Powerful storms and a tornado hit Bridgeport on June 24, partially collapsing several buildings in the East Bridgeport and East Main Street National Register districts. In addition, the winds hit the Barnum Museum, also on the National Register.  

"We have had some significant damage to the building as well as the collection,” said museum director Kathleen Maher. “Two windows blew out, allowing all the storm water and wind to howl through the first floor exhibition areas. Additionally, water at the northwest corner of the building was able to seep through the first floor into the basement storage area wetting the archival collection of Barnum books."

As CPN goes to press, cleanup and evaluation of the damage are proceeding. Relief work is coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Since federal funding is involved, any actions that affect historic sites must be reviewed for their impact on those sites. 

Dan Forrest, the staff archaeologist for the State Historic Preservation Office, is conducting those reviews, in coordination with FEMA.

“It’s generally the same Section 106 process as other federal projects that affect historic sites,” he said. “Only the time frame is much shorter, since this is an emergency, and decisions often need to be made quickly.”

            FEMA has also been involved in North Stonington, where flooding in late March caused damage to a number of historic properties. In North Stonington village, a National Register district, the 19th-century stone-arched bridge that carried Main Street over the Shunock River was seriously undermined by the waters and its middle arch gave way, and rushing waters collapsed a commercial building from the 1840s.

 

Photographs courtesy of the Barnum Museum.

 

For updates, visit the Barnum Museum’s website at http://www.barnum-museum.org/

 

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