Quake

Efforts to improve earthquake safety in California have hit roadblocks at the state and local levels as memories of major temblors fade and lawmakers and business owners balk at the high costs of retrofitting structures. Last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed funds for the California Seismic Safety Commission, an independent panel charged with reviewing and recommending legislation and policy on earthquake safety. State employees were doing similar work, he said. The veto was the latest of several setbacks in Sacramento for seismic safety advocates.

BANTUL, Indonesia -- At least 3,700 people were killed and thousands more were injured yesterday in a powerful earthquake that struck densely populated central Java island and reduced thousands of homes to rubble. When the earth began trembling at dawn, panicked Indonesians scrambled from their beds "like being chased by thunder." The magnitude-6.3 offshore quake flattened buildings, damaged bridges and roads, and knocked out electricity for miles inland. Rescuers searched for survivors and hospitals overflowed with the injured.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Rescue teams and family members searched frantically for survivors late yesterday in a string of villages in southwestern Pakistan where at least 170 people were killed by a powerful earthquake. Thousands of people were left homeless by the predawn temblor in the rural area, where many residents live in mud-brick homes that collapsed with the force of the magnitude 6.4 quake. Authorities said the death toll could rise as rescuers enter remote villages that had been cut off by landslides.

CHONGQING, China -- A powerful earthquake rocked China from mountains to coast yesterday afternoon, knocking down schools, homes and factories, and killing nearly 10,000 people. The quake was centered in western China's Sichuan province but was so powerful that it was felt over thousands of miles from Beijing to Bangkok, Thailand. It forced the evacuation of China's tallest building, Shanghai's Jinmao Tower, and sent high-rise workers around the country scurrying for safety. China instituted tight controls on information, setting up checkpoints to bar Chinese and foreign correspondents from severely affected areas.

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- With hope of finding survivors of Turkey's devastating earthquake all but gone, the Turkish authorities are turning their attention to caring for those who have survived.A full-scale relief effort in the area hit by the earthquake is finally beginning after days of confusion. Turkish and foreign volunteers have been joined by soldiers and police, and heavy equipment has been moved to almost every town stricken by the quake.Divers scoured the Sea of Marmara yesterday for the first time since the quake and reported that they had found more than 150 bodies.

GARHI HABIBULLAH, Pakistan -- The black wires running through the ruins in this mountain town struck a local Muslim cleric as a message from God. The wires had delivered cable television to about 300 homes and businesses in the town, which was devastated by the Oct. 8 earthquake. Imam Shafqat ur-Rehman is convinced that the natural disaster was God's punishment for people viewing too much cable smut. "Cable TV is a source of vulgarity and obscenity," said the imam, who heads a local madrasa, or Islamic school.

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia --Significant amounts of aid began arriving yesterday in Bantul, the town south of this city that was hit the hardest by Saturday's earthquake, but a nearby volcano substantially increased its threatening activity. For the third night in a row, residents in Bantul and in Klaten, another ravaged town, slept outside their houses, grouped around campfires and using debris for cover from the rain. Some strummed guitars; others, kneeling on mats, prayed for help. Mount Merapi, a 9,800-foot volcano north of Yogyakarta, has been close to an eruption for nearly a month, but activity weakened in recent weeks.

BEIJING - The danger is far from over in the mountainous terrain where last week's earthquake struck, with the risks of landslides, avalanches and flooding growing higher as the summer rainy season begins, Chinese officials said yesterday. The warning came as the death toll from the May 12 quake rose to 51,151, with nearly 30,000 people still missing. More than 5 million are homeless and may not be able to rebuild their houses any time soon, or ever, because of the instability of the terrain.

KOBE, Japan -- More than two days after the deadliest earthquake to hit Japan in almost half a century, the ambulances are still rushing the shattered human debris to Kobe's Shinko Hospital.Amid a scene that is more devastating than any residents have seen since the Allied bombings of World War II, every hour a few more people are uncovered from the vast piles of rubble.The living are quickly brought to the hospital.Shinko is Kobe's newest hospital. It opened last May. The 240-bed facility is equipped as well as, if not better than, any institution to handle disasters.

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. -- Happily secluded from the metropolis 30 miles away, residents of this picturesque desert valley north of Los Angeles are finding themselves trapped in their own paradise.Many of them had fled up the Golden State Freeway over the last decade in search of a spot where the streets were safer and the air clear enough for a view of the encircling San Gabriel, Santa Susana and Tehachapi Mountains.Their entire outlook changed at 4:31 a.m. on Jan. 17.When the 6.6-magnitude earthquake dropped the Golden State Freeway like it was made of toy blocks, people in the Santa Clarita Valley realized how tenuous and how important their sole concrete connection to the big city really was.Suddenly, half of those in the valley's work force found that, instead of their usual 30- to 40-minute commute, they had to endure five-hour, bumper-to-bumper trips on side roads.