One year ago this week, we were slogging through the mud, hauling out boxes of aerial photographs, map drawers, and books. Although
I hated it at the time, a year has mellowed my memories so I'm able to look back without a shudder.
Here are a few memories that have stuck with me:
Hanging aerial photographs to dry -- in the rain -- on the lanai of Snyder Hall.
Kris Anderson, Mabel Suzuki, and I trying to find aerial photographs in the debris on the floor of the map room.
Hiding from television reporters (always a good strategy!).
Digging book trucks out of the debris so we'd have a place to put salvaged books.
Standing on heaps of books in our closed stacks, trying to get to the ones that didn't have fur growing on them.
Being so happy when I didn't have to walk around in the mud any more because BMS Cat had cleaned it all up.
Susan Johnson and crew using crowbars to pry apart our card catalogs so we could salvage our shelflist.
Rich Tominaga directing the book packing crews.
Mabel Suzuki and Ev Wingert triaging the maps.
Lloyd Tsukano, in his rubber boots and apron, photographing everything and everyone.
Eating bentos on the loading dock.
Running around trying to find people.
Mat Rose hiking up five flights of stairs to Preservation with boxes of aerial photographs.
Stringing clotheslines in the stacks on the fourth floor of the Addition so we could hang documents from them.
I try not to think about the less-pleasant memories, like the horror of seeing the destruction on the night of October
30, when the water had not completely receded. At that moment, I realized that my job had changed drastically. I wondered
if I was up for the challenges that lay ahead. I still wonder about that.
