Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Aftershocks Prompt New Inspections at CSUN : Education: All major structures will be reassessed for damage. Officials still aim for a Feb. 14 reopening.

In the wake of a series of severe aftershocks that rocked an already heavily damaged campus, Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson announced Friday that all 53 of the school’s major structures would have to be reinspected before a final damage assessment can be made.

Before Friday’s aftershocks, engineers were prepared to announce that 80% of the buildings made it through the temblor and its initial aftershocks without debilitating structural damage.

“After the last shocks, those evaluations are no longer valid,” Wilson said. “We will have to reassess everything over the weekend.”

Despite the setback, administrators expect to reopen the campus by Feb. 14, two weeks after the scheduled start of the second semester.

Hardest hit by the initial quake were a $15-million, four-story parking structure that collapsed onto itself, the Delmar T. Oviatt Library, which lost portions of its roof, the fine arts building, the seven-story Sierra Tower and the sciences complex, which suffered a fire as well as chemical and biological spills.

The Library South, which houses the campus mainframe computers and most of its electronic records including student files, payroll information and electronic registration data, survived the initial quakes, but aftershocks left the structure unstable and its future uncertain.

Sue Curzon, vice provost of information and technical resources on campus, was in the South Library to retrieve critical data for the registration system Friday when the aftershocks hit.

“It felt like the building might collapse,” Curzon said of the structure, which was ruled unstable by engineers before Friday’s aftershocks. “I was just hoping we had the tapes.” She said most of the crucial data was obtained.

Curzon also toured the Oviatt Library after the quake to assess damage. She described the interior as “knee-deep” in books.

“Everything is off the shelves,” she said. “There are 600,000 volumes on the floor.”

In addition to the buildings damaged, several structures are plagued with asbestos exposed by the quake, which will have to be removed.

Wilson said official assessments of the losses will not be available until final inspections are completed, but she estimated those figures to be in the “hundreds of millions” of dollars.

She said she was confident that classes could begin Feb. 14, with the assistance of the computer system at Cal State Fresno for registration and the use of trailers, community agencies and other facilities for classrooms.

“I know we can do it,” Wilson said. “We just want the ground to stop shaking under us.”