More than two years after flood waters damaged or destroyed more than 250,000 maps and aerial photographs at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa's Hamilton Library, many of the rare and valuable documents are again available for public use, but it could be years before the collection is back to the way it was.

The library's Maps Collection reopened last week, another step in the recovery of Hamilton Library, which suffered half the $82 million in damage from the devastating Manoa flood in October 2004

Despite a restoration and replacement effort that has cost more than $1 million and donations of key maps and other materials from libraries across the country, the collection has only about 60 percent of what it had before the flood.

Thousands of damaged maps remain in freezers, waiting to be cleaned.

Library officials continue to try to find replacements for maps lost during the flood. And the collection, part of the Government Documents and Maps department, which was housed in 4,500 square feet of the Hamilton Library basement, is now spread out across campus and even across town.

"The Maps Collection isn't back to normal at all. What we have done is reinstated service to the maps that we do have available," said Paula Mochida, associate university librarian. "Things are pretty much in a state of disarray."

Still, the work is moving faster than expected. Officials originally estimated that it could take as long as seven years to restore or replace damaged or destroyed documents.

Librarian Gwen Sinclair, head of the Government Documents and Map department, now believes it could be finished in two to three more.

And there's other good news.

"We salvaged almost all of our rare Pacific and Hawai'i maps," Sinclair said.

MATTER OF TIME

Library officials also have determined that virtually everything else can be replaced. It's mainly a matter of how long it will take.

Hamilton's rich collection of rare Hawai'i maps, aerial photographs, historical maps and U.S. and Hawai'i geological maps were frequently used by construction and development planners and researchers looking into the historical uses of plots of land. For the past two years, researchers have had to use alternate resources.

"Frankly, I don't know what they've been doing these past couple of years," she said.

Meanwhile, the department struggles with the loss of its original space in the Hamilton basement.

Staff and maps are in various temporary locations at Hamilton and Sinclair Libraries as well as rented space at Dole Cannery in Iwilei.

"We're just all over the place," Sinclair said. "For maps, it means it's hard because everything is not in one place."

As the library works on replacing maps that were lost during the flood, new customer service restrictions have been put in place.

Maps or aerial photographs may be viewed in the library's Special Collections reading room by appointment only, library officials said. Patrons can make an appointment by calling 956-6199 or e-mail mapcoll@hawaii.edu.

A SLOW PROCESS

More than 100,000 maps were destroyed from flood waters that raged through Hamilton Library. About 60,000 other maps — some going back to the 1500s — were salvaged and frozen in hopes they could be restored later. Many of those maps have since been cleaned, but more than 9,000 remain frozen in storage.

"We can only take out so many maps at one time," she said. The library's preservation department has been going through the tedious process of cleaning and restoring the fragile documents — mostly rare maps of Hawai'i — one at a time.

Others, like the university's collection of U.S. topographical maps, were sent to a company in Fort Worth, Texas, for cleaning. Boxes of those were delivered to the university on Thursday, Sinclair said.

So far, the Mainland company has helped restore some 43,000 maps.

The total cost of cleaning and restoring maps so far as been estimated at about $600,000.

A significant number of maps have been replaced with purchased or donated copies. About 28,276 replacements have been purchased at a cost of about $480,000.

About 30,000 U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps have been donated to the university by Seattle Public Library, Michigan Tech University and through about 3,000 other donations.

"We've replaced a lot of things, but there are still a number of sets of maps and aerial photographs that we're still working on replacing," Sinclair said.

About 90,000 aerial photographs were also destroyed during the flood.

The library has acquired digital copies of some aerial photographs of Hawai'i from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Ocean Science Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The library is attempting to replace about 70,000 aerial photographs, some dating back to World War II.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.