In the basement of the Paperback Exchange store, instead of books, there’s mud, debris, and an indoor landslide from a huge water main break.

“It was pretty devastating walking in here for sure,” declares manager Rachel Pedersen. “It was really bad. When we first walked in here the other day, it was — we thought we were done.”

The Feb. 13 break, on an eight-inch line, flooded West 50th Street overnight.

The high waters soaked down thousands of books in the store, destroying 80% of the inventory.

Pedersen says the basement got it the worst — with one wall partly collapsed, mud everywhere, and 100,000 rare and out-of-print books just completely gone.

“That is where we kept our rare books, our valuable books that we would never see again,” she notes. “You know, probably one in five hundred in the world.”

Nearby, the Terzo restaurant also sustained heavy damage.

Just outside, an industrial dumpster holds more than 100,000 pounds of debris: mud, concrete blocks, shoes, and more books.

“Right now, it’s uninhabitable; the city has intended to condemn the building,” says Terzo co-owner Charlie Broder. “The amount of water pushed in the foundation. There’s a large hole in the foundation as well as extensive damage.”

A City of Minneapolis spokesperson says authorities are still investigating what happened.  

“No obvious cause for the break was found,” a city statement says. “We’ve sent the pipe out for independent, structural testing as part of the city due diligence process. While understanding the exact cause of the pipe degradation is valuable, there were no clear indicators suggesting that this particular section of pipe was at risk.”

The spokesperson says the pipe was installed in 1922, and the water distribution system pipes in the area were inspected when the area was cleaned and lined in 2007 — and that no concerns were noted.

Now, structural engineers with the city are working to see if several businesses, including Terzo, Paperback Exchange, and the Sparrow Café coffee shop can be saved.

“The demolition and the reconstruction part are kind of the part that’s in the air,” says Sparrow Café owner Jasper Rajendren. “They’re not going to do it unless they have guarantees from insurance or at least some money. “

The city says as of Tuesday, officials have received six claims of reimbursement from businesses affected by the water main break.

Those claims are not yet complete.

“We’re starting from scratch,” Broder explains. “Everything is destroyed. In the basement, everything, a lot of destruction present on the first floor.”

Signs outside, posted by the city, call the building “unsafe” and note an “intent to condemn.”

One notes “hazardous conditions” that include “water damage, destroyed foundation.”

But another sign displays a heart with the names of area supporters around it.  

“Something like a water main break can seemingly wipe that all away, and that’s terrible,” declares Michael Anderson, the Creative Director with Fat Pants Brewing Company in Eden Prairie. “Of course, that’s devastating. You can imagine that water and books and water in a great amount is not great.”

The brewery and other merchants are jumping into action.

Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis is storing 50,000 books that were saved from the flooding.

“We thought this would be a total 100% complete loss, and Moon Palace stepped up,” Pedersen recalls. “Angela, the owner stepped up and rented a U-Haul and she had a storage unit available, and we just shifted them over there.”

Some of the surviving books will be for sale on March 2 at the Pints and Pages book fair at Fat Pants Brewing.

“It’s really heartening to see that people from all over the Twin Cities are pitching in to help,” Anderson says. “Recover from something that seems almost unrecoverable.”

Crowd-funding efforts are also helping to raise money for the impacted businesses — who say they want to stay if possible.  

“We would love to be here, because that’s where everyone knows where us to be,” Pedersen exclaims. “I think in our wildest dreams, we would hope to stay here.”  

Broder says the rebuilding process — if it gets the go-ahead — could take months or perhaps even a year.

“This is our neighborhood,” Broder adds. “We have a stake in the ground of 50th and Penn, and it’s been our privilege to support the community and feed them and nourish people.”

Crowd-funding efforts for Terzo employees, Paperback Exchange and the Sparrow Café have been started.