[PRCo] PTM Update

[Edward H. Lybarger]

We are continuing to evaluate the extent of the water damage.  I can't speak
as to the shop; Bruce and Justin can.  The visitor center is getting two
feet of new wallboard from the floor up.  The exhibit modules were destroyed
structurally, though no photos on them were damaged.  Much of the store's
inventory was lost.  Barb's desk was also destroyed (also particleboard),
but the rest of the Education Department's material and equipment (except
for the digital camera) is fairly intact.  Two drawers each of Scott's six
file cabinets were submerged and will require the same treatment as the
archival material.  We will reinvent the place and be back open we hope by
this weekend but surely by next.

The track is intact on the east end (where it was underwater) but in serious
need of work along the creek, where erosion was fast and furious.  I haven't
seen it personally.

In the archives, one drawer in each file cabinet was soaked, as were boxes
on the floor and drawings in flat files.  Virtually all of the historic
Pittsburgh photo collection was above this level, and most of the negatives
that accompany that material was in my basement (on a high shelf!)
Nonetheless, this still leaves us with the equivalent of 50 or 60 or 70 file
drawers full of material to be conserved and recovered.  We met today with a
firm recommended by the Greater Pittsburgh Museum Council; they will give us
a pricing estimate tomorrow and can take the material on Wednesday if we
hire them.  The idea is to get it frozen before mold grows, and then restore
it at a practical pace.

My office down the hall got emptied today so the carpet can be removed and
the repair work begun.  We put all the stuff in an empty space down the hall
and Janis is working from home until things get back to normal.  One problem
we have is that we leave on the 1st for a couple weeks in Europe, so things
are a bit tight in the schedule department.

That's all the essentials for now...I'll keep you posted.

Ed