Nov

Surviving Sandy

Hurricane Sandy on October 29

Last week, the East Coast experienced the brutal devastation of Hurricane Sandy. This super storm claimed many lives and caused widespread damage from the Caribbean to New England. Our thoughts are with those who lost so much.

The Smithsonian community was fortunate. Our staff is safe, our collections were unharmed, and our buildings and grounds sustained only minimal damage. This good outcome was due to the efforts of many staff members who worked tirelessly before, during and after the storm.

To share just a few stories:

Staff at the American Indian Museum’s Heye Center in lower Manahattan worked through the night on Oct. 29 to move the newly installed exhibition “Circle of Dance” from the museum’s first floor to the safety of a higher floor. Though the museum is still without power and closed to the public, staff have been in the building continuously since the storm began, checking on the collections and monitoring temperature and humidity levels closely to make sure they stay within normal range. Staff at the American Indian Museum on the Mall has stepped in to fulfill the administrative functions for the Heye Center until the museum can reopen. An Office of Facilities Engineering and Operations team from Washington headed up to New York Wednesday night, Oct. 31, to bring supplies to the Heye Center, including much-needed fuel and satellite phones. The D.C.-based staff will stay in New York for a few days to assist however they can.
Smithsonian Enterprises opened their offices in mid-town Manhattan to the Heye Center staff so they would have space to work from. Staff from the Cooper-Hewitt also lent support to the Heye Center during the storm.
Staff from the Office of Facilities Management and Reliability and the Office of Protection Services worked extended shifts throughout the storm to make sure that our buildings and collections made it through safely. They fueled up generators and vehicles, readied chainsaws, filled sandbags, cleared drains and secured our construction sites in the face of Sandy’s powerful winds.
National Zoo staff stayed on call throughout the storm to make sure the animals were safe. They handled downed trees and other concerns immediately to make sure animal care staff had swift access to animal enclosures. All the animals and staff at both the Zoo campus in Washington, D.C., and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Va., are safe.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer made sure that our network and phones stayed operational throughout the storm. The staff restored network and phone service to the Smithsonian Enterprises office and the Cooper-Hewitt in New York by Thursday, Nov. 1. OCIO continues to monitor the situation at the Heye Center and will restore service there as soon as conditions permit.

These are just a few of the heroic efforts our staff made to ensure the Smithsonian made it safely through the storm. But I know there were others, so I encourage you to share your stories here in the comments so we can learn more about them. If you have pictures you would like to share, e-mail them to torch@si.edu.