Irene hit our neck of the woods on Sunday and drenched us with 11 inches of rain. The Ausable River proved it was too much for her to handle and our communities took a beating. Many roads, houses, and businesses have been damaged and destroyed. Our home up on the hill kept us safe and we were very fortunate to not have any damages. Friends and favorite businesses were not as blessed and my heart aches for everyone affected.
Here is a picture taken across the road from the Wells Memorial Library in Upper Jay during the storm.
Before the river receded it was six feet high touching the top of the speed limit sign. Many tears were shed the next morning when we walked in and saw the main floor covered in inches of mud with the basement completely flooded to its ceiling.
Over the last few days we have shoveled out mud, pumped the water out of the basement and have begun the process of discarding several books and other items that were caked with mud and completely drenched.
The library cannot thank members of the community enough that have been able to help us in the first steps to recovery. This will be a long process of restoration. Now is as good enough time as any to thank you once again for helping me raise over $1300 in my run for reading. The money was placed into our capitol fund and that money will be used to help us get the library back up and running.
However, we are finding out it will take much more. We are getting a tremendous response from those after hearing that we have lost about a half of our books, but we are not ready to take book collections at this time. The library is focusing on the needs of our building and equipment. Financial contributions outweigh our need for books at this time. If you are interested in helping in anyway, please send donations to:
Wells Memorial Library
Post Office Box 57
Upper Jay, NY 12987
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