September 11, 2005
Hurricane damage to museums
http://www.aam-us.org/aamlatest/news/HurricaneFirstReports.cfm
Some irreplaceable exhibits lost here. Not exactly essential to life, but irreplaceable. A few highlights:
Marine Life Oceanarium, Gulfport, MS (as of 8-31). The Baltimore Sun reports there is an empty space where the Gulfport aquarium used to be.
Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum, Biloxi, MS (as of 9-5) The Clarion-Ledger reported that the museum was gutted.
Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi, MS (as of 9-8). The Wall Street Journal reported on 9-2: “Photographs of the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Miss., showed that a dislodged casino barge crushed part of an addition designed by Frank Gehry that had been a year from completion.” The Clarion-Ledger reported on 9-5 that the Grand Casino barge landed on the property, killing some of the oaks that were incorporated in the design. The New York Times reported on 9-8 that the Pleasant Reed House, which housed a museum of African-American history, was destroyed except for a chimney. It was on the site of the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum. Marjorie Gowdy, execuative director, reported on 9-8 that the Ohr pots survived the storm and have been moved to the Mobile Museum of Art. All other work, including an extensive contemporary ceramics collection, is also safe, sound, and secure. The museum’s current small studio was destroyed. The Center for Ceramics structure at new museum appears okay and is being assessed. She confirmed that the new Ohr gallery and the new African American gallery were crushed by a barge.
USM Gulf Coast Research Lab, Ocean Springs, MS (as of 9-7). Dr. Patrick Biber, Assistant Professor of Marine Botany, reported that the 30 year, 5000+ specimen herbarium at GCRL was completely flooded and mostly destroyed by Katrina. He is in the process of determining if anything can be salvaged and how to best go about doing so.
Audubon Nature Institute, New Orleans, LA (as of 9-8). AZA provided the following report. Audubon Aquarium of the Americas: Unfortunately, without a fully functioning life support system, most of the fish in the collection were lost. But the sea otters, penguins, leafy and weedy seadragons, macaws, raptors, an electric eel, and the white alligator survived. In a media advisory on 9-8, the aquarium announced that it will relocate the surviving animals from its marine life collection to 4 colleague institutions in Monterey, CA; and Dallas, Galveston, and Houston, TX. Audubon Zoo: the staff at the Zoo is supporting the efforts of their colleagues at the aquarium. They have received needed supplies and are continuing to clean up the zoo and providing care for their animals. Audubon Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species: the staff at ACRES is doing well and they are in clean–up mode as well. There is a plan in place for them to receive needed supplies very soon. The Washington Post reported on 9-6 that the zoo had two small animals die in the storm and some waterfowl were missing.
Filed by RawCode at 2:53 am under Banter
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I have been trying to cut back any of my non-essential expenditures to save some cash. I have been doing pretty good, but I could have done better. (I bought a new computer, vid card and lcd recently. It has been due for awhile. Around two years IIRC) Once the debt is gone, I will feel a lot better. It will then be onto accruing a 4 month supply of cash for emergencies. 14k is around the total for the four months if I include everything I spend normally, but could be cut down to around 10k for the bare essientals. We DO eat out alot…