Scouts Unscathed After Shaky Camp-Out : Brownies: Anaheim troop flees cabin after first quake only to find way home blocked by second.

By TERRY SPENCER

June 30, 1992 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The girls of Anaheim’s Brownie Scout Troop 899 had gone to Big Bear Lake to learn about nature. On Saturday they saw flowers, trees and butterflies, but on Sunday nature taught the nine girls about its ferocity as well.

First one powerful earthquake forced them to flee their cabin, then a second made them turn back as they attempted to drive out of the mountainous region.

“I’m never going on a camping trip again, unless we call the news first and they tell us there aren’t going to be any earthquakes,” said Dominique O’Sullivan, 7.

While none of the girls--ages 6 through 10--or their six adult chaperons was injured, the temblors did force the troop to set up a makeshift campsite in the parking lot of a severely damaged strip mall as they waited five hours for roads out of the area to be cleared.

If the troop didn’t go on any camping trips for a while, that would be just fine with some of the girls’ parents, who waited anxiously back in Anaheim before they learned that all were fine.

“When I found out (the second quake) was in Big Bear, I was extremely nervous, because I didn’t know what had happened to her,” said Brenda Huey, a registered nurse whose 8-year-old daughter Cliveta Alexander was on the trip. “I knew that they were staying in a cabin and I could see on TV that a lot of cabins were on fire.”

After a Saturday of play, the troop had finally gone to sleep about midnight at their rented cabin in the woods of the village of Big Bear Lake, said troop co-leader Brenda O’Sullivan, Dominique’s mother and an insurance agent.

But the troop was jolted awake five hours later by the the 7.4-magnitude earthquake centered near the small desert town of Landers. It was the strongest to hit California in 40 years.

“I have to give the school system credit because all of the girls knew what to do,” O’Sullivan said. Those who were sleeping on the floor rolled under tables, she said, while those in beds joined the adults in doorways. “They even knew that the first thing to do afterward was to put on their shoes.”

Cliveta, Huey’s daughter, was scared by the first quake and ran right to one of the women chaperons.

“I climbed her like a tree,” Cliveta said.

The adults decided it would be best if the troop left for home and at 8 a.m., the three-car caravan moved out. They had gone only blocks when the ground began to move violently and the cars bounced all over the highway as the 6.5-magnitude Big Bear quake struck on a fault just a few miles away.

“The trees were swinging back-and-forth and the road was rolling,” Cliveta said.

The adults turned the cars around and pulled into the strip mall parking lot. The windows of most stores were broken and merchandise was thrown everywhere, Brenda O’Sullivan said.

“But the fire department came by and shut the gas off and it was in the open, so we thought it would be safe,” she said.

The leaders pulled the cars next to each other and strung sleeping bags across to provide shade for the girls. The girls sat on the ground, which continued to periodically shake from aftershocks, and the adults led them in songs and games.

“I told the adults ‘Whatever you do, don’t cry,’ ” O’Sullivan said. “That will make the girls even more scared.”

By 1:30 p.m., the roads were reported clear, and the troop drove home without incident.

Both O’Sullivan and Huey said their daughters were “clinging” to them from the time they got home Sunday until they left for school Monday.

O’Sullivan said that even her own psyche was a bit frayed.

“I had a dream (Sunday) night where the ground was opening up and one of the girls was on the other side and I couldn’t reach her,” she said. “It’s a lot of responsibility being in charge of other parents’ children when something like this happens.”