The Firm Grasp of a Helping Hand : Aftershocks fail to shake a wonderful and growing spirit

The earth is still shaking--but Los Angeles’ newfound sense of community is growing firmer with each passing hour. In one magnificent gesture after another, the people of earthquake-racked Southern California are reaching out with assistance to victims of last week’s 6.6 temblor.

THE ‘OUTSIDERS’: From all over the region people have come to Los Angeles to help. From as far south as San Diego, technicians arrived to aid the Southern California Gas Co. in restoring natural gas service. From Ventura and Orange counties, volunteers of all sorts--and supplies of all kinds, from blankets to medicines to toys--flowed in to meet basic needs and to lift spirits.

Los Angeles school officials initially feared that as many as 100,000 students might be without classrooms this week. But that distressing number quickly was reduced to just 9,000--and the number of classrooms deemed unusable dropped from 1,500 on Saturday to just 500 by Sunday afternoon as crews worked through the weekend, shoring up walls and removing rubble. Officials are hoping to get that number down to 300 by today or Wednesday. Great work!

The National Guard came with prudent alacrity. No replay of the delay that occurred in the 1992 riots. And what about the alert work of the Police Department? Remember the 1992 debacle, when agonizing hours passed before the LAPD could get its act together? What a difference a new police chief, and a new mayor, can make. And, speaking of Mayor Richard Riordan, he has been all over town, coordinating post-quake operations with flair and competence.

THE LEADERSHIP: State and city workers have performed beyond the call of duty; whether inspired by leaders or the challenge of the moment, sanitation crews, building and safety inspectors and providers of social services and housing, among others, have responded splendidly.

And the federal government’s profile seems higher than in earlier disasters. No doubt President Clinton’s visit last week set the tone. The Federal Emergency Management Agency already has accepted nearly 64,000 applications for help and disbursed $1.8 million in checks for temporary housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which in the past steered clear of emergency situations, is now fully and productively involved. Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros responded with 10,000 new and coveted rental subsidies. He also streamlined the certification process so that poor families who lost everything in the quake could move quickly from tent cities and shelters to apartments. The first victims moved in on Sunday.

THE GOOD SAMARITANS: Disaster officials are also paying attention to hard-hit areas away from the epicenter in the San Fernando Valley. Residents of Santa Monica, Hollywood, Pico-Union, Inglewood and South Los Angeles lost their homes, too, and businesses in those areas--notably the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Mall--suffered.

In the Crenshaw district, an elderly disabled woman stood in line for more than five hours Thursday at the FEMA center. She had no electricity and needed food. When the woman learned that FEMA normally doesn’t provide those services, she left empty-handed. Fortunately, Carolyn Webb de Macias, the chief of staff for Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, intervened. She found the woman at a bus stop and gave her food coupons provided by the Lucky’s supermarket chain. Also, another good Samaritan left her place in line at that FEMA center to drive a sobbing young woman to a nearby homeless shelter. She was only one of thousands who put others first at assistance centers and stores and on the roads.

All of this adds up to a new spirit worth preserving--a spirit that Mayor Riordan insists won’t, this time, evaporate in a few weeks. We sincerely hope he is proven right.