Weathering a Hurricane

     I know that last week I promised you a post about Civil War embalmer Dr. Richard Burr, but it seems more appropriate to cover Hurricane Sandy this week!  I’ll get back to Dr. Burr in a couple of weeks.  I will also apologize for only having one photo this week, but I have been stuck at my home for the past couple of days.

 

 

Here is the reason I couldn’t get to the museum after the hurricane – a large tree came down across my driveway and brought a power line down with it. The tree can’t be moved until the power company can come out to secure the live wire, and they have a lot of other problems to deal with at the moment!

 

     The hurricane preparations started about a week ago when the weather reports indicated that it might affect our area.  At that point, the staff was alerted to keep an eye on the weather reports.  The museum’s staff contact information was checked to be sure it was current and was then distributed to all employees so that we could communicate with each other outside of the museum if necessary.  Each employee was instructed to double check that their work flashlight had working batteries, and we checked the status of our emergency kits as well.  Our Director, George, advised us to have the proper emergency supplies in our homes as well.

     When it became clear that Hurricane Sandy was heading our way, closing procedures were discussed and duties were assigned.  My job was to ready the galleries in the main museum for the storm and to check on them as long as weather conditions allowed.  The Pry House was assigned to Tom.  The rain started on Sunday night, and we got the official word that the museum would be closed to the public the next day.  On Monday morning the rain was somewhat heavy, but there was not much wind yet, so I went in to check the museum.  I double checked the doors and windows and brought in the flags.  I also put plastic over the two areas that sometimes leak during very heavy rains, and, with George’s help, moved the display panels away from those areas.  I walked through the galleries a couple of times that morning to check for leaks, but all was well at that point.  The radar was showing that more severe rain and wind were heading our way, so I went back home and George took over at the museum.

     My plan was to go back and check the museum again in the morning (unless called in sooner), but the tree in my driveway prevented that!  I did stay in touch with George and learned that there was only one very small leak in the galleries, which was not near any exhibits or artifacts, but was not in either of the usual areas.  He set up a fan to dry the carpet.  The worst damage was to the museum’s front door, which was ripped off its hinges by the wind.  Fortunately, we do have a second set of locking entrance doors, so the contents of the museum were not in danger.  The museum stayed closed for a second day though, while the front door was repaired.

     The museum is open now.  Overall, it seems we weathered the hurricane pretty well, with no injuries to the staff, no damage to the artifacts, and only minor damage to the museum building.  I hope everyone else was as fortunate and well prepared!

Being Prepared

     I received a reminder this week that the G8 Summit will be taking place shortly at Camp David.  The NMCWM is located within driving distance from that location.  So the good news is that we may get a few more visitors.  However, it has also been pointed out that these summits do sometimes attract protesters, and that sometimes they are not the peaceful kind.  We were all reminded to review the museum’s Emergency Plan.  We hope we won’t need to use any part of the plan, but it doesn’t hurt to review the procedures so that we will be prepared for whatever might happen.

     The Emergency Plan covers a number of potential threats including fires and floods, power outages, weather issues, earthquakes, bomb threats, robberies, as well as civil disturbances.  The plan designates the people in charge, the emergency numbers to call, and the procedures to follow in order to assure the safety of the staff and visitors to the museum. 

The museum keeps an emergency kit like this one on each floor of the building. The kits contain emergency supplies like water, duct tape, plastic sheeting, work gloves, masks, rope, flashlights and batteries.

The museum also keeps first aid kits on each floor of the building. They are monitored and restocked regularly by a designated staff member.

     It is always wise to have a plan and some basic supplies in place for unexpected situations.  Knowing the proper procedures and having some basic supplies will enable people to better handle the emergency, and could even save lives.  This is true for your own home and family as well.  I’ll go just a bit off topic here and point out that it isn’t difficult to obtain and fill a plastic tub or two with some first aid and emergency supplies for your family. 

You never know what might happen. Several years ago this car actually hit the side of our museum building! Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

     Though the safety of the people in the museum building is the first consideration, we also have supplies and procedures in place to ensure the safety of the museum’s exhibits and collection. 

This container is made to transport wet books. It is made of corrugated plastic so that it is strong, lightweight, and waterproof. They are designed to store flat, but we use some of them to store emergency supplies for the collection like plastic bags, gloves, and blotting paper.

 

This is shot from inside the collection room. Here you can see the fire alarm, a fire extinguisher (with a tag indicating it has been recently inspected!), and an Emergency Response and Salvage Wheel. The wheel is a quick source of information for dealing with damage to different types of materials.

     I hope we never have to deal with a fire, flood, or any other emergency situation.  However, it’s good to know that we have procedures in place to deal with them, that we are prepared with supplies, and that we have emergency resources identified in case we do need them. 

*Note – Ironically, the fire alarm went off a few minutes after I finished this post!  It was not a drill.  The museum staff quickly cleared the building and accounted for everyone.  Within a couple of minutes the fire trucks had arrived.  The firemen discovered that the alarm had gone off in response to a small amount of smoke in the elevator control room.  It turned out that a pump in the museum’s elevator had overheated.  I was very relieved to learn that the smoke had been contained and hadn’t affected the artifacts!

Here come the fire trucks!

Staff members Adele, Katie, Kent, and Tom (with Sawyer) waiting at the appointed meeting place for the “all clear” announcement.

Frederick’s finest firemen at work! 

It appears that I picked the correct week to cover Emergency Preparedness!



Photos courtesy of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine.