Floods Destroy Documents At Hawaii Library
2004 11 02
 By Associated Press
HONOLULU - Heavy rain sent water as much as 8 feet deep rushing through the University of Hawaii's main research library, destroying irreplaceable documents and books, toppling doors and walls and forcing a few students to break a window to escape.
Ten inches of rain fell in 24 hours starting Saturday morning in the Manoa Valley near Waikiki. Several cars were carried downstream when Manoa Stream overflowed its banks, and a school and church that were supposed to serve as polling places for Tuesday's election also were damaged.
Gov. Linda Lingle toured the university Sunday and declared Manoa Valley a state disaster area.
The library's ground floor was a jumble, with walls knocked down and furniture piled up, said librarian Diane Perushek. The water also left several inches of mud.
"Our lowest level of the library, the ground floor, is decimated," Perushek said. "We're seeing what we can retrieve now."
Several people attending a small class on the ground floor Saturday night had to knock out a window to escape the flash flood, Perushek said. No one was hurt.
About three dozen university buildings, including dormitories, lost power and Monday's classes were canceled.
The damaged items contained mostly maps, some 90,000 aerial photographs, a government document collection and about 100,000 new books that had not been catalogued, she said.
Two refrigerated trucks were brought to campus Sunday to help salvage the soaked documents.
"We've already started putting materials in there to freeze dry them," Perushek said.
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