Greenlight Bookstore Will Rebuild After Bomb Cyclone Damage

PROSPECT-LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN — Pipes burst at Greenlight Bookstore hours before the epic “bomb cyclone” hit New York City and destroyed parts of the store, basement and “a whole lot of books,” owners said.

But the water damage didn’t stop Greenlight from reopening its doors on Friday, thanks to the booksellers who dashed into the "water and darkness" on Wednesday to rescue stack upon stack of books, said co-owner Jessica Stockton Bagnulo.

"They were amazing," said Stockton Bagnulo. "They moved a lot of books out of harm's way."

The frozen pipe burst inside 632 Flatbush Ave. around 6 p.m. Wednesday night and sent water gushing into the small book shop through the ceiling, Stockton Bagnulo said.

Firefighters rushed to the building and turned off the water, but not before it had damaged two-thirds of the store, the basement offices, toys, puzzles and about 800books, she said.

"It's okay, we''ll rebuild," said Stockton Bagnulo. "We'll bring it back. "

The Greenlight Bookstore crew spent all day Thursday drying out the store, pulling out damaged books and getting ready to “restock, repair and rebuild,” they wrote on the bookstore website. "We are the little bookstore that could."

It's too soon to say how much renovations will cost, or how long they will take, but Stockton Bagnulo said responses from the building owners and insurance company have been encouraging.

So on Friday morning, Greenlight reopened the store and a throng of people rushed in to show support, co-owner Rebecca Fitting said.

"Our first steady flow of customers were all people who were like, 'I just had to come in to buy a book,'" she said.

Greenlight has developed a steady following since it first opened on Flatbush Ave. in November, 2016, and Stockton Bagnulo and Fitting hope local customers will come in this weekend to check out the selection.

"This weekend we won't have as many books," said Stockton Bagnulo. "But we'll have enough."

Fitting laughed and added, "We'll just be like, 'That book is wet, can we recommend this book instead?'"

Photos by Kathleen Culliton