Pepperdine Hopeful It Can Save Water-Soaked Books
Efforts to save 18,000 books damaged by water over the weekend at Pepperdine University continued on Sunday with the prospects of saving the collection considered good, said a university spokesman.
“There are none that appear to be beyond hope,” said Larry Bumgardner, assistant vice president for communications and grants.
The accident occurred at the Malibu campus Saturday afternoon when a truck driven by a university maintenance worker struck a fire hydrant and sheared off the top. Four thousand gallons of water a minute gushed out of the hydrant until the Fire Department cut off the supply about 40 minutes later, said Capt. John Dishaw of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
The water, mud and debris flowed down a hill and into the almost-completed Thornton Administrative Center, where 2,000 boxes of books were being temporarily stored while the library was being renovated. The damaged books, in as many as 800 boxes, belonged to the library’s general collection and none are considered rare, Bumgardner said.
About 60 firefighters and university employees pitched in to transfer the books to a campus plaza where they were sorted and reboxed over the weekend.
About half of the books will dry naturally and the rest will require freeze-drying within 72 hours, Bumgardner said. A freeze-drying expert from the fire-gutted Los Angeles Central Library was advising university officials on the process Sunday.
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