LJ Talks Flood Response with Louisville Library Director Craig Buthod

"Our only capital plan is now recovery"

Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 08/06/2009

• $5 million in damage
• Main Library closed through Labor Day
• After partial reopening, remediation to take rest of year

A flash flood in Louisville, KY, that began at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday wreaked special havoc on the Main Library of the Louisville Free Public Library (LFPL), which library director Craig Buthod said is the worst-hit building in the city. About 50,000 square feet of the 170,000 square foot building was affected by seven feet of water, he estimated. (Photos here.)

Suffering an estimated $5 million in damage, the Main Library will be closed until Labor Day, when partial services are expected to be restored. Still, only property was damaged and library services continue at nearly all the branches. (One of two closed branches had more sewer backup than expected, but is expected to reopen soon.)

Buthod took time out of a very busy day for a phone interview with LJ. Despite describing the last few days as “a nightmare,” he was upbeat and focused, praising the numerous people and institutions were pulling together to help in recovering. (Photos courtesy of the library.) 

Also see August 10 update below.

Q. You’re the worst-hit in the city?

A. Absolutely. We’re the big institutional building at the corner of rain and hail. Two hospitals have level damage. A couple of universities. Neighboring buildings suffered damage, but not as much. We just happened to be in the wrong place.

Has the library been hit before?

We’re in a library building that’s a combination of a 1908 Carnegie and 1969 expansion. We had a flood once in 1937 but not since. 1937 was cataclysmic. The Ohio River spread from a mile and a half away. It ruined everything in the first two  floors. Since then, we’ve had a very good flood control.

What happened Tuesday?

The weather service warning was only about the possibility of showers and thunderstorms. This was a sudden storm that dropped seven inches of rain in an hour and 15 minutes. We were in the office; the library was preparing to open. My staff interrupted the meeting I was having and said water’s backing up. I went straight to the garage, and saw four inches of water approaching. Within 15 minutes, it was 36 inches. The garage is just below ground level. We thought we had some room [to absorb it].

How fast did it rise?

The water was in the library within minutes. We open generally at 9 am. By 9, we were already deciding to curtail patron activity. We met them at front door and told them they had to wait in the circulation area, because the rest of library wasn’t safe.

What happened next?

We began trying to move books, computers, furniture, off the floors. We had to evacuate staff from the lower level and prepare for the worst. The rain continued for an hour, just steadily in sheets.

What was hit hardest?

The collection services area, which has technical services and acquisition. The sorting room. We have 17 locations, and we’re trans-shipping all the time. It was filled to the brim with summer reading. The Friends storage room. And storage of various other materials and supplies. Then the computer room, all the servers, our fiber optic connections and all the Internet connections. And the city’s connections to 12 other city facilities, including the zoo and parks and recreation.

You lost several vehicles.

We lost three bookmobiles. We had two library service vehicles. And three personal cars.

Some people commenting on the Courier-Journal web site thought you might have saved the bookmobiles. 

There was no time to do it safely. There was no time to move the vehicles safely without endangering staff. It was a painful thing for me—[I lost] my own car.

The water also affected the mechanical rooms.

The mechanical systems, the boilers, air handling equipment, the chillers, all the electrical supply in both buildings—it’s huge. Because we’re on slope, it’s a basement in one building and the first floor in the other. It was all work service areas. The only public service area is a 170-seat auditorium.

Besides books in the sorting room, what else did you lose?

Those in the first level of stacks, waiting for the Friends book sale, and in collection services. There was a great number of new books. Our best estimate is 50,000 [total].

Evacuation was the priority.

When it’s still coming down, you get everybody to safety. When there’s water standing in a building that’s electrified throughout, you get people away. We gathered patrons and staff in the front lobby and invited them to sit with us and wait. There were 75 to 100 people at that time; more came. At that point, we realized the sanitary sewers in library were backing up, It was not only a risk for [an] electrical [mishap], it was also unclean.

Some water was high enough to drain out in the street. What else did you do?

We got the Fire Department to help us bail. They brought two pumpers, but that failed; there was too much debris. The Metro Sewer district continued pumping. They pumped water so we could reach the floor to see the computers. That happened overnight. We had a small electrical fire overnight in the computer room, so we had the Fire Department cut off electricity. New transformers had to be shipped in. They’re now being installed.

Is all this insured?

The city has comprehensive insurance. We’re self-insured for $1.25 million. Beyond that, there’s backup from commercial insurance. We are confident [it’ll all work out].

What are the stages of remediation?

The first stage, which we’re calling stabilization, is to save the building: removing debris and water, remove damaged sheetrock, ceilings, and floors. The stabilization effort will take us to Labor Day, four weeks from now. We’ll be closed to the public. We’ll have library staff off-site: we’ve had donations [of space] from a warehouse company and office building nearby.

After Labor Day, we expect restoring the building systems and the other systems to take rest of the calendar year. We have a project management firm already under contract for our capital plan. Our only capital plan is now recovery.

What kind of service will there be in Main Library?

We’ll be closed until Labor Day. Then we’ll reopen one floor, the main floor. We will have computers, the children's department, adult fiction, and the circulation function.

Both buildings have a second floor.

We’re not going to open second floor until we get elevator service.

What about the library web site?

We hope to have web site up over the weekend.

What kind of advice or help have you gotten from the library community? 

Very strong offers. The Library Society of the World [is raising money]. I got a call from Mary Ellin Santiago. [Project Manager of Gates Foundation’s Gulf Coast Library Project]. We’ve had offers from Cedar Rapids [IA, which suffered flooding last year.] The state librarian has been on the phone daily.

We’re lucky we have 15 libraries unaffected. On August 15, we’ll open a brand new branch in Newburg.

Weren't computers due for that branch lost in the flood? 

We’ve already replaced the computers. They’re on their way.

Any lessons learned? 

Hire good people. I am delighted at the performance by the library staff in handling something completely out of their experience. They are smart people. Then hire good people on the outside. Our project management team is spectacular.

What kind of help do you want from the public?

People want to have a book drive. We’re discouraging that. We’re creating a library recovery fund. 
(The Library Foundation, 301 York Street, Louisville, KY 40203; note Flood Recovery Fund on the check.)

Update August 10

How are things today?

The recovery is going really well. The "clear and clean" phase is where we are, with the debris going out, books being inventoried, and furniture, carpet, floor materials, subfloor, all being ripped out, and sanitizers in every corner and nook and cranny. The cleaning is rolling out right behind it.

How does the book inventory work? 

Our sorting room was devastated. There were tens of thousands of current materials there. The books look like they’ve been in the bathtub, except there’s a lot of mulch [from landscaping around the library]. Those are all lined up in the garage, in five queues; the bar codes are being scanned into a database We have replacement cost insurance. We have to be able to show what we lost and what it cost.. The recovery company is doing the scanning. People have been asking if they could buy the damaged books for resale, and we’ve just declined.

You have new office space now?

In an office building adjacent to us. They’ve given us the 13th floor, about 11,000 square feet, for administration, operations, and the collection services department.

And other space?

We also have space for our maintenance shop and sorting and delivering books. We’re lucky the city retired a firehouse nearby earlier this year, and we’ve got the firehouse. And we’ve got the bookmobiles on donated land, so they’re secure while they’re being evaluated for salvage.

What’s been the community response?

 We’ve had an incredible outpouring. When the public library is threatened, the community reaches out. For example, we sent somebody to Best Buy for external hard drives [to upload data]. When she gave the purchase order to the manager, they said they’d donate it. People are asking what they can do. One thing is to contribute to the Flood Recovery Fund. The other is to come out for the grand opening of Newburg branch on Saturday. We’re turning that into a rally for the library.

Does everybody have a place to work?

Many staff are being farmed out to branches; they seeing heavier traffic, because there’s no main library.

Can you meet the end-of-the-year goal for the main library?

I feel pretty good about that. And some of the work rooms we’ll build back differently.

To what extent did you have a disaster plan to follow?

We would never have anticipated this disaster. This particular water occurrence was unprecedented. My belief, and it’s probably going to catch me a lot of flak in library circles: you have really good people assigned to high level of responsibility, coordinate well, and that you buy insurance.

You have a phone tree, right?

Yes, but any kind of disaster planning we would’ve had would’ve told us what to do with different materials and the vehicles as water was rising and, in reality, what we had was 15 minutes to save everybody’s life. That doesn’t give you time to reflect on and refer to your disaster plan. We’re not in hurricane territory, we’re not in tornado territory, and this site has not been under water since 1937. The thing I’d do going forward is to make sure evacuation is up to date, for human safety, and it was and it is. getting people out was Job Number 1.

Have you talked with anyone else from the larger library community? 

I talked with Tamara Glise, the interim director in Cedar Rapids, and the ULC (Urban Libraries Council) has checked in with us.

Will you have the web site back up soon?

That’s where I’m going now.