NEW ALBANY, Pa. -- A community library is now closed until further notice. Volunteers are working to replace hundreds of books after the building flooded last week.
"When I came in Friday and saw the rugs, and then I walked back to the back room and saw all the books in the middle of the room, I just wanted to bawl because you lost all that money,” said Cheryl Brown.
The New Albany Community Library building along Route 220 is now in disarray. Last week, Ladds Creek overflowed its banks.
"Flooded everything. Water was coming right out the front door," said Brown.
Volunteers like Cheryl Brown have to figure out what to do with hundreds of waterlogged books. Along with the carpets, Brown says most of the books on the bottom shelves have been damaged and will have to be thrown out.
"You stand here and you look at all these books, and you're like it's just sad to see all these books ruined like this," said Brown.
Volunteers are hopeful they'll be able to get new or gently used books to refill their shelves, but there are some things like newspapers that have been saved for decades they won't be able to replace.
"Back through here that's our computer. That got hit," said Brown.
Most of the library's files were stored on a computer. To find out which books were damaged, volunteers are concerned they may need to start a new list from scratch.
"The past few months we put all the books in alphabetical order and everything. We did all that hard work. We were actually planning on somewhere down the road doing an open house for people and then the flood came through and ruined it," said Brown.
Volunteers at New Albany Community Library are accepting donations.