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Classes Resume At UH; Library Access To Be Limited

Teams Scramble To Save Books

POSTED: 4:17 pm HST November 4, 2004
UPDATED: 1:36 pm HST November 5, 2004

Classes resumed Thursday at the University of Hawaii Manoa campus for the first time since Saturday's devastating flooding.

saving booksOfficials said about a dozen classes had to be relocated due to the flooding damage.

The biggest problem for students will be accessing the school's main research library. Final exams are in six weeks and while Sinclair Library remains open, Hamilton Library is still the main research center.

"It's going to be really tough to get our papers done. Hopefully our professors will give us other alternatives for resources because I don't know what else we'll do," UH junior Jolene Setterquist said.

University officials said full access to Hamilton Library may not be available for weeks, possibly months. Power was restored to the new wing, where most of the science books are stored, but the area is still off limits to students.

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"When we get our paging system up we can get things to them. It will be slow since the elevators are trashed and the building has no lights. We are going up and down the stairs with lights, so it will be a slower process than the students would like," UH librarian Jeanne Ehrhorn said.

The most pressing issue for the library is salvaging the collections that got wet in the floods.

Work crews are still pumping water out of the basement and mold has set in on the precious collections of rare books. Officials said whatever they cannot get to in the next two days will be lost.

The workers are packing the books and placing them in cargo freezer shipping containers.

It's day five of the cleanup and the volunteers and staff are still not done salvaging the map collection.

The situation is so desperate the librarians have strung makeshift lines between the trees on the lawn.

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