Flooding ruins 22,000 books in two libraries

More than 22,000 books were lost at two libraries in Co Cork as a result of major flooding two months ago, Cork County Council officials have revealed.

Despite the damage caused to council-run libraries in Glanmire and Clonakilty, the local authority says it hopes to reopen both early next month.

Glanmire suffered particularly badly with 20,000 books destroyed — around 80% of its stock.

The council rents the library at the Hazelwood Shopping Centre from a local businessman.

Up to 4ft of water flooded the shopping centre on the morning of Jun 28, causing serious damage to a number of business premises.

The deluge also damaged all 49 houses in the adjoining Meadowbrook Estate along with other homes in nearby Glanmire village and Sallybrook.

“There were 20,000 books lost in the Glanmire library. Only those positioned on top shelves there survived intact,” a county council spokesman said.

He added that no rare items had been lost at either Glanmire or Clonakilty.

“Any sensitive or rare material would be kept at a higher level anyway,” he added.

In Clonakilty the library is housed at the county council’s civic offices at Kent Street.

Significant damage was caused in the town and a river wall next to the civic offices was demolished.

“We own the library there ourselves. More than 2,000 books were lost there, although fortunately the children’s section was not affected,” the spokesman said.

He said the full cost of the damage to both libraries was still being assessed by council officials.

“We have cleared and removed all the debris and are replacing the floors and the furniture and repainting the interiors. All the unaffected books have since been put into storage,” the spokesman said.

“No final costings on the damage are available, as we are still in the process of preparing claims for our insurers,” he added.

The council has no plans to move the libraries to other locations.

In the case of both towns it’s hoped that flood prevention works will be carried out by the OPW and prevent a repeat of the serious flooding witnessed two months ago.

It is estimated such works in affected areas of the county will cost up to €50m.

County engineer Noel O’Keeffe has said he doesn’t expect flood prevention works to start in Glanmire until 2014 and later in Clonakilty.

It’s estimated the works will cost more than €10m in the West Cork town and about half that in Glanmire.