Soggy surprise at library

PROVO — Several families dropped off their teenage girls at the Provo City Library at Academy Square on Tuesday afternoon and drove off without realizing the library was closed because broken water pipes damaged the heating system.

One 14-year-old girl, who hadn't wanted to go to the movies with her family, sat on a cold concrete wall for more than an hour because her family couldn't be reached.

"It's a good reminder that when you drop off your kids, you need to wait around and make sure they get in," said the girl's relieved mother, Rachel Hickman, who did wait several moments after her daughter disappeared down the stairs to the recessed south entrance to the buildings where a sign announced the closure.

The library should reopen today at 9 a.m., library director Gene Nelson said, "unless something horrible happens overnight and the heat isn't working."

Librarians found standing and dripping water, soaked ceiling tiles and damaged book shipments in one room when they returned to work Tuesday morning after a three-day weekend.

The culprit was the cold weather. Sub-zero temperatures over the weekend froze pipes that provide water to the library's heating system.

The pipes burst in the ceiling above the room where the library processes new books.

"Kablooey," Nelson said.

Sopping-wet boxes loaded with new books gave Nelson heartburn as he initially estimated damage as high as $40,000.

But when staffers opened drenched boxes and water cascaded off the shrink-wrapped stacks of new books they lifted from the cardboard containers, they found the plastic had kept most of the books dry.

Most of the items in the room were salvaged, including all of the computer equipment. Some books were ruined, like "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Elves and Fairies" and "The Ansel Adams Guide to Basic Techniques of Photography."

Heavy humidity in the air warped the pages and jackets of books already on shelves in the room. Removed to a warm, dry room on the other side of the library complex, the pages and jackets dried out by Tuesday afternoon.

Nelson now estimates damage at $1,500.