Library soaked by storm

By ROBERT LINNEHAN | The Haddonfield Sun
In the worst flooding incident in the past four years, the children’s department of the Haddonfield Public Library received extensive water damage and hundreds of books were damaged.
Library Director Susan Briant said 358 books have been most likely damaged beyond repair in the children’s library due to the violent rain on July 31. The short but violent storm flooded the entire children’s library with at least eight inches of water, Briant said, damaging the library’s carpet and several boxes of books.
“It just rode down the stairwell like a waterfall,” Briant said. “It wasn’t a pretty picture. The drain was covered with mulch, it was just pouring down the staircase, and it wasn’t nice.”
The library has had a history of flooding, which has been one of the selling points for the proponents of revamping the historic structure.
A cleaning crew worked for seven hours Saturday morning to repair the damage and pump the water out of the library. The largest amount of damage that occurred was due to an air conditioning unit on the side of the structure, Briant said, which has a small well-like facet necessary for it to work properly.
See this week’s print edition of The Sun for the full story.