Los Angeles Hit by Earthquake; Reagan Declares Disaster Area

A powerful earthquake shook Southern California at dawn yesterday, causing at least 30 deaths, injuring scores, and damaging hospital buildings, highways, bridges and other facilities.

About five hours after the quake, Governor Ronald Reagan declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles, a formal step making all resources of the state and various communities available in case of need.

The jolting first shock, followed by literally hundreds of smaller aftershocks, struck hardest at the Los Angeles commuting area in the San Fernando Valley, which has a population of 1.3 million.

The earth-fill dam of Van Norman Lake at the valley's west end suffered vertical cracks and some leaking of its 6.7 billion gallons of water, the city's largest reservoir. Thousands of families were evacuated and officials began draining the lake.

The county's nearly seven million residents awoke to find their beds shaking, windows shattering, furniture flipped over, chimneys crumbled and dishes on shelves crashed. On some old structures roofs fell in and walls fell outward.

Hospital Collapses

At one collapsed building, the Veterans Administration hospital facility in the San Fernando Valley, authorities said seven bodies have been found, while 54 persons are still unaccounted for.

Although travel from Los Angeles airports was not affected by the quake, two interstate highways were closed at some points in the Los Angeles area because of buckled pavement or collapsed overpasses.