Finally!!!

Last June, there was a very sudden rainstorm that drenched our local area.  I forget the specifics but inches of rain fell over night.  We luckily slept through the ENTIRE thing.  We woke up and nothing seemed abnormal to us until we looked out the south side windows of our house.  We were 'lakefront' and we live in farm country ha.  At the corner which is a house away from us the road was under water.  Further down our road it was washed out.  The way I took to get to the main road had lawns covered in water.  We actually had gotten water in the very corner of our basement but wouldn't notice it until later.  Luckily, nothing was damaged.  We were lucky.

In my town, many roads were under water.  Neighborhoods had were full of ruined basements.  Because there was also a sewer backup.  For months, you could be in some neighborhoods and contents would be on lawns.  It was horrific.  Our mall and supermarket parking lots were underwater.  It was just incredibly crazy.  Roads would be open one minute and closed the next.  Our HIGHWAY closed.  It was also the weekend my SIL was getting married and our route was okay on the way there, but coming home we got trapped on a dirt road off a dirt road and powered through because we were looking at MILES of back tracking.  When we got home after her rehearsal our road was closed because water was over a bridge  and THANK GOODNESS we lived on the south side of it or we'd have been out of lock for 48 hours and no wedding clothes. 

this is supposed to be a ditch and then a farm field

This is a lot of backstory to lead up to one of the most devastating community wide losses.  Our local library's lower floor had extensive damage.  The lower level is all of the amazing kids and teens area.  It happened right at the beginning of the summer reading program.  It was over $1.5 million dollars in damage and no insurance covered it at all.  For the past year, we've had a very subdued kids area in an underused room of the library.

this is supposed to be a park/ball field next to the road..

Until this week... It FINALLY RE-OPENED!!! It's not 100 percent finished and books are still being moved in but it's back in business.  You can bet we were there the very next day after school to check it out.

We love the new floors and the new set up.  They reconfigured a few things that just make sense and the teen area looks really neat now too. 

We spent about 40 minutes playing with toys and looking at books.  Also, can I say how much I LOVE our library? My daughter and I are greeted with smiles and even know a few of the employees who greet her by name.  LOVE IT!

The kiddos library selections yesterday

I'm so glad it's back just in time for the summer reading program to start next week!!

Do you utilize your public library? Did you use the library as a child?