Ironically, Hurricane Irene caused most of its damage after it wasn't even a Tropical Storm any more. It's one thing to get long, hard rains when you live in a coastal area, but it's quite another when you live far enough from open water that the rain simply builds up because it has no place to go. That's what happened in parts of the northeastern United States, particularly in Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont.
There's plenty of damage in those areas that needs fixing, and relief organizations and federal, state, and local governments are working hard to make sure people have safe and healthy places to live and clean water to drink, and such. But there's plenty of damage that's being largely overlooked because it doesn't put anyone's life in danger. We at GeekDad, via a tweet from science fiction writer John Scalzi, just heard about one such case.
The library in the very small town of Upper Jay, New York, took on a fair bit of flooding from the storm, and as a result lost almost their entire children's book section -- because those books were closer to the floor so kids could reach them more easily. There are few inanimate objects sadder than books that have been rendered unreadable, as you can see for yourself above. Fortunately, there are ways you can help. From this article on the disaster:
There's more info in the article, too, including a promise to provide information about another small-town library that was similarly affected.
If you can spare the books and/or money, please consider donating. Kids everywhere need to read, after all.
