San Diego

The central library was evacuated Thursday after a pipe burst, sending sewage cascading over the bookshelves.

A T-shirt apparently had been flushed down a toilet in the men’s restroom on the second floor, said the library’s deputy director, Patricia Allely. Raw sewage flooded the first two floors of the building at 820 E St., causing library employees to evacuate the public shortly after 2 p.m., according to one patron.

“It created a lot of havoc and problems for everybody, but we’ve got it under control,” Allely said while the cleanup was under way Thursday night. The library, she said, will open as usual at 9:30 this morning.

Allely said library employees acted quickly and were able to cover books in the first floor history section with plastic, averting any serious damage. The plumbing backup also created problems with water overflowing from the toilets into the music section on the second floor, Allely said, but no losses are expected to result.

Jerry Johnson of the city’s Risk Management Department said he dispatched a staffer to investigate the sewage leak, but concluded there would be no lingering health problems or other ill effects. Johnson said he was confident that the contractor called in to clean up the mess would adequately sanitize the area and said the library, once re-opened, should pose no health risk to the public.