Currently at the Memorial & Museum

Mechanical Failure Causes Museum to Close - Day Five

January 20, 2009

Memorial Foundation Trustees and Memorial architect Hans Butzer got a first-hand look at the damage caused by the flooding of the Memorial Museum last Friday. More than 10,000 square feet of exhibit space, portions of the Museum’s Archives and the Memorial’s Center for Education & Outreach were damaged when a mechanical malfunction in an air handler caused substantial flooding.

Lippert Bros. Construction, the Memorial’s general contractor, will coordinate efforts with several of the Museum’s original vendors, as well as experts in historic preservation and environmental experts, to restore and reopen the Museum as quickly as feasible. The Memorial Museum is now scheduled to reopen February 1.

“We can replace walls, carpet, paint, equipment. What we cannot replace are the thousands of artifacts for which we are guardians,” said Kari Watkins, Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum Executive Director. “Fortunately, the swift actions of our staff and volunteers last week saved every artifact, and none received any lasting damage.”

Today, the drying process continued throughout the Museum, and cleaning in the Archives provided opportunity to place some of the artifacts back in their storage areas.

Funds from Memorial Museum admission and Memorial Store sales are used to maintain and operate the Outdoor Symbolic Memorial as well. "The Memorial does not receive any annual government funding to operate, so the goal is to get the Museum back to operational as quickly as we can," said Watkins.

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