5,147.

Ghost towns: 17.

Total buildings vacated in ghost towns: 315.

Total vacated ghost town buildings rebuilt or under construction: 275.

County-owned buildings damaged or destroyed: 1,181.

Total damage to county-owned facilities: $2.2 billion.

County-owned replacement projects in design or construction: 73.

County-owned replacement or repair projects ready for work: 444.

County-owned replacement projects still awaiting approvals: 140.

Sources: Los Angeles city and county governments, and researchers Mary Comerio, Kenneth Topping and Paul Flores.

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Box: Northridge earthquake by the numbers (see text)