Friday, September 23, 8:00 p.m.

From Gail Naughton, President and CEO

It’s been a busy day of preparation and hard work. The generator supplied by Paulson Electric is in place and ready. Paulson has also been removing electrical boxes and connections in the garage and in the yard that could potentially get flooded. We know from previous experience that anything electrical touched by flood water needs to be replaced so we are being proactive where we can. Miscellaneous items stored in the lower garage level (such as Christmas decorations, pallets of copy paper, exhibit cases and exhibit crates) have been moved to a semi-trailer supplied by CRST that will be parked off site. We are preparing to work at home with remote access next week.

Friends have been stopping by all day to help – lots of hugs and cries of disbelief, but the outpouring of caring has been heartwarming. It’s been amazing how groups of young people and families have been going from business to business and sandbagging station to sandbagging station to help wherever it’s needed. We put one up on the circle drive right in front of the museum to prepare sandbags for our buildings on 16th Avenue. An amazing amount of work has been done at the Bicycle shop and the Kosek Building. The Babi House (Forget-me-not Antiques) has not been sandbagged yet. I want to recognize Bob Vancura, who organized our sandbagging, Charlie Rohde and King’s Materials, Klinger Paint and Nathan Griffith, a brilliant architect, who all helped today. There are too many volunteers to mention, but here’s a big THANK YOU to everyone!

We will be sandbagging tomorrow, Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. We will fill sandbags on the circle drive in front of the main museum. Bring gloves and shovels. The sand is being delivered in the morning so we hope to be ready when you get there. (Everyone is trying their hardest….) Thanks to anyone who can help.

A note about sandbagging. We know it’s not perfect but we hope to lessen damage, and therefore cleanup, of the properties on 16th Avenue. We have flood insurance but we want to have these properties out of commission as short a time as possible. The good news is the main museum will be ready to reopen as soon as the utilities are restored to the area.

I’ll send another update tomorrow.

Gail