EARTHQUAKE: THE ROAD TO RECOVERY : Residents’ Affection for City Remains Intact

SANTA CLARITA —  When the Northridge earthquake shook up Tony Vairo’s house in Valencia, “anything that could break, broke,” the San Fernando city police detective recalls.

Yet even though the damage to his house totaled $10,000 and his commute to work initially jumped from 20 minutes to an hour, Vairo’s affection for Santa Clarita is unshaken.

After living in Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, Vairo, a father of two, moved to Santa Clarita six years ago because of its carefully designed neighborhoods, low crime rate and proximity to his workplace.

“I still like Santa Clarita,” said Vairo, who will seek a low-interest loan to help put his house back together. “It’s a great town. Everybody’s friendly. . . . When the earthquake happened, everybody on my block was going around helping everybody else.”

Despite scattered reports of beleaguered residents who are anxious to relocate, there is no evidence that a mass exodus from the Santa Clarita Valley is under way. Housing prices have held steady, and there’s been no rush to put homes up for sale, real estate agents say.

Some civic leaders believe the quake helped join neighbors and business owners in support of Santa Clarita. “We were a fragmented city before,” said Mayor George Pederson. “This disaster showed us how much we need each other.”

The disaster may have tarnished Santa Clarita’s idyllic image and exposed the vulnerabilities of its road system, but the community’s appeal remains intact, local boosters insist.

“I wouldn’t want to live any other place if I were in a disaster,” said Kim Kurowski, a 14-year resident of Saugus. “It’s a small-town city. It’s a close-knit community--and I like that.”

Yet in the aftermath of the powerful quake, not everyone is still sold on Santa Clarita.

Shortly after the first temblor shook them out of bed, Joe and Allyson Gubbrud sat trembling in the pre-dawn darkness on the front porch of their Valencia home. They had moved to Santa Clarita in 1992, with vivid memories of bitter cold winters in the Midwest, where they grew up.

Sitting fearfully on their porch after the earthquake, the couple began to have second thoughts. “I remember we were thinking: 30-below doesn’t sound so bad right now,” Allyson recalled.

After the quake, she and her husband spent two weeks living in a pop-up camper on the front lawn, lacking natural gas and running water. As countless aftershocks rattled their nerves, Allyson, 33, an executive assistant at a manufacturing firm, and Joe, 39, a bank vice president, began to think about moving again.

“Do we really want to stay here and live on pins and needles?” Allyson said. “We’re thinking: Let’s move to South Dakota and buy a farm.”

Maria Garcia, whose mobile home was badly damaged by the quake, is similarly distraught. But she is determined to stay put.

Garcia, who lives with her husband and daughter at the Greenbrier Estates mobile home park, has been sleeping in the clubhouse since the quake tore a hole in the side of her double-wide mobile home.

More recently, rain poured in through the hole, ruining her carpet and furniture.

“We still don’t have gas or water--there’s no way we can sleep in there,” Garcia said, seated on a sofa in the clubhouse. “We feel safer in here.”

She added: “I was thinking maybe I should leave. But then I decided I don’t care if my house is all broken up. I’m gonna fix it, and I’m going to stay here. I like it here.”

More than three weeks after the earthquake, nearly half of Greenbrier Estates’ 309 mobile homes remained off their foundations, lacking gas and water. Assistant manager Rocky Springer, who was among about 300 displaced park residents, has been staying with his daughter in Saugus.

“We feel isolated, lost and depressed,” the retired engineer said, as he showed a visitor the twisted and burned homes throughout the park. “But we’re trying to keep a sense of humor about things.”

As spirits throughout Santa Clarita slowly lift, Saugus resident Kurowski is hoping her business, A-1 Stop Party Shop, will also pick up.

“I deliver and decorate with balloons for all those festive occasions--which came to a screeching halt after the earthquake,” she said. “Who would have a party right after an earthquake? That’s the farthest thing from people’s minds.”

After cleaning up scattered paper goods and shattered Valentine mugs at her store, Kurowski pitched in to help the Santa Clarita Chamber of Commerce move out of its damaged offices.

One positive result of the quake, she said, was the way it pulled the community together. “You really see what happens in a disaster,” she said.

Kurowski has no plans to relocate. “My family’s here, and I still think it’s a good place to live,” she said. “We’re just trying to pick up the pieces and get on with our lives.”

For Fred Doering, who opened an indoor playground called the Fun Factory in Santa Clarita in October, the pieces were just falling into place when the earthquake struck.

Doering had lined up 60 birthday parties during the first month his business was open. Through advertising and word of mouth, the business had booked 130 parties in January. Then the quake damaged the two-story Sierra Highway building where the Fun Factory is located.

The play equipment, including a padded cage filled with colored balls, was intact. But Doering was told that he couldn’t reopen until soil tests determined whether the hillside below the building is stable.

He has started to refund deposits for parties that were booked before the quake.

To offset the economic damage to his business, Doering, 37, has applied for a $100,000 disaster loan. “It took me three months to get to this point,” he said. “Now, I may be starting again from scratch.”

A year ago, Doering, a Simi Valley resident, lost his job as a baking company plant manager and spent many months researching businesses and locations before opening the Fun Factory.

The response from Santa Clarita residents has convinced him that he chose the right community.

“I’ve had customers volunteer their time to come in and help us get reopened,” he said. “If we’re not allowed to go back into this facility, then we’ll find another one. One way or another, we will be back in Santa Clarita.”