A broken water main forced the Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library to close Sunday after leaving about an inch and a half of water standing in the basement.

The library will remain closed "until at least 5 p.m." today, although it will be open for reference, library director Tom Jones said Sunday.

No books were damaged, although "several thousand" on the lower shelves were moved to allow the bottom shelves to be taken out to aid in drying the carpet. Those books were 4 or 5 inches off of the floor, Jones said. The areas most affected were the fiction and biography sections, Jones said.

Although the Bismarck Water Department had to shut down the entire block, only the library remains without water, Jeff Goetz, a water maintenance technician, said Sunday.

The break was the third since Saturday afternoon in Bismarck.

A main at Washington Street and Sweet Avenue broke Saturday afternoon, flooding Washington Street but causing no other damage, Goetz said.

The southbound lanes of Washington are closed for about a block while repairs are under way. Traffic is being squeezed into one lane north and one lane south in the northbound lanes, Goetz said.

Crews will start repair work today, but the lanes on Washington won't reopen for a couple of days, "when things get patched up," Goetz added.

About 10 houses were affected between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday in south Bismarck when a main broke at the intersection of Cologne Drive and Augsburg Avenue.

The mix of really cold temperatures followed by warmer temperatures seems to have prompted the breaks, speculated Darol Hopfauf, a Bismarck Fire Department battalion chief, who added that he's no water-line expert.

The fire department was on the scene of the library flood and did a "wonderful job of assisting," said Jones.

Firemen also helped set up the sump pumps and broom standing to those areas, said Hopfauf.

Arrow Cleaning Service started the clean-up work Sunday, and a private contractor will start work today on repairing the water main, Jones said.

Library staff discovered the standing water about 1 p.m. Sunday when the library opened.

"We're not sure how long it was running before that. I'm sure it wasn't running all night. Some staff was here until about midnight (Saturday).

The library was closed at 2 p.m because the restrooms were closed, although library staff allowed a piano recital that already had started to finish.

Jones said mold shouldn't be a problem. There is a cement floor beneath the carpet, which is thin, Jones said.

"I'm confident the carpet will be OK once it's vacuumed up," Jones said. "We are vacuuming the water out, and I'm sure we will be successful and be able to get all areas."

(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or richard.hinton@bismarcktribune.com.)