This is how museums in and around Houston prepared for tropical storm Harvey

By Priscilla Frank

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Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

“We have a wonderful crew who prepared the museum and continued to monitor it during the storm,” Christina Brungardt, the deputy director of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, wrote to HuffPost in an email. “The building was braced for flooding with water barriers and sandbags. In addition, our registrar’s team de-installed our downstairs exhibition and moved it to the upstairs space.”

As of Wednesday, Brungardt reported that the museum does not appear to have experienced any flooding, though a crew is currently investigating the potential for any structural damage.

The museum has experienced damage as a result of natural disaster in the past; a 1976 storm left nine feet of flooding in the museum’s lower level.

“Community support was immediate, as was the NEA emergency fund grant,” Brungardt said. “A fund drive for flood relief was held in 1977 to assist with damages and to upgrade our facilities for flood control, including adding a concrete water barrier at the top of one of our loading ramps and gas powered pumps to pull the water out.”

In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison similarly left three feet of water in the museum’s lower level. The facility was able to recover thanks to community support and emergency grants. In the storm’s aftermath, the museum invested in movable water barriers for targeted flood control.

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