COLORADO SPRINGS — Thousands of books were destroyed after frozen pipes burst and caused flooding at The Classical Academy (TCA) North Campus in Colorado Springs in January, according to staff.
Staff said the pipes burst in the third-floor ceiling at the north campus during a cold snap on Saturday, Jan. 18. Tisha Harris, the TCA Communications Director, said the water ran for about seven hours overnight and damaged administrative offices and the library.
"Many people are sharing offices now. They've moved to our other campuses as well," said Harris. "It's very heartbreaking, especially for our librarian staff. They take great pride in their work here."
Harris said the majority of their 28,000 books have been destroyed by water damage. Staff said a hired restoration team has been working to clean up the 60,000-square-foot damaged area, now blocked off by plastic tarps and lined with fans.
"We are currently waiting for insurance to get back to us on what the next steps are, and how we are going to replace books because we have no books in our library right now," said Harris.
As the restoration process continues, some students are feeling the impact. Shelby Peterson, Megan Peterson, Aly Yeadon, and Ashley Yeadon studied at the library together nearly every day after school.
"It's a great place to get homework done and just to, like, hang out and be with each other," said Shelby. "I'm just mostly so sad about all the books that were actually lost."
"It was really sad seeing the damage. But then also, we kind of had to, like, rethink what we were going to do after school," said Ashley.
TCA staff said they do not have a timeline for the restoration process, but said they hope to have the library back open by the beginning of next year.
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