And looking ahead to Good Morning America for you, the latest of course on the ongoing rescue and relief efforts in Southern California from Governor Pete Wilson and from others.
Spencer Christian will be at Caltech with the latest on the continuing tremor activity along this new fault line.
Transportation experts discuss the quakes enormous long-term impact on travel in and around Los Angeles and there will be dramatic stories of earthquake rescues.
Also don't forget World News tonight with Peter Jennings later this evening. He is in Los Angeles.
This is ABC's World News This Morning. We'll all see you tomorrow morning.
Morning. Dazed residents of Southern California huddle in the streets terrified to go back into what remains of their homes.
At the heart of the killer quake, the community of Northridge, this apartment complex, the site of numerous deaths.
And if this quake was still not the big one, scientists try to figure out just when that might come.
From ABC News, this is World News This Morning. Now from our headquarters in New York, Salya Ashura.
It is the morning after in Southern California, the morning after an earthquake heaved and hammered one of the most heavily populated areas in the country, the Los Angeles area.
At least 33 people were killed, 15 in one apartment building that collapsed in Northridge, the place epicenter. Thousands were injured throughout the region.
Damage caused by the quake itself and by fires it ignited was extensive. A few fires burned through the night.
We begin our series of reports this morning with ABC's Brian Rooney.
The mayor of Los Angeles declared a dusk to dawn curfew as the city began to assess the damage.
For the first time in our history, the entire city was dark for some period of time after the quake.
Power was restored in some areas, but the hardest hit parts of the city in San Fernando Valley could be without electricity anywhere from a few days to a week.
The water system in the northwest San Fernando Valley took a major hit with breaks in several main lines and an aqueduct that brings water down from the north.
Much of the area might be without water for days. Even as they dealt with the damage to homes and living without utilities, people were rocked by the aftershock.
They don't have any water. We're going to have to get some water for people, especially the older people.
You have a pregnant lady? Oh my goodness.
Some of the most serious damage was done to the Los Angeles freeway system.
Parts of the Santa Monica freeway collapsed, cutting off the most traveled road in America.
The Antelope Valley freeway and East West feeder collapsed onto the I-5 freeway, the major north-south artery between downtown and the San Fernando Valley.
Los Angeles was a collage of amazing sights. Neighborhoods burned to the ground, water mains creating beautiful fountains, a train full of chemicals off the tracks,
a tractor trailer stopped just feet from disaster, and clouds of dust rising from the mountains as they rumbled with aftershocks.
Brian Rooney, ABC News, Los Angeles.
And aftershocks are still rumbling through Southern California this morning, and that is increasing the fear of many who live there.
We get that part of the story from ABC's Ron Claiborne.
In parts of Los Angeles, frightened residents refuse to return to their homes, preferring to spend the first night after the big earthquake camped out in City Park with family and friends.
What exactly are you afraid of that keeps you from going home?
To be in there and can the apartment collapse and get more fur.
Is it safe out here?
I believe so.
Others passed the night on their front lawn, still fearing that the cracked walls and peeling ceilings in their own homes were just too vulnerable to aftershocks.
It's too scary being inside after seeing what happened with all those apartments that fell on top of each other. It's too scary.
At a nearby apartment complex, which was badly damaged by tremors and fire, only one of the 200 tenants remained last night, having volunteered to stick it out alone in case looters came around.
I don't feel too bad here, but when I go up to my apartment, it's kind of scary. It's still shaking up there.
In Sylmar, one of the most heavily damaged areas of Los Angeles, hundreds of residents fled their homes for emergency centers, where they were provided shelter, water, even free phone calls.
I'm fine. I just don't have to stand.
Bye-bye. I love you. Oh, God.
Some of them have actually had their houses destroyed, and some are coming because of medical needs. A lot of people have been injured.
The Red Cross said it was prepared to care for hundreds of people for at least the next three days.
Ron Claiborne, ABC News, Los Angeles.
There is no way for scientists to predict the exact time and date of an earthquake.
Yesterday's was not predicted, but architects and engineers have been trying to design buildings and bridges that will withstand the Earth's violence.
ABC's Ken Kashiwahara with more on that part of the story.
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 $6 billion.
Sixty-three people were killed, many when the Cypress Freeway collapsed in Oakland.
So in Los Angeles, what withstood the quake and what didn't?
Buildings like this parking garage just collapsed.
Low buildings, department stores, garages, and part of a hospital are least able to withstand the quake.
Free-fab 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.
As for the maze of freeways that make up L.A.'s skyline, there were major collapses.
Experts say highways can be retrofitted, but even that is no guarantee that overpasses will hold up in a strong earthquake.
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.
If an earthquake ruptures one, it can lead to an explosion of water, followed by gas fires that roar through the city all day.
As the experience in San Francisco has shown, Los Angeles residents can look forward to weeks and months of disruption and inconvenience.
Freeways and buildings will have to be repaired and retrofitted to earthquake standards.
The costs will be enormous, and it will take years to complete.
ABC's Ken Kashiwahara in Los Angeles. Treacherous winter weather in many parts of the country.
Also a big story this morning. This in North Dakota.
So let's go on to the national forecast for the center deep in the earth, miles below Northridge.
They say it was not the quake many have long feared. ABC's Gary Sheppard has more.
The big question on everyone's mind, was this the big one that has been predicted for years?
The answer is no, it was not.
When we talk about the very large earthquakes that happened in San Andreas, this was 100 or 1,000 times smaller than those huge earthquakes.
So this is certainly not the very large earthquakes that really can hit some in California.
Just the same, seismologists say this quake was the most powerful to hit the area in 23 years.
It was centered in Northridge in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.
It was not on the well-known San Andreas fault, but on a previously unknown fault line.
If this is the surface, one side of the fault slides up, thrusts up over the other side.
So the surface of the ground shortens a little bit.
Scientists say the Los Angeles area has been very active seismologically for the past six years.
And they admit there is a slim chance of an even bigger quake during the next five days.
We have the potential for even larger than this in Los Angeles.
Now of course the big deal here is that it's located directly underneath the city.
Scientists here say there have been dozens of aftershocks in the hours since the main quake, and they expect dozens more during the next several days.
Some of them with an intensity as high as 5.5 on the Richter scale, which could cause more property damage.
Gary Shepard, ABC News, Pasadena.
We have other news to report to you this morning.
Skater Nancy Kerrigan is once again showing her elegance on ice.
Kerrigan skated publicly yesterday for the first time since the man clubbed her leg 12 days ago.
She practiced a limited routine for about an hour at an ice rink near her home in Stonem, Massachusetts.
It was great. I was really glad to be out there.
As they say, I was kind of stiff at first, my knee was flat.
Everything kind of was in the morning, my knee especially.
After I kept going it loosened up more and more and it felt better.
But it was kind of warm, that's how I wanted it to feel.
And here's a look at some of the events making news in the day.
We'll resume in the Lorena Bobbitt case.
She is being tried, as you know, for the sexual mutilation of her husband.
And in Batesville, Mississippi, jury selection begins in the third trial of white supremacist Byron de la Bequith for the 1963 movie.
Good morning everyone, I'm Charles Gibson.
This morning about 20 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles in the community of Northridge,
which as you know was the epicenter of yesterday's quake.
And I am Joan London in New York. It is Tuesday, January 18th. Charlie?
And Joan, I am in Northridge. They're now calling it the Northridge Quake.
And I guess it will here and after always be known as such.
The toll as it stands right now, at least 33 dead. That quake caused more than 100 fires and injured and damaged more than a thousand buildings.
I am at the Northridge Meadows Apartments, which has really come to symbolize the devastation of this quake.
It was a three-story apartment building that really pancaked down to become a two-story disaster area.
And you can get a sense if you look at the roofline, one of the buildings there that was not damaged,
standing with its original roofline and then you can see the roofline right below it of the building that collapsed about 8 to 10 feet,
crushing people in the first floor apartments. The search was still going on just a few hours before we went on the air.
We have some pictures of that search as rescue workers were going through the apartments,
looking perhaps for more victims using dogs in the search.
15 people died here yesterday. More could have died, but we'll talk to some of the heroes at this complex
who went back into the building to save their neighbors. Joan?
Well, also ahead we will find out from Governor Pete Wilson how the state is responding to this latest natural disaster to hit California.
And we will also see what can be done to re-stitch all those torn-up freeways, which are of course the lifeblood of Southern California.
And standing by in Pasadena is Spencer Christian. Spencer, good morning.
Good morning, Joan. I'm at the seismology lab of Caltech, or California Institute of Technology.
Behind me seismographic drum records providing constant readings of seismic activity, of which there has been a great deal.
And we'll give you the latest information on seismic activity and the latest weather in this half hour. Joan?
All right, thank you, Spencer. Let's get right to the news now with Morton Dean. Mort, good morning.
Good morning, Joan, and good morning, everyone. No power, no water, and no place to live.
That sums up the situation for many people in Southern California on this morning after the earthquake.
Scientists report the quake was caused when a previously unknown fault ruptured about nine miles beneath the Northridge section of Los Angeles.
At least 33 people were killed in the quake. The number of injured is in the thousands.
Four hundred thousand homes and businesses in the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles are without electricity.
Fifty thousand homes are without running water, and those with water are urged to boil it before using it.
At least six people have been arrested and charged with looting.
The toll continued to mount during the night as emergency crews searched through the rubble and a few fires continued to burn.
We begin our series of reports this morning with ABC's Brian Rooney.
The fire at an apartment complex fed by a broken gas main burned into the night in the Granada Hills in the north end of Los Angeles.
Other scattered fires also burned, and people who lost their homes or were afraid to go back inside camped out.
They filled a field with parked cars. They were on a tennis court and front lawns.
The ground has been moving. It has been moving all afternoon. It's starting to get on my nerves.
At the collapsed apartment building in Northridge, where the greatest number of people died, firefighters brought out two bodies.
The mayor of Los Angeles declared a dusk to dawn curfew as the city began to assess the damage.
For the first time in our history, the entire city was dark for some period of time after the quake.
Power was restored in some areas, but the hardest hit parts of the city in San Fernando Valley could be without electricity anywhere from a few days to a week.
The water system in the northwest San Fernando Valley took a major hit, with breaks in several main lines and an aqueduct that brings water down from the north.
Much of the area might be without water for days. Even as they dealt with the damage to homes and living without utilities, people were rocked by the aftershocks.
We don't have any water. We're going to have to get some water for people, especially the older people.
We have a pregnant lady. Oh, my goodness.
Some of the most serious damage was done to the Los Angeles freeway system.
Parts of the Santa Monica freeway collapsed, cutting off the most traveled road in America.
The Antelope Valley freeway and East West Theater collapsed onto the I-5 freeway, the major north-south artery between downtown and the San Fernando Valley.
Los Angeles was a collage of amazing sights. Neighborhoods burned to the ground, water mains creating beautiful fountains, a train full of chemicals off the tracks,
a tractor trailer stopped just feet from disaster, and clouds of dust rising from the mountains as they rumbled with aftershocks.
Brian Rooney, ABC News, Los Angeles.
An example of how devastating and deadly an earthquake can be is found at an intersection in California where Interstate 5 and State Highway 14 meet.
And that's where ABC's Ron Claiborne is this morning. Ron, have the structural engineers, the highway engineers, showed up as yet?
Yeah, just a little while ago, Morton, a couple of structural engineers from the University of California at San Diego who are advising the State Transportation Department
on repairs that is retrofitting these damaged freeways to see what can be done to make them safer, more resistant to earthquakes in the future,
have shown up here where we are, which is Highway 14 and Interstate 5, where some of the most significant damage to the freeways has occurred in the Los Angeles area.
This is just one, though, of at least four or five other major highways that have been badly damaged during this earthquake.
Ron, are you still feeling the shocks and aftershocks?
They're diminishing. They're not as frequent. They're not as strong, but they're still occurring.
There have been a couple just in the last half hour or so, just before dawn now. So the aftershocks are going on.
They're expected to continue throughout the day, possibly even into tomorrow.
Ron, are people going to work today, and if so, how are they getting around the damage, an example of which we do see behind you?
Well, many people are not going to work. Schools are closed. A lot of government buildings are closed.
A lot of private businesses are closed, but that still leaves millions of people trying to get to work who have to go to work.
And really in Los Angeles, the public transportation system is not a viable alternative for many people.
So they're taking their cars out, they're fighting the traffic, and they're losing.
Thank you, Ron. Ron Claiborne.
A quick reaction from President Clinton and federal emergency officials.
Even before Mr. Clinton signed a disaster declaration, military planes were in the air and federal rescue crews were activated.
For more on the response from Washington, we go to ABC's Ann Compton, who is at the White House this morning.
Good morning, Ann, and specifically, what is Washington doing?
Well, this near-record speed with which the president has signed the order sets some short-term goals going,
including some of the medical teams, generators, water, things like that.
But it's really the long-term federal aid where the federal government comes into play.
President Clinton said what he thinks will be the most expensive job now is repairing L.A. freeways,
but of course the U.S. government will also give help to the areas of refixing buildings, schools.
Even low-income residents could get as much as a $12,000 individual grant from the federal government,
along with a possibility of food stamps.
The president also said that he hoped that there would be some moral support for a hard-hit Southern California.
He said particularly that Americans should have Southern California in its prayers over the coming days. Mort?
And do we know how much money the federal government is planning to provide, or is it just too early for that?
Not yet, Mort. Much too early for that.
And thank you very much, Ann Compton at the White House.
Finally, it's become almost a weekly winter occurrence in the eastern half of the nation.
Heavy snow or icy rain, followed by a blast of brutal cold from Georgia to Massachusetts yesterday,
freezing rain glazed roads and made traveling treacherous.
At least 18 deaths are blamed on the latest storm.
The Northern Plains and the Ohio Valley are digging out from under lots of snow,
as much as three feet of it in some places.
And in Minneapolis, just before dawn this morning, the thermometer hit 25 below zero,
not counting the wind chill factor.
And that's ABC News on the hour. Here's Joan.
All right. Thank you very much, Mort. And right now it is nine minutes past seven Pacific time.
But under a veil of snow...