$26-Million FEMA Grant Approved for CSUN Quake Repair

Cal State Northridge will receive nearly $26 million from the federal government to pay construction managers and to repair buildings and communications equipment damaged in the 1994 earthquake, officials announced Friday.

The money is the latest in a string of Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for CSUN, which has struggled for two years to recover from the 6.7 earthquake that damaged 107 buildings on campus.

CSUN could receive as much as $112 million more from the federal government in coming months, according to Vallee Bunting, Los Angeles-based FEMA spokeswoman. Officials have not yet determined how much money will be available, or when it will come, Bunting said.

Although the $26 million is just a fraction of what is needed to get the campus back on its feet, CSUN officials said, the money is greatly appreciated.

“We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Bruce Erickson, CSUN spokesman. “We have a lot of work left to do and any financial progress is good news.”

Of the $26 million, about $10 million will fund a team of full-time construction managers who oversee campus repairs, Bunting said.

More than $8 million will pay for repair and renovation of the telephones, computers and other communications equipment.

The school will be reimbursed for more than $7 million it spent fixing its Education Building and its Business Administration and Economics Building.

CSUN has already received nearly $211 million in federal and state earthquake repair funds. Art Elbert, CSUN vice president of administration and finances, said he expects FEMA to award the university the remaining $112 million within the next two months.

Meanwhile, nearly half of all classes still meet in temporary trailers and about 20 buildings need substantial repairs, campus officials said.

In six buildings, including the largest building and parts of the main library, repairs have not yet begun, Elbert said.

“It has been a real hardship on a lot of people here,” he said. “There has been a lot of damage to morale, what with faculty members still in trailers, worrying about fires and security and other problems. The sooner we can get things back to normal, the better.”

Enrollment at the campus dropped by several thousand immediately after the Jan. 17, 1994, quake, but the numbers began to rebound last year, Elbert said.

The Fine Arts, Engineering, Monterey Hall and South Library buildings remain at least partially closed pending quake repair work, he said.

Elbert estimated that all repairs would be completed within two years.