Rachel Pedersen has found countless gems in the basement of Paperback Exchange used book store in south Minneapolis: an advanced reader’s copy of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel, and dozens of books documenting the Antarctic expeditions of Ernest Shackleton, donated by a woman who retraced his route.

Now, when Pedersen goes downstairs in the decades-old store she manages, she just finds mud.

“As you can see, it’s pretty devastating down here,” she said in the basement on a recent afternoon.

It’s been nearly two weeks since a broken water main at 50th Street and Penn Avenue South flooded the building housing the bookstore, apartments and several other small businesses.

Pedersen was one of the first people in the store on the morning of Feb. 13, when the water main broke. Water had burst through a wall — where there’s now a huge hole, with dirt spilling in.

Crews responded to the site around 3 a.m. and found water pouring down the block and through the alley. It took crews five hours to find the problem and shut the water off on the subzero morning. It completely flooded the basement, and swamped the ground floor a foot deep. It left sheets of ice on the sidewalk, streets and alley outside.

The city was not able to determine what caused the break.

Paperback Exchange owner Andy Hersey said his parents — also co-owners — live just across the alley from the store. Water flooded their house, freezing their car in the garage and destroying carpeting and appliances in the basement.

When Pedersen arrived at the bookstore and went downstairs that morning, she found soaked paperbacks piled to the ceiling. She estimates there were 100,000 books down there, which customers donated in exchange for store credit. The store kept rare and valuable books in the basement, along with years’ worth of overstock.

“It’s so hard to replace stuff like that, because you can’t just buy it,” she said. “It’s stuff people brought in organically, and it showed who they were, you know?”

The apartments above Paperback Exchange had to be evacuated. There’s no power or gas to the building, so they haven’t been able to return. Crews are working to clean out the muddy basement and get utilities back on, under temporary lanterns and whirring fans.

Paperback Exchange is one of several long-running small businesses in the building. Terzo, an Italian restaurant next door, also flooded. Co-owner Charlie Broder said the damage is even harder to take, after weathering the pandemic and other challenges to owning a restaurant.

“We’ve been fighting — fighting — just like every other restaurant in the city for the last five years, not just to survive, but to get to a place of thriving and clarity and being able to, like, take one breath of stability,” he said. “This just throws us back into chaos, and that’s really painful for everybody involved.”

Aside from hauling out art and appliances, Broder said he’s spending a lot of time on paperwork. So far, he thinks Terzo’s insurance will cover a lot of the damage.

But back next door at Paperback Exchange, owner Hersey said they’re still going back and forth between the city and their insurance company, trying to figure out who will cover the damage.

“Our ultimate hope is that the books that were saved can come back, and our customers can come back, and the neighborhood has the bookstore again,” Hersey said.

Also in the damaged building, right on the corner of 50th and Penn, Jasper Rajendren and his wife, Sheila, own Sparrow Cafe. Rajendren said the community makes that spot special — and they've showed up to help since the flood. One regular customer set up a fundraiser for the cafe, which Rajendren said will go to help employees while they're out of work.

“It really does feel like we are part of the community, and it’s just so, like, humbling, to really get that support when we’re really struggling,” he said.

Some businesses in neighboring buildings also suffered damage from the flooding. Online fundraisers to help the businesses affected, and their employees, have raised tens of thousands of dollars.

The owners say it’ll be a long road to reopening. This week, bright-colored notices remained taped to every door, warning people to stay out for safety reasons. Linea Palmisano, the neighborhood’s city council member, has been in touch with business owners and advised them to file claims with the city as well as with their insurance companies.

A city of Minneapolis spokesperson said the city did issue an intent to condemn the building, but doesn’t have plans to pursue it further, since business and property owners are making progress toward addressing the most extreme problems. An engineer will visit the site soon to give a report on the stability of the building — and next steps before it can be occupied again.

Find the fundraisers for Paperback Exchange, Sparrow Cafe and Terzo employees.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.