Hamilton Library Floods

 Two decades ago, on the night before Halloween 2004, there was a heavy flood up in Mānoa Valley

The flood burst onto the University of Hawaii at Mānoa campus damaging several buildings. But worse damage was done to the university's largest library: The Hamilton Library.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser article "Halloween Eve flash flood at UH-Manoa left ruin in its wake 20 years ago" does a great job in describing the flood and the damage it has caused to the library (and other facilities)

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2024/10/29/hawaii-news/halloween-eve-flash-flood-at-uh-manoa-left-ruin-in-its-wake/

Here is my  Facebook post regarding the article and my thoughts on the flood

Pablo Wegesend

A day that is etched in the collective memory of UHM. Because this happened on the Halloween weekend (of 2004), most of the student's minds were somewhere else when it happened. But the Monday after, classes were canceled as we learned the truth of what happened.

At the time, I was in my final semester as an undergrad student majoring in sociology. So definitely couldn't use the library for the rest of my final semester.

Fast-forward to 2013, when I returned to UHM as a graduate student majoring in Library & Information Science (LIS), the renovations were done and the basement (where LIS was located was looking good as new).  

However, not everything could be easily replaced since the basement included the storage of maps, government docs, and other rare items. And trauma still hasn't totally healed for all those affected by this flood.

Also in that semester, I had a part-time job as a student librarian in the university's Marine Option Program (MOP). At the time, program's HQ was in Dean Hall (which wasn't damaged by the flood) but some of their old posters and other items were located in the portables on lower campus. Though it didn't get muddied like Hamilton Library, the items there did get water-damaged.  I helped clear out some stuff there.  Even before the flood, there was some discussion of all the stuff accumulated by MOP over the decades. The flood answered the question for a lot of stuff at the portables. While some stuff was saved, it was time for most of it to go. 

I graduated at the end of the semester and there was still some accumulated stuff that we didn't get around to throwing out yet.   What happened to them is still a mystery to me as it was time for me to move on.

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Also check out this following article "Hamilton Library 20 years after the UH Mānoa flood" 

https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2024/10/29/hamilton-library-flood-20th-anniversary/