South Cheatham Public Library in Kingston Springs damaged by storm...

During the storms that ravaged areas of Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and elsewhere on Friday, March 2, my little hometown of Kingston Springs received some significant damage to several buildings in the downtown area, including our beloved South Cheatham Public Library. Readers of The Posterity Project will recall that I blogged about a Civil War Trails historic marker unveiled in August 2011 right in front of the library building. The Library also hosted us for our third book signing event back in October 2011. That was a wonderful day, but yesterday was another story entirely.

The South Cheatham Public Library received significant hail and wind damage to the roof, and water drenched books and computers inside, according to Library Director Janet Walker.

Kingston Springs survived the May 2010 floods, and we'll survive this natural disaster too, but in the meantime the South Cheatham Public Library could use some help. Library Director Janet Walker told our local Fox News affiliate station last night that her facility lost 3 computers and may end up losing one of the more popular sections of books. "The first thing we think about is how much it's gonna take to replace what we lost, a collection that's built up over 25 years and it's mostly our juvenile books and those are the ones they check out a great deal so we have a lot of work," Walker said.

A tarp covers the roof and debris is piled in front of the South Cheatham Public Library in downtown Kingston Springs, Tennessee.

Walker and her staff will begin evaluating the damage this morning. In the meantime, if you'd like to help, I would suggest contacting the library through their website or Facebook page so that they may coordinate recovery efforts. Our community has pulled together in times of natural disaster before, and well pull together again, thanks to the generosity of others.

UPDATE 3/6/2012: The cleanup at the South Cheatham Public Library has begun. WSMV-TV in Nashville has this report...