By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

Ounces of prevention

Some will evacuate, some stay put, but all pay attention to the wind and the water.

Like the citzenry, Mobile’s exhibition halls have a variety of reactions to the approach of tropical storms and none take it lightly.

Mobile hasn’t played host to many major storms, but given enough time, it’s bound to occur. So what would happen if a Katrina-type monster was bearing down on us?

It depends on where you are.

Right next to the water in downtown, the Gulf Coast Explorueum and the Museum of Mobile seem most likely to face tempestuous wrath. The Exploreum, in fact, has received damage from previous storm surges, such as when Hurricane Georges flooded Water Street in 1998.

The Museum of Mobile has experience with more extensive damage. When Hurricane Frederic roared through in 1979, it tore away a third of the roof from the building that at the time housed the city government offices. When rebuilt, the roof was strengthened and floor raised to hold future flooding to a minimum.

According to Museum of Mobile spokesperson Elyse Marley, Katrina closed the facility for eight months due to damage from flood waters.

“We implement our hurricane plan a week out from anticipated landfall,” Marley said. “The hurricane shutters are installed on the east side of the building and caulking is applied to further insure that water seepage is kept to a minimum. Many items are moved to the second floor and other first floor items are elevated.”

The doors are also sandbagged.

Former museum director George Ewert told Artifice previously that it takes close to 100 man-hours to prepare the Royal Street museum.

Marley said the museum has insurance with an umbrella policy to cover the entire collection.

A few blocks further inland, the Centre for the Living Arts has two facilities to worry over: the Saenger Theatre and Space 301.

CLA Director Carlos Parkman once described the process for the Saenger, citing certain areas as more vulnerable to damage.

“The offices, the stage area and the basement are exposed,” Parkman said. “We sandbag the all the doors at street level.”

Parkman also described a pump system that can bail water if need be.

Amazingly, the 70-plus-year-old building has never sustained major damage from a storm.

Space 301 is not as easy to prepare as it was previously. A building Parkman once described as “built like a bomb shelter” has been renovated and the new design has replaced several solid walls with glass, including a third-floor balcony lined with the more fragile material.

Space 301 only sprang a few leaks during Hurricanes Ivan and Katrina, but Parkman said those were unsurprising and the staff was well prepared.

Private galleries aren’t as comprehensive. In some facilities such as Cathedral Square Gallery, the artists are largely responsible for the ultimate safety of their work.

The Mobile Museum of Art in Langan Park is saved certain worries by their distance from the bay, but they aren’t altogether indestructible.

Tommy McPherson told Lagniappe previously that their preparation plan was devised under consultation with other museums.

But the artwork would stay on site.

“There would be more risk in transporting something under those conditions than in keeping it here,” McPherson said. “You just couldn’t do the crating required for transportation in the time frame of a hurricane.”

Museum spokesperson Eric Gallichant said a hurricane watch from the National Weather Service is what kicks things into action.

“Preparation includes monitoring local and NWS advisories, evaluating conditions and making decisions about facility and staff, evacuations of visitors and employees, updates to the public about when we’ll re-open,” Gallichant said. “We’ll decide what to do about protecting inside and outside artwork, collection records and computers.”

Needless to say, the plan entails sandbags aplenty.

“We have two types of insurance, too,” Gallichant explained. “One covers the facility if it becomes damaged while a separate policy covers the artwork inside the building that is a part of our permanent collection. Most of the traveling exhibits like Josh Simpson’s glass show are covered in additional policies that are mandatory in order to house the exhibit.”

Roberty Krchak of The Architects Group, the firm that handled the renovation felt assured the building could measure up to any such threat.

“It was built according to all the codes in effect,” Krchak previously told Artifice. “The intent of the design is to have the work moved to a level with its own generator and air conditioning in the event of anything.”

“Ivan was the first hurricane in the area since the building was renovated,” Gallichant said. “During that one, we sustained only minor damage consisting of interior water damage as a result of exterior flashing being blown off. It was confined to an area where the offices are located. There was no significant damage from Katrina.”

There is unknown variable in place at the museum.

“There is an outdoor sculpture that was not here during the last hurricane,” Gallichant said, referring to Bruce Larsen’s gargantuan butterfly just outside the facility’s entrance. Hurricane-force winds could be enough to give the massive steel insect flight at last.

“Plans are to remove that if we are in the direct path of a storm,” Gallichant said.

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

Archives