or it tells us what it was like and that is one of them here's Joe now Joe can you hear it okay yes you are live hey we are live we're at the 9500 block of Recita Boulevard and this probably is going to be the worst damage we've seen we're told this was a three-story building part of it has collapsed onto itself there have been a number of rescues and just a few minutes ago they took one man out of a second story apartment we're told that the situation was just terrible when it hit no wait this was a three story building on you are looking right now at a rescue camp at the first floor were you in the building when it happened I'm on the third floor and the the stairwells were all blocked with rubble and stuff I had to climb through all of that and then jump from the second floor somebody was there to brace my fall got a couple of scratches on my legs but nothing big our house is totaled cars totaled everything's gone again seven confirmed dead eight people were transported to the hospital for treatment of their injuries now do you expect more fatalities I hope not I have to tell you that but it is a complete and chaotic catastrophic collapse there was people at 430 in the morning and again not knowing how many we're hoping for the best how bad was it pretty bad I can't I can't I can't describe how bad it was and okay now your friends who came to check on you said that you're a hero you pulled some people out well I just felt people out of there I don't concern myself a hero just trying to help them out of there how much time was there between the earthquake and when the building started to collapse feeling came right down on me and it was just seconds it seemed like I couldn't find anything I couldn't all I know is the one wall came in the ceiling came down and and somebody got me out I mean everybody was just in extreme fear and it was just it was just a high anxiety situation how many people who you know who live on the first floor have you seen out I've heard a couple people that I knew in the building that were okay but I didn't actually know the people that lived in the frontier or the rear chair we were in the middle tier and we're just lucky to be alive unbelievable the bad news again five people confirmed dead including a 14 year old boy I'm Joe McMahon reporting live from Northridge back to you now forced of course the number of dead in this building is now estimated to be 14 people eight people were taken out of this building alive but very serious injury since we arrived here about two hours ago this is a center of emergency personnel helicopters are flying all over and the ground has been rocking and rolling since we arrived every few minutes very serious tremors in the sense that it causes cars to move and and this building very early this morning Los Angeles time when the earthquake was at its peak moved six feet to the north and then six feet to the south and as you can see it's a two-story building over here and it's a three-story building over here this building actually was twisted and torqued in two different directions John there's a terrible serendipitous quality to what earthquakes do that is to say that one building is affected well not far away another building is unaffected this may be a very difficult question to answer but what happened to this building why is it the one that it went through this do you think well I think it's a combination are you absolutely right I mean everyone feels an earthquake but it's a certain kind of randomness that determines which building is weak which building gets that particular resonance of energy that's going to crumble it in this case I think in San Fernando Valley and that this was the epicenter you've got very unstable ground around here and so anything can happen John as they sort through the rubble there do they believe that there might be more bodies still inside do they have any idea at this point three times they've entered this building there are some disaster assessments the personnel in there right now they they aren't saying for sure if everyone is out but they've gone in three times they've been in there once during an aftershock and and hightailed it out of there it's expected that federal officials will come in and make a complete check of the 130 unit structure John Harkinberry at that apartment building where 14 people we know have been killed that is in Northridge which was the epicenter of the earthquake again six point six on the Richter scale now the people who were injured at apartment building in fact people all throughout Los Angeles were sent to hospitals beginning in the early morning hours and it was a desperate scene hospital emergency rooms absolutely filled to capacity in fact some treatment was being offered out in in a parking lot some hospitals forced to close when they lost power now one hospital that was able to stay open you see the location there is Cedars Sinai Medical Center the people who work there say it was like a day they have never seen any other time we went there with our cameras and we followed head nurse Paul Johnson as he went about his job I wasn't her most of the time in bed these are my days off I hung out on the beach for a few minutes and then decided to come in what we've seen is a very large influx of patients with either broken arms or legs last duration particularly to the feet a lot of cardiac patients apparently the two centers are down and we've got a hundred patients in the LA area that need to be dialed today no the positions of nurses have responded without being called actually people that are in a position to come and people don't have family responsibilities people who are not from areas that are structurally damaged they've been able to come in and Peter no I haven't seen a situation that's bad in the house this is a major event in the local area here we responded to it that way that I've never seen that I've worked at I've been nursing for a year and that is how it was for head nurse Paul Johnson now bear with us we are trying to bring you the freshest information that we possibly can and sometimes we rely on old-fashioned technologies we're going to do that right now I'm going to telephone and with us is Mary Flores she is with the emergency room medical services of Cedars Sinai Hospital Mary if you would tell me how the situation is fairing for you there right now well things are still running pretty steady we're heading upwards towards seeing almost 250 patients in the last 14 hours we've admitted 27 to 30 patients 11 of those being cardiac victims are you able to handle everybody that's coming in so far we've been able to handle everybody that's come through our doors we're also accommodating a local hospital who's diverting patients and evacuating how serious are the injuries that you're seeing we've seen like I say several cardiac victims critical and very serious condition we've seen a lot of lacerations limb trauma some neurological trauma I presume you haven't been able to save everyone no we have had three deaths today are you beginning to see the the people coming through their slack off is the flow at least beginning to die down a little bit not really it's been pretty steady all afternoon it's 525 our time here in California and we still have a lot of people walking into our department well you've got a tough job ahead of you through the night Mary Flores thank you for taking the time to talk to you welcome as you do your job throughout the area other hospitals are also facing those kinds of problems but they are trying to handle it as well as they can we'll bring you more information about that as the program goes on when we come back we're going to take a look at what was the real source of the trouble it was an earthquake fault that had never been heard of until today day one will continue in a moment oh once again for us so for how many years have we been hearing about the big one that people feared was going to come to Los Angeles that big earthquake that was going to cause so many problems for how many years have we been hearing about the danger of the San Andreas fault one of the ironies of this day is that this earthquake was triggered by neither one of those in fact it was caused by a fault that until today nobody had even heard of it is now called the new thrust fault the powerful earthquake that hits Southern California today is part of an ongoing movement of the earth's crust the scientists say will slide Los Angeles north to where San Francisco is located over the next 50 million years the epicenter of the quake struck at 430 in the morning on a previously unknown fault located 20 miles northwest of downtown LA that fault is part of the San Andreas fault system which runs from the Gulf of California to Mendocino this new fault which has not yet been given an official name is one Fisher off of the main fault line the crust of the earth is fractured in many places here the San Andreas fault looks like a scar in the earth rocks on either side of the fracture have shifted so that the earth's crust no longer matches up what happens is that one side of the Fisher thrusts up over the other building pressure eventually the pressure becomes too great and the rocks rupture that rupture creates an earthquake the sound waves traveling through the earth are seismic tremors which scientists measure today's quake registered six point six on the Richter scale each number on the scale signifies a force earth quake could have been much worse here's a list of the most disastrous this century the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 measured an eight point three the 1989 San Francisco quake was a seven which is still four times more powerful than the one today perhaps we can put this in a little better perspective with us is Waverly person who is with the National Earthquake Center in Golden Colorado and has been following this all through the day mr. person give us just a sense of it we say at six point six on the Richter scale not nearly as bad as other earthquakes we have seen that have been called major earthquakes but where does this fit in that hierarchy of quakes that you've followed this is a strong earthquake magnitude six point six and what one has to realize that this earthquake occurred in a heavily populated area it was a shallow earthquake and that's the reason for the damage that we have been experiencing in that area is because of being in a heavily populated area and this is why we have the death toll that we have and the damage that we have is because it's right in a heavily populated area I see behind you what looks to be a sort of real with some ink that is on it yeah this is the this is a seismograph station that's very close to the epicenter if you note now you can see the pin going this is one of the aftershocks that probably in the magnitude three and a half range the last aftershock that we had what four forty three was a magnitude five point one which has been about the fourth one that we have had that has been in the magnitude five range this one right here if you note is going now it could be approaching a magnitude four can we expect that these aftershocks will now diminish all the way to the next 72 hours the longer we go they will diminish if they follow the same pattern that we've had a number of years and this is what we expect in we are hoping that the larger aftershocks have occurred and within the next 24 to 48 hours we hope they will subside considerably but the aftershocks themselves could last several months but they would be very small wavy person that the National Earthquake Center in Golden Colorado thank you sir for putting that in perspective for us certainly as we look through the city now the lights beginning to twinkle this is the area that does have some electricity we've got a lot of homes that do not have electricity all through the area and they're going to be without it for a long time this picture is breaking up becomes some of the problems of transmission that we have to face we've got the science down now this is what happened but the bottom line is we have to learn how to deal with these earthquakes that we're going to live in the area where they take place more and more buildings more and more roads are designed to be earthquake proof just as we mentioned the highways were designed to deal with earthquakes does that mean that they're fail-safe obviously not and the Los Angeles quake is proof of that Ken Kashiwaha reports from San Francisco which is as you know another California City that's seen its share of these quakes San Franciscans remember 1989 and the last major earthquake to hit a metropolitan area it registered 7.1 on the Richter scale and like Los Angeles destroyed homes and businesses and freeways total damage nearly six billion dollars 63 people were killed many when the Cypress freeway collapsed in Oakland that freeway still has not been replaced and other freeways are still being repaired four years ago officials here in the San Francisco area didn't learn anything they didn't already know structures and highways that were built or rebuilt to earthquake standards survived those that had not been strengthened for lack of political will or money did not there were few surprises so in Los Angeles what withstood today's earthquake and what didn't in this place that often looked more like a war zone than a city buildings like this parking garage just collapsed low buildings department stores garages and part of a hospital are least able to withstand the quake when those buildings are brittle and made of brick or masonry in the suburb of Northridge a corner of Bullock's department store was reduced to a pile of concrete prefab buildings with weak connections don't do well in a strong quake with an epicenter so close by the vast majority of buildings were not damaged there was less damage to taller buildings in earthquakes taller buildings with steel frames built to earthquake codes tend to sway when the ground shakes but not collapse but this was a surprise an apartment building not only built to earthquake standards but built on rollers to sway during a quake suffered major structural damage Paul Johnston is a structural engineer the system of rollers that allows the ground to move separate from the structure which should result types of isolation systems are fairly new and in actual practice they've been designing them for some years but they haven't had that much experience yet so what does this tell you what it tells me is that we we are going to learn from their from that experience as for the maze of freeways that make up LA skyline there were major collapses especially on the overpasses with long distances between supporting columns experts say highways can be retrofitted but to do an entire city like Los Angeles is enormously expensive and even that is no guarantee that overpasses will hold up in a strong earthquake highway I5 was so close to the epicenter experts say the damage may have been unavoidable but farther away on the Santa Monica freeway the damage may have had a different cause bridge abutments like this one are often shaken as the soil underneath shifts the weaker the soil the worse the danger still while twisted wreckage now replaces much of the freeways other highways and overpasses were not damaged and underground there are dangers water mains and gas lines often run next to each other when an earthquake ruptures one it can lead to an explosion of water followed by gas fires that roar through the city all day experts say it could have been worse if the quake had been stronger more gas lines could have ruptured the lesson of these last two quakes in San Francisco and Los Angeles can a city ever really be earthquake proof Los Angeles is upgrading its older structures but that takes time and money in this state where 80% of the people live near an active fault line experts say each earthquake reveals how much more needs to be learned most of the damage that occurred in Oakland or San Francisco is some 50 miles or so away here we're in the San Fernando Valley is very heavily built up area so just the the much greater population of buildings is going to result in what seems to be a lot more damage as the experience in San Francisco has shown Los Angeles residents can look forward to weeks and months of disruption and inconvenience as they try to get to work as they go about their daily lives freeways and buildings will have to be repaired and retrofitted to earthquake standards the cost will be enormous and it will take years to complete the cost there's a very big problem we should also point out that many of the buildings damaged in today's quake in Los Angeles are either under insured or they are not covered by insurance at all President Clinton signing of a declaration today assures that federal tax dollars and a lot of them will be pouring into the region to offer assistance and state assembly speaker Willie Brown up in Sacramento said today that lawmakers there should consider raising the state sales tax a quarter percent deal with damage caused by the Northridge earthquake it means that United States taxpayers and California taxpayers will be paying for this damage for a long time to come we'll be coming back in just one moment day one will continue could you take a picture of us over there if you take off to the Italian town of toady but your camera just takes off we pick out you better have Visa gold because there's not a camera store there that takes American Express there's a great shot these are going everywhere you want to be cool when it comes to fighting tooth decay Colgate is used to prevent more cavities and keep more teeth strong and healthy than any other brand of toothpaste in the world any cavities takes Colgate are your friends car guys car guys talk horsepower they talk acceleration they talk big fat tires now why not invite your pals over and give them something to really talk about introducing the four-wheel-drive passport from Honda how come your skin has been looking so good lately are you think some $20 ounce moisturizer me I'm using this great one from suave suave uh-huh they make a moisturizer oh yeah no kidding no kidding I didn't know that he broke the first rule of the FBI just gotta get lucky every so often he slept with his informant I'm crazy about this man can't you hear me he's a married man now you're trying to make it look like I screwed up a rookie has it out for Kelly I think that you are trying to demean me in the eyes of a woman I'm Andy you want to hurt yourself around here NYPD blue Tuesday of your discretion advised the California earthquake this special edition of day one will continue after this from our ABC station tonight on nightline death damage and terror it's the worst earthquake to hit Los Angeles this century and nightline will be there to bring you the latest among the worst doing without electricity of the large segments of that story once again for us on we have been talking about some of the damage and why it was caused from the scientific issues surrounding us but we should not forget the most significant aspect of all of this is that so many people's lives are affected once again the death toll that we have at this point is that 27 people have been killed it is a worry and and probably a likelihood that that death toll will increase there are so many people out searching right now through the level rubble to see if there are bodies there to see if there may be some survivors who are still trapped it is indeed possible that there are still survivors out there so much of the city is that without electricity right now as many as a million homes and businesses so that part of the city has been blocked out as a consequence mayor Richard Reardon has issued a dawn dust to dawn curfew that is for those people who do not need to be out who do not need to seek help they should remain in their homes LAPD the Los Angeles Police Department and some 1500 National Guardsmen are out there to enforce this curfew and to try to prevent looting of which we saw at least some this morning sporadic looting we've heard so many many stories from people who lived through this quake who suffered through it so many stories of people who lost everything they had let us show you just one this is high and Lillian Shechtman Los Angeles residents who lived in this same apartment for 17 years now they had to leave that apartment earlier today they didn't they then returned with their children and grandchildren we were there to go along with them to see what had happened to their home take a look my windows are how I know, let's get under there. Grandma, let's get under there. Grandma, get under there. Absolutely devastating. And what's more, we don't even know whether our building is going to remain intact, whether or not we're going to be condemned and the building will have to come down. Now remember, 17 years in this apartment for the Sheckmans, they had so much life there, and we learned tonight that in fact the Sheckmans apartment has been condemned. They'll have to leave there and leave that portion of their life behind. And this story is repeated over and over and over again countless thousands of times. Now we know that hundreds of thousands of people are also, as I told you, without power in Los Angeles, so many people forced from their homes just as the Sheckmans are. John McKenzie is in Glendale. He found families who are learning for the first time in their lives what it's like to live in a shelter. When did you first get the call to open up the shelter? We got the call about 6 a.m. this morning to get the shelter ready to put on a standby status, which we did and had personnel here about 7 o'clock in the morning. And when did you open the doors? At 7 15. William Dutton is the regional director of the Red Cross in the Glendale area, just north of Los Angeles and 20 miles from the Quakes epicenter. Now how many people can you accommodate? We can accommodate up to 300 people in the shelter and currently we have 308 or maximum capacity right now. How did you make your way to the shelter? We waited until the fire crew came and they went through and decided that some of the apartments were condemned and they told us all to get out. So we caravanned over here. The fire department told you that the shelter existed and that's how you got in? Yeah, to get out of there. So what's going to happen to you now? We don't know. We have to wait until the people come and tell us what to do and how to get our money. We're a family zone Minnesota. And where are we going to move to? Hopefully we'll get our security philopods back and maybe some government relief or something, some help some way. What are you providing for people who come? We're providing food, shelter, a little bit later on if they need clothing. As a result of the earthquake we'll provide that for them as well. Medical attention, we've set up a first aid station, so whatever the needs are at this point. Now how long can you continue providing? We'll provide this at least for several days, but as long as the need still arises in this area we'll provide the assistance. For you tonight, what's the biggest single problem? Our biggest single problem is making sure that my mother is comfortable after hip surgery. I mean that's our biggest problem. And we're alive and hopefully everybody else is okay. What are the problems you're anticipating now? We don't know where to go. We don't know where to go because when we can't go back to the house it's completely submerged in water. About one foot of the pipe broke and the house is completely wrecked. So if we don't find a hotel room we'll have a problem. Where will you stay? I don't know. I don't have an alternative. I'd have to stay here. How long? I don't know. I may go to Palisades. My son lives in Palisades. We don't even have gas in the car. We don't have gas in the car, but it's got to go down there now. For many of the people here tonight, one worry is how secure are their homes from looters. So the National Guard company based out of this armory has been deployed into the streets. Few people here know how long it will be before they can return to what's left of their homes. So how are you going to find where to come place to live? What do you do? I don't know. They're going to tell us tonight and hopefully the disaster relief or whatever will. Provide information on where to go. Tomorrow night and the night after that, do you have any ideas? I have no idea. People who had homes, who had all their belongings, who had safe lives are instantly reduced to a cotton, a blanket, and just the clothes that they have on their backs. That of course just one shelter that there are so many that are scattered throughout the city. We're at the Red Cross shelter. Where this is is Peggy Hines, who is with the American Red Cross. Miss Hines, how many other shelters are there throughout Los Angeles now? Well at the last count, and obviously the number is rising steadily, we're at about 21 Red Cross shelters throughout the affected area. What are you trying to do at this point? We are trying to provide a comfort level. The main goal of the Red Cross, as many people know, is to be that immediate aid following any disaster, large or small. In this case, obviously it is a catastrophic disaster. We are opening shelters in the affected areas just as quickly as we can get there. And in an earthquake, it's a little different than following many disasters in that we have to make sure the locations we have picked for Red Cross shelters are structurally sound. So safety tests have to be made on all of these auditoriums and gyms. And as soon as they are deemed safe, we are asking anyone in the public in the Los Angeles area who has suffered damage, or maybe is just a little afraid and doesn't want to sleep in their own home tonight, to come to Red Cross Shelter. The goal of the shelters is to provide, as you've heard in the interviews, a safe place to stay, a warm meal, some comfort and personal care from the Red Cross workers there. I would think that for a lot of the people who are in the area, the problem is just knowing where to go for a Red Cross shelter. Absolutely. That's a heroic task that we've been at all day just trying to update via the media over and over where these shelters are. You have people who are scared, who maybe have a radio, maybe not. You know, we teach earthquake preparedness around the clock, around the year in Southern California. But if you don't know ahead of time to have that battery-operated radio and all those earthquake supplies, you can quite literally be homeless and with no communication in a matter of seconds. Do you have enough cots, enough food, enough blankets? Well, the American Red Cross is a fabulous network across the country. And we, knowing that we will have earthquakes, have thousands of such supplies on hand. But the marvelous thing about being part of the Red Cross is that in warehouses across the country, we have other Red Cross officials standing by and with one phone call we can get more supplies in if we need them. So it's a fabulous network, as you know, mostly volunteers who are surrounding me in this room and will be working around the clock for days and weeks bringing aid to these people. How many people are there who are without homes at this point? Do you have an idea? Counting the numbers of people homeless is very, very difficult. We have some people who are choosing to sleep in parks rather than come into a shelter because of the shocks and things. So we don't have a firm count on those people. They've chosen to stay outside. We know in our shelters alone we have a couple thousand. We also know we're opening shelters about every half hour I looked up and it looks like we've added another shelter. So the only firm count we have this evening is those who have actually come in and checked into shelters. What we will also begin to do is go out and do mass feeding over the next few days, feeding off of our Red Cross emergency response vehicles, those people who may be deciding to stay close to their home or in these park facilities and so forth to make sure we're outreaching those people as well. Just about 15 seconds left in the time. Elizabeth Dole, who is the director of the Red Cross, has arrived there in Los Angeles. What will she be doing? Yes, Elizabeth Dole has arrived this evening. She is being given a very quick briefing and orientation to the affected areas. She will be going out first thing in the morning and assessing the damage. And as I said, we're a very large community of Red Cross workers. She is the head of that community, if you will. So she will see what the needs are, help us convey to the communities and to the broad public across the country how they can help, where the needs are, and what her assessment is of how the work is going out here. Peggy Hines with the American Red Cross. We're sorry you're doing some very good work and we appreciate you talking with us tonight. Thank you so much. As you see, the American Red Cross is working very hard to make sure that people who do not have homes at least have shelter through the evening. But there will continue to be problems all through the night, through the next day, as the city of Los Angeles is trying to adjust. In just a moment, Peter Jennings looks at the crisis. MCI calls and they want to... Let's do it. Did I get into all the drugs and start mugging people? Daddy, did you even book for a job today? No, Ma. Marijuana can make nothing happen to you, too. Wednesday on Birdland. ...for you if you are trying to find out about a relative, a loved one, or family members who are in Los Angeles. It is hard to get through the phone lines there. They're trying to use them for emergency services only. But here is a hotline where you can begin to track down what has happened. It is 2137395200. 2137395200. I know it is difficult. You must try to be patient as you seek to find out what has happened in Los Angeles to those that you care about. Peter Jennings in Los Angeles covering this all through the day. And Peter, it is striking how people in Los Angeles have shown such courage in dealing with this. It is a difficult problem and they are standing right up to it. Yeah, we have been through this before for us. It is terrible that 29 people died today. But in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake and in the 71 earthquake out here, many more people died, almost 60 in both cases. One of the things that has always struck me about Californians in a situation like this is they are divided into really three categories. There are those who are just full of bravado and almost want to challenge nature, which we all know is thoroughly stupid. There are those who are just resigned to the fact that California has to endure this over a long period of time. And I will be at all surprised if tomorrow some people up here in the San Fernando Valley decide enough is enough and pick up and pack their bags and decide to move to another part of the country. Because since 1986 out here, the earthquake intensity has increased. There have been seven major earthquakes out here since 1986. And that is reason for people to be more concerned than they used to be. Governor Pete Wilson in frustration said, I don't know how much Angelino's can expect to put up with. They have had a very difficult year from riots to economic problems and now the earthquakes. Well, we were talking about that at the beginning of the broadcast about the riots and the fires and now the earthquake. I must say that as much as we like to think that we do on television and the one thing we can bring people that other mediums can't is the pictures. But the big element out here in a disaster like this is very often radio. And tonight the sun has gone down here in the valley. People are wondering what to do tomorrow. Everybody's listening to radio. We heard one local radio station refer to itself as a 50,000 watt therapy session. And it's perfectly correct because it's through radio and local television that people will know what tomorrow holds. It is important to point out, Peter, this remains an emergency situation in Los Angeles. There are people still pouring into the hospitals. There are so many who are without homes or without electricity or safe drinking water. So we are looking at some difficult hours through the night and on into the next day. Oh, I think more even more than that for us. We've talked a lot of the broadcast about the tremendous wound that has been done to this state's freeway and highway system. And what's even been worse, the people have had to get off those freeways and onto already heavily traveled roads. So for the week or so from now, these Californians who come and go in their automobiles are going to wonder what to do. And it's going to be an enormous problem, not to mention the aftershocks, which may go on for a week. So they have a lot ahead of them, which is pretty heavy. As for the highways, Peter, in San Francisco there are still some areas that haven't even been filled up. So I guess, yes, there are some difficulties, you would say. Indeed. Peter Jennings in Los Angeles. Thank you, Peter. And I should point out that on Nightline tonight, continuing coverage of the earthquake in Los Angeles and ABC News will through the evening also bring you further coverage of that and on into the night. That is the latest news from ABC News. Day one, I am Forrest Sawyer. Thank you. And we wish you a very good evening. This has been Day One. Day One is a presentation of ABC News. More Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source.