A Farmington library branch remains closed after a pipe froze and burst during the cold snap causing flooding and extensive damage.
A dumpster now sits outside the Barney Library branch on Main Street. Inside, fans sit around the building to dry the floors, walls are destroyed, and thousands of books sit in boxes. It's all because flooding devastated the historic building after a pipe in a second floor wall froze and broke sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.
An employee discovered the damage just after six o'clock Saturday morning.
"When he came in, he found Niagara Falls coming down the wall by our circulation desk and our children's area," said Kathy Lescoe who is the director of the branch.
The fire department turned off the water to the building and workers scrambled to move 7500 books out of the children's area. They're boxed up now and still sit in alphabetical order. None of the books were damaged.
The building was built back in 1917 and once served as the town's main library. Renovations just wrapped up about two years ago. Now, damage estimates are still being tallied.
"We don't know at this point and we don't know when the library may be opening again. We'll be closed for a while anyway," said Andy Baron, the chairman of the library's Board of Trustees.
As bad as the damage is, workers are thankful it wasn't worse.
"It's heartbreaking," said Lescoe.
For now, programs and services are being provided at the town's main library.
