Rain Damages Volumes at Leaky Library : Thousand Oaks: Storm arrived just before roof, which has had problems ever since the building opened in 1982, was to be repaired.

The rainstorm that drenched parts of Ventura County earlier this week soaked bookshelves at the leaky-roofed Thousand Oaks Library, causing several thousand dollars worth of damage, library officials said Thursday.

The two-day storm arrived just weeks before repairs were to be completed on the library’s roof, which has leaked every rainy season since the building opened in 1982.

Because construction is still under way, portions of the roof were covered only by tarps when the first storm of the season struck, allowing water to pour into the building.

“It was raining inside the library,” said Steve Brogden, deputy director of the library. “We had huge garbage cans out; we had plastic, (and) we had water everywhere.”

Library personnel and construction workers draped sheets of plastic over bookcases to protect them from the rainwater, but their efforts were not enough to keep the cascading water from damaging some of the library’s 325,000 books.

“We know we have lost some materials,” Brogden said. “It has mostly been to the books.”

City Manager Grant Brimhall said preliminary damage estimates were about $5,000 to $10,000. He said three or four roofing crews would be working this weekend to seal the roof.

“God sends rain on the just and the unjust, and we are trying to decide which we are,” Brimhall said. “We want our people to quit praying for rain, at least until we get this done.”

The library closed briefly Sept. 29 during some small showers, but shut down entirely Tuesday and is expected to remain closed until Monday.

Today, librarians will begin sorting through the books to determine how many were damaged.

“We know the areas where the water was coming in the hardest and those will be the areas we will hit first,” Brogden said.

He said the children’s book section suffered considerable damage.

Project manager Greg Pruett of Keller Construction Co. said heavy rains from the two-day storm caught workers by surprise.

“We did get a couple of rains a week ago and we controlled those measures,” Pruett said. “But when we got the volumes of water in a short amount of time, that is where we got the problem.”

The storm dropped more than two-thirds of an inch of rain on Thousand Oaks during a 48-hour period, and dumped almost three inches of rain in some mountainous areas of the county.

Pruett said Keller Construction would pay for the water damage. “We have insurance for this sort of thing,” he said.

In the meantime, workers will continue the roofing project and hope to have it completed before the end of the month. “The project will be completed in about 15 to 20 days,” Pruett said. “We are taking temporary precautions as best we can.”

The roof leaks because of a poor architectural design, city officials say. And in July, the building’s architect, construction manager and subcontractors agreed to pay $1.28 million to the city to help cover the costs of repairing the leaky roof.

Workers are now adding larger drainage pipes and altering the slope of the roof so that water will no longer collect in pools around the skylights.

For patrons, this week’s rain damage is only the latest in a string of disasters and mishaps that have dogged the Thousand Oaks Library, the biggest city library in the county.

The library suffered about $2-million worth of damage during the Northridge earthquake, and quake-related repairs are not expected to be completed until late next year.

“It is almost like we just saw the light at the end of the tunnel and now that is blacked out,” said Kathy Lewis, president of Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library. “It is really discouraging.”