Dubois County Museum impacted by flash flood

JASPER, Ind. (WEHT) — The Dubois County Museum remains closed this weekend, as staff continues to clean up from this week’s flash flooding.

“We have had roof leaks, and we have had some little minor property stuff, but never anything to this extent,” says Jeff Schmitt, a museum volunteer and board of directors member.

According to radar estimates, 8 inches of rain fell in parts of the county on Wednesday, turning streets into rivers.

“The water flowing off US 231 went against this wall and garage door. It had nowhere to go except under the door here,” Schmitt says.

Schmitt showed us where the water was. In pictures taken by staff, you see puddles of water on the concrete floor in the Pioneer Living Area.

“It was probably an area of 60 feet by 60 feet within this room,” Schmitt says.

But it did not stop there. Pictures show puddles around displays. Schmitt says water even made its way into the Wildlife Adventures Room. He says it rained so hard, that the museum’s sump pumps could not keep up, causing water to go underneath some of the carpeted areas.

“None of our displays, none of our artifacts, nothing in our collections took any sort of damage. Everything was all on the floor and we were able to keep it out of the exhibits and off the artifacts,” Schmitt says.

Schmitt says the museum, which is mostly made of volunteers, used mops, buckets, and a shopvac to suck up the water.

“We did have one volunteer that came in with a heavy-duty carpet cleaner to help us suck it out of the carpeted areas. We are just glad that it was not any worse than it was. We caught it and were lucky to not take in any damage. We are grateful for that and for our volunteers,” Schmitt says.

The museum says it will resume normal business hours on Tuesday.

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