Hello All --- There were some rumors floating around, and I've had emails, so quick summary:During the massive, solid, 4 hour rainstorm yesterday, The Port Huron Museum's Carnegie Center and Thomas Edison Depot Museum did suffere SOME water damage. The rain was such that over 2" came down in 1/2 hour, something like 6" over two hours. It was only about 3 PM that the rain let up (I would call it to a normal level) from the hardest/ longest down pour I've seen in some time. At the Carnegie Center, our two roof drains over our Mezzanine Roof were plugged solid from runnoff --- and so water built to the point that it broke the seal around the drains pipe, and began running down the OUTSIDE of the drain pipes, which run down through the building to the basement. Some water entered onto the mezzanine's glass floor (the stacks or book area in its library days), narrowly missing some of our quilt collection, which was hanging BEHIND the drips. Unfortuntaley, it did go into our Mezzanine collections storage area, and some water hit the floor.At the depot, the Sewer drain in the basement backed up in the "Michigan Basement" furnance pit --- although too early to tell, its possible we lost our furnace there. We did get some roof leakage between our combine and the glass enclosure which connects it with our depot --- enough so that its stained the steps, but did NO damage to the combine itslelf (thanks to all for your suggestions on that rubber membrane roof -- its been a godsend!). Much of the above issues were due to our city being in the midst of sewer separation ---- and much of the temporary systems set for construction unable to handle massive run-off of this type. In short, it could have been MUCH worse --- two things saved us at both sites 1.) We had a distaster prepardness manual (AAM approved), and had trained for this type of "water" emergency --- everybody knew our roles, and because of that, a much worse fate was averted. 2.) Our intern, Jen Stilwell, and our site manager, Joe Burgett, had my number, my director's number, and DIDN'T panic. Nothing rail-related was damaged --- some of our rolled rug collection was hit, and is drying nicely; if I can make recommendations to ANYONE for money well spent, its on the Paige Company Miracle Box --- they have the ability to soke up two gallons of water and not have the inside contents damaged --- and BOY did they do the job. Not a single one of our water-damaged was breached --- and although they are throwaways, they died in a noble cause ;-)Irony is --- Wednesday I'm doing a presentation for the Historical Society of Michigan on just this kind of thing; well, got some great additions to the PowerPoint!TJ Gaffney(slightly wet) Curator of CollectionsPort Huron Museum

Good to hear TJ. The museum where I am a Curator at has some drainage issues with summer downpours. Water gets in through the back door, down the halls, and into my office sometimes. Also into some display areas and collections storage areas, but no harm is done as stuff is well off the floor. It would take a lot of digging to correct, pushing a mop around is a bit cheaper!Joshua K. Blay