Imperial Valley press., 1933-03-13

Cioil was disturbed by heaVy recur>
rent shocks.
A temblor at 5:16 a. m. was list
ed as the strongest since the orig
1nal 5:55 p. m. jolt Friday that
spread death and destruction
through a dozen Southern Cali
fornia cities.
LOS ANGELES, March 13. =
Southern California, emerging from
the terror and desolation of a major
disaster, was able to approximate
for the first time today the Stagger-
ing cost of an earthquake that
spread death in a score of towns
and cities.
The list OF fatalities from Fri
day nights shocks hovered around
135 as authorities began checking
reported missing or unaccounted
for. So great was the confusion
that even coroner's deputies had
conflicting lists Of victims.
AS reports of wrecking crews
reached headquarters in the strick-
en- districts. the possibility devel-
oped that composite property losses
might reach $60,000,0O0 Ill the 400
square miles visited by the temblor.
This was almost 10 times the ini-
tial estimates made Saturday.
First inspections, officials said, did
not reveal the true extent of the
damage sustained by Long Beach,
Compton, Huntington Park, Los
Angeles and other cities within the
shaken area.
The composite loss figure, grow
ing hourly as more detailed reports
came in from the ravaged cities,
appalled, local and governmental
officials faced with the task OF re-
habilitation.
Their proplem was the more acute
because of the national financial
crisis, and the fact that Southern
California at the moment was un-
able to help itself through open
banking channels.
Meantime the rank and file of
citizenry in the damaged towns
viewed with renewed alarm incrcas-
ing intensity of the Settling
quakes."
After every disastrous temblor in
the states history, including the
San Francisco and Santa Barbara
catastrophies, a series of settling
quakes" diminishing regularly in
intensity followed the initial heavy
shocks,
Many Shocks
Thus far, Seismologists estimated,
more than 1000 separate settling
quakes have rolled northward across
the Los Angeles-Long Beach-San
Pedro triangle.
Minor temblors occur almost hour
ly, but of late the graph has been
punctuated by heavy, jolting shocks.
The new series began at 10 p. m.
Saturday. A second shock occur
red at 10:30. Sunday morning at
6:l9 a short, swift jerk brought
weary Long Beach to its feet III
alarm. Sunday night at 1887 a
persistent roller moved up from
Long Beach to and through Los
Angeles Another strong shock
came at SIG today
Travelling speed of the quakes can
be measured. In a long distance
conversation, Vincent Mahoncy,
United Press staff correspondent at
Long Beach, told A. w. Edwards,
night manager at Los Angeles, that
a temblor was rocking Long Beach.
Two seconds later Edwards clocked
the same quake in Los Angeles.
Despite popular fear that the
temblors were increasing in inten-
sity, DR.. H. o. Wood of the Carne-
gle Institute at Pasadena and other
eminent seismologists asserted the
affected area merely was sustain
ing the normal settling quakes
which eventually will die out.
Damage Mounting
Damage estimates were compiled
by the United Press today from the
following sources:
Long Beach-Charles S. Hcnder-
son, reconstruction dictator, wired
Gov. James Rolph at Sacramento
asking the legislature Immediately
to appropriate 100000 for emer-
gency food supplies.
D. w. Pontius, president OF the
Pacific Electric railway and MEM
Der of the governors disaster-relief
committee, estimated property DAM
age at $25 100000. Later, Hender-
son said current estimates ranged
to $50,000,000."
Long Beach Press-Telegram sur
veved the suburban area and esti-
mated the additional damage at
s1980O,000.
A conservative average OF the to-
tal drawn from the above sources,
would be about $40,0o0,0oO.
other estimates and sources from
which United Press obtained the
figures: -
yr..4,~otor pork-N0 6(l0 900 Ste