I've never considered myself particularly sane, nevertheless I would never
burn beautiful cabinet wood (cherry) if I could get oak!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel H. Weiskotten" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: Hurricane recovery
> Being at the center of the storm was quite a thrill, to say the least,
> although I've seen blizzards that were just as bad, or worse, although of
> shorter duration and less widespread, and, if you went without power for a
> week you died. I'm writing from work as the home on northside Richmond is
> still without juice - we haven't even had a tree removal crew, let alone
> the power co. down our street yet!
>
> My little dig at the Chesterfield Courthouse was delayed a day or two and
> the open units got thoroughly drenched and turned into a quagmire, but
> nothing was lost. The tornadoes the day or so following dumped more rain
> in half an hour than in the whole hurricane. All in all the wet season
has
> made for excellent digging in the otherwise concrete-like clay and I think
> that the wet ground allowed the heavy rains to soak in quicker (a damp
> sponge soaks water up quicker than a dry one as the adhesion process is
> already underway). Our buildings and collections fared well although some
> of our civil war sites got stomped bad and are closed awaiting FEMA
> a$$i$tance for cleanup. I suspect I'll be sent in to supervise removal of
> massive 140 year old oaks from the earthworks. Word is that the NPS civil
> war sites around Richmond and Petersburg were not so badly damaged and all
> are open, which makes the relic hunters happy as they can go poke around
> the upturned stumps for goodies.
>
> My wife, Jen, works for the Virginia Museum Association but they are still
> without power (office at the Museum of Fine Arts) and she has not yet
> returned to work to hear how sites across the state fared. She gets to
sit
> home and listen to the generators on either side of us roar like freight
> trains (we have some power courtesy of a neighbor who works at Bank of
> America) (thank you Bank of America!).
>
> Being a good Yankee I collected lots of firewood, mostly cherry as no sane
> person would trouble themselves burning oak. My stints in archaeology
have
> hardened me to sustaining life with no hot water, no electricity, eating
> out of a cooler and over a campfire, but I thought I had outgrown that
> lifestyle!
>
> Dan W.
>
>
>
> At 9/26/2003, you wrote:
> >I was wondering how our collegues in VA and NC fared in the Hurricane. I
> >heard
> >Jamestown NPS curation facility flooded but haven't heard from folks in
> >Richmond and North Carolina. In St. Mary's we lost a number of trees and
some
> >of our outside exhibits took a hit. The collections and sites came
through
> >pretty good although power was out for a week in the lab.
> >
> >Silas Hurry
> >Historic St. Mary's
> >City
> >
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