I have nothing but the highest regard for Brigid Sullivan and all of the staff conservators who work for the National Park Service (NPS). I appreciate her informing the list as to the particulars of the response to the recent Disaster at Jamestown. I have been involved in a couple of disasters with flooded collections and I really can attest to the professionalism and dedication of everyone who responds in times of crisis. My only commentary about the situation that occurred at Jamestown echoes that of many of the archaeologists who were quoted in the article, many of whom I know personally, is that this event was a foreseeable circumstance. I lived near Jamestown for almost twenty years and for several of them I lived directly across the James River and could view the island from my house in Scotland Wharf. Jamestown island exists at sea level or a few scant feet above. It has suffered from repeated flooding and erosion from the James River which is almost a mile wide at that point. Eastern Virginia always has a near miss with a hurricane or two every year and was overdue for a direct hit - and the track of hurricane Isabel was classic - this was not a storm that took a sudden and unexpected turn. To have a visitor center within yards of the riverfront and house the core of the collections in a deep basement which has a row of windows and a door on it's north side is inviting a disaster. Small scale floods into that basement were a regular occurrence. Sandbags have been positioned outside of the building for years. The neighbors of the NPS on the Island is the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) and they recognized the threat from flooding to their collections and exercised the due diligence to raise the funds and build an engineered storm vault to house their collections. I also know that several of the Park's personnel had concerns about the situation, yet, for whatever reason within the hierarchy of the NPS, no action was taken to anticipate an event such as Isabel. This was not a hidden disaster that had more subtle origins such as a water pipe hidden by a drop ceiling - it would not take a theoretical physicist to guess that a major flood or storm had the likely potential to slam this collection. I know that the NPS in partnership with the APVA was just starting on a new visitor center and collections building - but this was driven by the upcoming 2007 anniversary of Jamestown's founding and not on the threat to the collection. Even if you are planning a new building with vast improvements in storage that does not lift you from your responsibility to prevent what could occur now, instead of years from now. I also recognize that due to the swift and professional response that there is a good likelihood that no artifacts will be "lost", but they are certainly seriously impacted, both in terms of access and future preservation. A disaster is still a disaster. And the estimated cost to the US taxpayers has been estimated in the millions. Certainly it is responsible to ask questions about whether a realistic risk assessment was in hand and in how prepared the NPS was for this "bad luck" storm. I read today that the Cultural Resource Protection Service of the NPS has launched an investigation and will be producing a public report on the issues raised in this disaster. As many of you can tell, I rather dislike seeing collections and collections intensive areas (such as conservation) placed in basements. Throughout the past century museums and cultural institutions have added vastly more functions to our buildings - what once was a repository of collections and scholars and galleries has become a gift shop, restaurant, theater, and sometimes IMAX mega-movie house. In the politics of planning of these buildings often collections storage and associated functions get relegated to the lower regions with the rationale being that the sexier functions that attract and keep audiences should be first and foremost and that administrative offices are also needed above the water table. Buildings are certainly compromises between various interests but I think that we are all educated enough to understand that if you build-in a risk that one day it may visit you when you don't expect it - after all, who expects "bad luck"? So again, I propose that the real issue and lesson of this lies in risk assessment and preparedness and not in response. As a matter of fact, I think that cultural institutions have gotten quite skilled at response, but that is ultimately an exercise in the cat chasing its tail. Cheers! Dave David Harvey Artifacts 2930 South Birch Street Denver, CO 80222 303-300-5257 [log in to unmask] ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).