The San Francisco Chronicle- Northern California earthquake: Blue-collar Vallejo hit hard

Blue-collar Vallejo may not get as much love as swanky, wine-sniffing Napa, but Sunday's magnitude 6.0 earthquake played no favorites, shaking at least $5.2 million worth of damage out of the largest city in Solano County.

Forty-nine people there were injured, and two remained hospitalized.

The old downtown section of Vallejo and new and old neighborhoods on Mare Island got throttled by the big shaker. Walls tumbled down, bricks rattled loose from scores of chimneys, hundreds of storefront windows shattered, and the brick parapet of one building crashed through two floors to the ground.

On Mare Island, water mains busted during the quake, sending precious drinking water flowing down the streets. Almost the entire brick front of one industrial building collapsed onto the street, and a block-long row of historic mansions on Walnut Avenue was damaged and cordoned off with yellow caution tape.

"Look ... nobody was killed. It's a blessing in disguise," said Buck Kamphausen, as he looked up through the giant holes in what were once the perfectly serviceable second and third stories of the old Crowley Department Store at 436 Georgia St. An adjacent apartment building that was home to eight residents had to be evacuated. "Everything could be worse."

Assessing aftermath

Meanwhile, city, state and federal inspectors went from building to building trying to assess the damage caused by the quake, which struck 8 miles northwest of Vallejo early Sunday and lasted 10 to 20 seconds.

"In the morning on Sunday, we thought at first that we came through this OK, but the more we learned, the more we are realizing that we were pretty seriously affected," said Daniel Keen, Vallejo's city manager.

By Monday evening, 20 people had been displaced, 10 buildings had been red-tagged as uninhabitable, 34 yellow-tagged - meaning they would need repairs before they're safe to enter - and the city had seen 21 water main breaks. Most of the injuries people suffered were described by officials as minor.

Among the condemned buildings were the U.S Post Office at 485 Santa Clara St. and the hulking brick First Baptist Church of Vallejo at the corner of Sonoma Boulevard and Carolina Street. The church was in such dire condition that officials closed Sonoma Boulevard in the area out of fear the building would collapse.

Residents and shopkeepers on Georgia, Virginia and, in particular, Tennessee streets spent Sunday and Monday boarding up windows, shoveling huge amounts of broken glass, cleaning up debris and negotiating with chimney repair workers.

Keen said the preliminary damage estimate is $5.2 million, "but we expect today as people return to their businesses and notice things wrong, they will give us a call, especially on Mare Island, where there are a lot of vacant buildings."

Keen said Mare Island is of particular concern.

"It's a historic district that supports 2,200 jobs, over 100 businesses and 200 to 300 homes," he said. "There is quite a bit of business out there."

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, whose district includes Vallejo, toured the downtown area Monday and said he is confident state and federal aid will be available to help Vallejo dig out.

"It's bad. If you are a property owner, you will have to deal with it," Thompson said. "We're going to work very hard to make sure we get people back on their feet as soon as we can."

While television news trucks and looky-loos crowded into Napa, the people of Vallejo were lending one another a hand.

The most hard-hit residential street in central Vallejo appeared to be Fern Place, where nearly every chimney had either collapsed or was on the verge of crumbling. Kayla Bernardy, 23, said her family's destroyed chimney was the least of her worries.

"I was pretty much terrified out of my mind," said Bernardy, who remembers screaming and tripping over debris as she made her way into her father's arms during the quake. "It was the biggest earthquake I've ever experienced in my life, and my dad said it shook more than the '89 quake."

Neighbors chipping in

One chimney crushed the car of one of their neighbors, and Bernardy said the residents on the block are planning to chip in to buy her a new car.

"All of us are pretty cooperative on our block," she said. "We all pretty much know each other. This has really focused everyone's attention on helping other people. It's really nice that people are willing to help because, in times like this, you should not have to do things by yourself."