Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Quake Loss at CSUN May Reach $350 Million : Education: Campus officials expect to recoup most of the expense from state and federal disaster relief funds.

Earthquake damage to the Cal State Northridge campus may reach as high as $350 million, school officials said Monday, an estimate that would make it one of the largest losses yet incurred by any public institution in Southern California due to the destructive Jan. 17 temblor.

The figure is many times the tens-of-millions range that university officials offered shortly after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake that was centered nearby rocked Southern California. Although university officials as yet have not been able to tally a precise accounting, CSUN Vice President of Administration Elliot Mininberg said the $250- to $350-million range was his best guess based on an assessment of the campus. Cal State University Chancellor Barry Munitz and other state officials have been discussing similar figures.

University officials said they expect to recoup most of their losses from federal and state disaster relief as well as some possible assistance from the Cal State system and state Legislature. But CSUN officials acknowledged that they do not yet know what portion of the loss they will have to absorb.

Colleen Bentley-Adler, a spokeswoman for the 20-campus state university system, said she believed that the earthquake losses at Northridge are the most substantial to any campus in the system’s history. None of the other Cal State campuses in Southern California suffered any significant earthquake damage, she said.

Most of CSUN remained without electricity, natural gas or water service Monday. University officials after the quake deliberately shut off the utilities to prevent further damage from broken pipes and other structural problems. Most of the university’s more than 2,000 faculty and other employees remained at home on paid administrative leave, officials said.

University spokesman Bruce Erickson said the campus plans to reopen Feb. 14, two weeks late, with most classes and offices likely to be held in 250 to 350 modular classrooms that the university has ordered. The first such classroom was being set up Monday, although truck delivery of the units was being slowed by high winds, Erickson said.

The only building on campus that has been declared a total loss thus far is the four-level, $15-million Parking Structure C that was heavily damaged in the original earthquake and then collapsed further in an aftershock. As for other buildings, Erickson said, “I don’t know of any plans to tear anything down yet.”

CSUN’s latest review of its major buildings listed the following as partly or entirely unstable and closed:

The five-story administration building, the fine arts building, the south library building housing much of the university’s computer operations, building 12 of the University Park Apartments and the theater building of the University Student Union.

The Oviatt Library, the campus’ most distinctive building, which houses more than 1 million books, will require asbestos abatement and some demolition work to remove unstable areas. The science complex suffered chemical and biological contamination and a fire. And crews Monday worked to remove the unstable south stairwell of the Sierra Tower complex.

Rita Kepner, a Pasadena-based spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said public agencies that suffered damage in the quake will be eligible for 100% reimbursement for their initial outlays, and then 90% for subsequent expenditures. But because of the numerous aftershocks, trying to sort out those figures will be difficult, she said.

A team of disaster relief officials is due to survey the CSUN campus this week to make a more detailed assessment of the cost of the quake damage, said state Office of Emergency Services spokeswoman Lisa Covington. Similarly, CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson has asked her staff to prepare more detailed numbers, officials said.

Days after the earthquake, CSUN officials talked of damages in the tens of millions. At a Cal State Board of Trustees meeting last week, Munitz gave a $150-million estimate, then told reporters over the weekend that the number had risen to $200 million. By today, the estimate had risen again to the range offered by Mininberg.