HONOLULU -- The recent heavy rains caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the University of Hawaii's Hamilton library, officials said.

Librarians are scrambling to deal with water damage and the threat of mold after a weekend of torrential rain.

Three years ago, UH librarians were dealing with a nightmare of a flood. The campus has not recovered from that and now faces a new crisis.

About a fourth of the books on the third floor of Hamilton Library are being packed up and hauled away.

"Our main concern was to get the books out of the area with all the water. You have high humidity, any moisture, all the books are just going to suck it up," conservation technician Kyle Hamada said.

The building is supposed to be re-roofed next summer, UH officials said. Crews had been preparing to make some temporary patches, but the rains came first.

Buckets sit on shelves where books used to be in an area where librarians keep the expensive and rare books.

"This was real dangerous. We had water flooding the floors and fixtures. The ceiling tiles were coming down," Hamada said

While initially staffers thought the problem was limited to one area, more leaks developed as the days wore on. Workers could not keep up. Large plastic canopies cover much of the shelves and make shift drains are helping to collect the water.

It is deja vu for one librarian who remembers the floods of 2004, and is glad to be better prepared for this crisis.

"Not just the moisture, mold, but the insects that come along with it. So, it's a constant battle," Korea specialist librarian Daniel Kane said.

Senior Meagan McDonald is worried about not being able to get to the books she needs for a research paper.

"I'll be needing to go up there and borrow some books from that section of the library. Hopefully I would be able to get access to what I need," she said.

Right now, the books are going into cold storage until further notice.