GILROY
– The main water pipe at Barnes
&
amp; Noble Booksellers at Gilroy Crossing Shopping Center burst
Thursday morning flooding the store and forcing it to close for the
day. They hope to be open again on Saturday morning.
GILROY – The main water pipe at Barnes & Noble Booksellers at Gilroy Crossing Shopping Center burst Thursday morning flooding the store and forcing it to close for the day. They hope to be open again on Saturday morning.
Although the water fell on bookshelves and reached the storeroom and offices, the damage was not extensive said store manager Kelly Waterson.
“We don’t know with the humidity if the books will continue to be damaged. Once we get the electricity on and get the air circulating again we will have a better idea of the damage,” she said.
The pipe only runs through the book store and the flooding did not affect any other business.
Waterson received a call at 6 a.m. Thursday notifying her the burglar alarm had just been set off at the store. When she arrived forty minutes later she found the carpet soaked. The water had rushed down from the ceiling in the children’s section, spreading through the store and setting off the alarm.
Crews arrived at 10 a.m. to vacuum up the standing water and set out fans to dry the carpet. Thursday afternoon they were making progress, but the electricity was still turned off as a safety precaution. The store will remain closed on Friday to allow carpets to fully dry.
“The only area the flooding didn’t reach was the cafe, which is tile anyway,” Waterson said. Customers who dropped by hoping to pick up a book or look around were not upset about the closure.
“It’s such a new store, it’s just an inconvenience,” Maureen Honeycutt said. She had stopped by the store to run an errand before going to work at Sportmart, also in the Gilroy Crossing Shopping Center.
Barnes & Noble Booksellers opened June 2.
