SANFORD, Fla. – Thursday night’s severe weather caused significant damage to the North Branch of the Seminole County Library in Sanford, forcing it to close as crews work to clean up.
The library posted about the closure online Friday. The library was later reopened.
Sources at the branch told News 6 that the building was undergoing roof work, but it may not have been tarped properly, leading to extensive water damage.
“We were in the middle of replacing that section of the roof and you can tell that’s exactly where it was localized, the damage,” said spokesperson Andy Wontor.
Pictures from inside the building show some of the clean-up efforts, with tarps covering bookshelves, fans blowing to dry out the area and several tiles missing from the ceiling. Wontor said about 40% of the library was affected by the damage. The biggest area of concern right now is the carpeting around the bookcases, which will need to be replaced.
“This isn’t having to come from the library’s budget,” Wontor assured the community. “The replacement of the carpets and the replacement of those ceiling tiles is actually going to come from the roofing company.
“This budget, you want it to go towards books and resources and not something from a tragic event like this,” she added.
In the meantime, the library is under partial service right now, with the computer lab and other programming still going on. Wontor said other county library branches are going to help if any resident has a specific need that the Sanford branch can’t handle right now.
“I think in the next few weeks the sections over there will be reopened once we can assess the books, make sure everything is good, those carpets are replaced and there’s no issues moving forward,” Wontor said.
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