Howard-Tilton Memorial Library

[3] When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on August 29, 2005, the 40,000 square foot Library basement was flooded with more than eight feet of water.

A temporary air circulation system run by generators was installed just 10 days after the storm and within a month, all of the water had been pumped out of the basement.

The Maxwell Music Library had held more than 43,000 titles including books, scores, journals, and many rare and historic sound recordings on CD and LP.

A very large Microforms area on the north side of the basement had held more than 30,000 titles of facsimile collections of rare or scholarly material and newspaper archives.

None of the materials from the original 19th-century Howard Collection could be salvaged, due to structural wreckage and especially dangerous conditions in that area of the library.

At that point, a battery of temporary HVAC units were being used to combat mold and humidity by distributing air throughout each floor by long semi-inflated tubes hung from the ceilings and attached through the windows along the back of the building to eight galvanized metal towers.

In August 2013, plans were announced to replace these climate control systems with a more permanent solution, as well as to add a 5th and 6th floor to the library.