Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Michelle White Cristine Takata is part of the preservation team that has been working to keep Hamilton Library's Asia Collection from suffering water and mold damage.

Kyle Hamada was not expecting to put to use the skills practiced at Hamilton Library's emergency preparedness workshop the very next day. But heavy rains this weekend caused extensive water damage to already leaky third-floor roofs, ultimately resulting in the removal of thousands of books.

"We were prepared, but there are odd correlations as we just passed the third anniversary of the 2004 flood," Hamada said.

He explained that just before the university-wide flooding the last week of October three years ago, which resulted in approximately $40 million in damages to Hamilton alone, the library had finished its emergency disaster plan very shortly before having to implement it.

"Ironically, this year almost the same thing happened," said Paula Mochida, the interim university librarian. "It's a funny coincidence."

Despite the irony of the situations, the main library at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa yet again has to recover from wet and soggy books and documents, which could cost as much as an estimated $200,000, Mochida said.

Aftermath of a leaky roof

Work began Sunday morning after about seven library staff members, most of whom are part of the library's conservation department, activated the emergency plan and contacted a local restoration company to assess the damage.

Hamada said they began the process by cleaning up the water and replacing plastic canopies hanging from the ceiling that catch water leaking from cracks in the roof.

"This roof has been leaking for years ... and we maintain this area with canopies," Hamada said.

The third floor is part of Hamilton's Phase I and is the oldest part of the building, which was built in 1965 and still has its original roof intact.

"The (Hamilton) roof project has been delayed for years. It should have been done a long time ago," said Gregg Takayama, the UH director of communications. Takayama explained as an alternative to re-roofing, the university employs the use of emergency patches.

"Emergency patches are equivalent to fixing a pot hole as opposed to repaving the entire road," Takayama said. "It catches up with you after a while and we're paying the price now."

Mochida added that the canopies protecting the shelves have also been up for several years and were put in place by the library staff.

"We replaced them and added more, but now I think we need professionally installed canopies," she said.

In addition to cracks leaking water every time it rains, she said that there are a few inches of vermiculite growing on the roof. Vermiculite is a basaltic mineral that absorbs water and dries, solidifying. However, with too much water it does not harden completely and begins to seep through the cracks.

"Anyone with common sense knows that this is obviously not a good thing for the library," Mochida said.

The upside, however, is that Phase I of the library will finally get a new roof, the project scheduled to begin this summer.

Chilling the books

The combination of a cracking roof and torrential rains resulted in the indefinite closure of the entire Asia Collection and library science sections of Hamilton's third floor.

Beginning Sunday, Hamada and several other library staff, as well as Hawai‘i Restoration, have taken water-damaged books and placed them in boxes that will be put in four refrigeration freezers on campus. The most severely damaged books will be freeze dried in the basement of Hamilton.

"These books will go through a sublimation process," Hamada said, "which turns water into vapor." He explained that freezing stabilizes the books and prevents further damage as it keeps them under climate control.

The majority of the books have already been taken off the shelves and are in the refrigeration process or are on their way there. "We just want to get the books out of this environment," Hamada said.

Luckily no rare books were lost from the water damage, Hamada said. "All books are important but there were no special collections lost," he stated.

Although this is the second round of water damage Hamada has witnessed in the last three years, this time was far less damaging, and he continues to hope that Hawai‘i's rainy season does not prove too rainy.

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