Bracing for Flooding (Again): An Emergency Plan in Action (by Brianna Kim, Director of Operation, African American Museum of Iowa)
Every spring, I lead a comprehensive review of our emergency preparedness and response plan with the entire staff. The emergency plan addresses prevention and response to a variety of situations that may affect the museum – from floods to tornadoes and power outages to fires. The goal of the plan is to minimize damage, especially to the museum’s collections, in the event of an emergency.
During the review session, staff members are given 2 copies of the AAMI Emergency plan, one to keep on-site and one to keep at home. We review response to a variety of disaster situations, emergency evacuation routes, staff responsibilities, and evacuation priorities.
AAMI has no additional protection such as berms or sandbags so the museum could take on water at river levels exceeding 23 feet. In addition to watching the National Weather Service’s Advance Hydrologic Prediction Service, we also keep close eye on river levels upstream. Our emergency plan requires implementation if river level predictions exceed 18-20 feet.
Around 10am on Thursday, September 22, 2016 my husband sent me an ominous message asking if I’d looked at the forecast for the Cedar River lately. It quickly became clear that due to heavy rains upriver, Cedar Rapids was in danger of facing a major flood for the second time in under a decade.
During the June 2008 Cedar Rapids flood, the African American Museum of Iowa (AAMI) was devastated when the Cedar River crested at 31 feet, bringing over 5 feet of water into the building and damaging our collection and devastating our library. Unlike 2008, we had several days to prepare this time, and we were ready.
Because of the museum’s location near the Cedar River, access to the building is cut off by surrounding flood waters before taking on water. On Thursday, September 22, 2016, the morning river level was expected to crest on Tuesday, September 27, above 24 feet so we made the decision to immediately implement our emergency plan. We spent all of Thursday and Friday preparing the building for the worst possible scenario.
Our emergency plan includes a tiered list of contents within our building, prioritized for rescue and salvage efforts. Our top priority was ensuring the safety of our collections and any objects on loan to the museum. Over 500 objects were moved to our second floor, storage loft, or higher shelving.
We then moved on to securing items in tier 2 (collections and administrative records), tier 3 (library books, non-collection exhibit materials, and computers), and tier 4 (education supplies, store merchandise, personal property, and office furniture). Dozens of volunteers from the community and neighboring museums and libraries helped us move items to higher ground and sandbag our building to protect it from potential flood waters. The city also installed a temporary berm close to the building that added further protection.
With the building prepared and secured, the next step was to wait and see what the river would do. Over the weekend, the crest prediction was lowered several times and our hopes were increased that the building would not take on water. The river eventually crested just below 22 feet, and AAMI stayed dry.
We learned several lessons from this experience. As a result, we developed a more comprehensive plan for flood evacuation that better addresses volunteer management / mobilization, tips for managing stress, staff roles and responsibilities (reorganized to allow a clear segregation of duties), and a re-opening plan and timeline template.
IMALERT members recently assisted in flood recover efforts at the Pacific Junction Railroad Museum. For a link to the full article written by Nancy E. Kraft please visit https://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/conservation/category/flood-recover/
or CLICK HERE to read.
During a disaster, time is critical but help is a phone call away. IMALERT Hotline 319-384-3673.
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