LJ Talks to John Augelli, Executive Director of the Rosenberg Library, Galveston, TX

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 9/23/2008

• Surge inundates library first floor
• Children's collection, auditorium lost 
• When web site and phone are restored, help will be welcome

After Hurricane Ike slammed Galveston, TX, September 13, there was little immediate word regarding the Rosenberg Library (web site inoperative), the 75,000 square foot complex downtown that houses a library, archives, and museum and serves as the headquarters for the Galveston County Library System. Now, John Augelli, the library’s executive director, tells LJ that he and two other staffers stayed behind "thinking it would be good to be there, to see what I could do." Initially, that wasn't much. Instead, they listened, and watched, as a storm surge wiped out the first floor with over six feet of water. "It was a sound that you’d never forget."

Now, the library is at the beginning of a long recovery that began with pumping out the water, emptying the first floor of what used to be the children's collection, and drying out the space to ensure that humidity does not damage valuable archival material. The library still lacks phone and web service. When that is restored, the library will post information on how to help. For nearly a week, residents like Augelli didn’t even have cell phone service, relying instead on text messages.

"I have devoted every minute and all my energy to the recovery process," Augelli told LJ in a phone interview today. (Photo of South Porch construction taken in August, from Rosenberg Library blog. The older part of the building opened in 1904. For a photo of damaged books, go to the Houston Chronicle.)

Have you been through hurricanes before?

Just this summer, we were through three scares. The problem is sometimes these storms can go from tropical storm to Category 2. There was Eduard. Also Hurricane Gustav, which we were watching pretty carefully. It missed us. And there was Ike, which hit the island dead on.

How much warning did you have?

That was a storm that moved around. At one point, it was headed toward Galveston. Then it appeared to be headed to South Texas. Because it wasn’t being predictable, it wasn’t until Thursday morning (September 11) that they called for a mandatory evacuation of Galveston.

How prepared were you?

We were prepared for wind event. The building was ready. We have hurricane-ready windows. We had hardly any damage from the wind. It was the surge. The surge wiped out the first floor of the library. The sea wall we have in Galveston worked. The surge I think came in from the bay, the north side of the island; the Gulf is on the south side. So the water backed up from the bay. On Friday, I could already see the water backing up—it was coming up the street toward us.

(At right, the interior of the library as photographed before a reception in April, courtesy of the library blog.)

You decided to shelter in place on the library’s third floor. Why?

First, I thought the library would be a good place to shelter in place. I had two other staff members with me. I also was thinking it would be good to be there, to see what I could do.I was kind of hoping to get out of the library the next day. We got out. But we were not able to get to our cars, which were in elevated parking. But we got a lift from someone up to my house. And a lift back to the library.

What did the water look like?

I’m thinking it was around midnight. I had gone downstairs to the first floor. One thing we heard was that people in Galveston were in great danger. We just stopped listening to the news reports. I went downstairs and I measured two inches of water on the first floor. Right after I said that, we could hear the water coming in. It was a sound that you’d never forget. We went down to the second floor. The power was off. We were looking at the water coming in and it was coming in at a very fast rate.

How high did it go?

I measured it—I was very happy when I could finally see the rate was diminishing. It got 75 inches, over six feet. The first floor has an auditorium, a meeting room, it had the children’s department, it had a technical services office and the circulation department. The auditorium was a giant swimming pool.

The children’s collection is gone, then?

That whole first floor was wiped out—what’s going to make the recovery something of a challenge is that, in addition to library functions, some of the major building systems were located on that first floor.

Are you relieved it wasn’t worse?

I wouldn’t say I’m relieved. It was pretty bad. Ever since we walked out of that library, we have been involved in trying to get the moisture out of the building and start the recovery process. When we got out of the building, nothing was working. Nothing. The streets were littered with everything you can think of. We’re located in the downtown area of Galveston. The streets are getting cleaned up. I can see shop owners and people who live downtown are removing a lot of flooded items. What we’re in the process of doing—I think we’ve completed the process of pumping the water out—except for a couple of things, everything on that first floor is going into a giant pile in the parking lot. Now we’re focusing on dehumidifying it. It’s also a challenge—the heat has to be pumped in there to accelerate the drying process, but we have to keep the upper floors cool and remove the humidity so we don’t have damage to historical documents and museum.

How long will this take?

We’re taking this one day at a time. Obviously we’re going to have a web presence before we open. We’re taking it day by day. It could be a few months. We need to have a safe environment for the public to get into the building, and we’re not there yet. We got a company on site to help begin pumping out the water and clearing out the damaged contents. Yes, we’ve had a disaster and we’re working as diligently as we can to open the library. In the ten-eleven days since the hurricane, we’ve made tremendous progress.

How much might this cost?

We have flood insurance. We also bought some additional flood insurance. Right now I do not have an exact figure. I have devoted every minute and all my energy to the recovery process.

Now you and staffers are working out of your home.

We’re calling it the “library annex.” I’d spent a lot of resources in getting the house ready, it’s on one of highest parts of the island. Many of the staff members had flooding in their homes. A lot of [our 42] staff members evacuated the island. We’re operating with a skeleton crew.