Huntington Library assesses damage from high winds

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As parts of Southern California return to normal following last week’s Santa Ana winds -- and the widespread power outages that resulted from them -- the job of assessing the damage has become a top priority.

One institution that was particularly hard hit was the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. The organization reported that as many as 100 specimen trees from the collections will be lost due to the winds.

Huntington President Steven S. Koblik said in an emailed message that more than 50 major trees are down and that many others ‘have been so badly damaged they will have to be removed.’ The Huntington closed its doors for a few days last week due to the damage and power outage.

Koblik said that the Huntington will be able to pay for some of the clean-up, but ‘total costs are likely to be quite significant.’ He said the Huntington is launching a public appeal for donations called the Huntington Arboreal Recovery Project.

As reported in the L.A. Now blog, the winds across the region caused at least $40 million in damage, though the dollar figure is expected to rise. A spokeswoman for the Huntington said Friday that dollar estimates for its damage are still preliminary but that the organization expects the total to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. She said the botanical staff is still surveying the damage from the winds.

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-- David Ng