I'm about 25 miles east of Seattle, and we had a little more disruption. And
I DEFINITELY knew we were having a quake! Power was out for several hours
after the quake, along with a temporary outage of phone service (lasting
into the afternoon and evening). No building damage that I have detected.
Many objects fell over in the exhibit area, but none were damaged. Upstairs
(our collections storage area) we had a shelving unit fall over, damaging an
undetermined amount of collections (I haven't started damage assessment yet,
since I'm waiting for another warm body to show up and help me lift the
shelves).

This has been yet another reminder to us at how woefully inadequate our
collections storage area is (the attic of an old house, mostly on
bookshelves). We're a very small organization on a shoestring budget, one
employee, too many things to do, not enough time, etc. Nevertheless, I feel
that I've been too cavalier in our collections storage and feel responsible
for the damage. The bookcases upstairs should have been bolted to the walls,
foe a start. Better yet, we should have invested in appropriate storage
units.

I'd be interested to hear how other small historical societies in the area
are fairing. Hope all is well elsewhere.

Erica S. Maniez
Museum Director, Issaquah Historical Society
Issaquah, WA
[log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Colin Stevens
> Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 12:16 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Earthquake in Southern BC and US Northwest
>
>
> Burnaby Village Museum suffered only very minor damage in the earthquake
> this morning:
> - one separation crack in the museum workshop where the ceiling joined a
> wall
> - temporary telephone outage for outgoing calls, though we could receive
> calls.
> - temporary Internet outage.
> - Cell phone system overloaded and no calls could be made.
> Some of our staff heard the rumbling truck sound and felt the earthquake
> (centred around Seattle apparently at 6.4 on Richter scale) but I was down
> in the museum storage area and did not know it had occurred.
> Locally, power
> was out to about 30,000 homes according to one news report but our museum
> was spared this time.
>
> Five minutes before the earthquake I had been discussing some earthquake
> damage prevention measures with a staff member i.e. bolting metal lips on
> shelves to help keep artifacts from 'walking' off the shelves during
> earthquakes, and strapping heavy loads to pallets that sit up high in the
> warehouse.
>
> Ten minutes before the earthquake my manager had been discussing automatic
> water shut-off valves for our building with a city official in case water
> lines broke in an earthquake.
>
> Moral of the story? Keep the pressure on for earthquake planning and
> preparation for your museum (and home) if you live in an earthquake zone.
>
> Colin Macgregor Stevens
> Curator
> Burnaby Village Museum
> City of Burnaby, British Columbia, CANADA

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