[Nhcoll-l] Chrysler Herbarium - Mycological Collection Faced Water Damage from Pipe Burst

Fri Jun 2 15:04:36 EDT 2023

Hi Megan,
Sorry to hear about this emergency situation you need to deal with.
You may be right to be concerned about the possibility of RH in a cabinet high enough to cause a mold problem, especially if they are well gasketed steel cabinets. They are good at keeping unwanted moisture out but could also keep unwanted moisture in. It should be easy to put simple hygrometers in cabinets to ensure they are not trapping moisture and leading to high RH.

I suggest you contact the New Jersey Cultural Alliance for Response (NJCAR) http://njculturalalliance.wix.com/njcar for help, including some extra fans, hygrometers, and other equipment you could use.
Rob

Robert Waller, Ph.D., CAPC, FIIC
President and Senior Risk Analyst
Protect Heritage Corp.
622 Simoneau Way
Ottawa  ON  K4A 1P4
rw at protectheritage.com<mailto:rw at protectheritage.com>
phone: 613-883-2707 (Canada)
Research Associate, Canadian Museum of Nature
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Queen's University

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Megan King
Sent: Friday, June 2, 2023 10:54 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Chrysler Herbarium - Mycological Collection Faced Water Damage from Pipe Burst

Hello everyone,

Chrysler Herbarium - Rutgers University

Yesterday right before the SPNHC conference would have begun for me in EDT, I was notified of a flood in our herbarium's mycological collection room. With the limited resources I had and the dire need to act quickly, we separated all wet specimens and laid them to dry in a room with 2 fans, an a/c unit set to dry and 70 degree F and a dehumidifier. All the remaining specimens were moved to our main room in the herbarium and spread across tables with packets still contained in their drawers.  Some drawers that did not have any water near or within them we had to leave in the room since we ran out of space. The room which was flooded (pipe burst in the ceiling) was cleaned up and then a dehumidifier was added to the room. Our plan is to take the specimens that got wet (majority was just the packets and not the specimen itself) and re-packet them and freeze them.

I am worried I am not thinking enough about the drawers we deemed to be dry. The collection contains NJMA's macrofungi collection and Rutgers University plant pathogens (mostly microfungi). I am open to all comments, suggestions and advice. We do not have many resources at hand, but can likely ask other departments, but with it being summer there might be a delay in response. We also have only 1 cart and no elevator in our building so moving the collection is more than difficult. I am heartbroken and really at my wits end with our building and the risk it poses to our collection.

My email is megan.king at rutgers.edu<mailto:megan.king at rutgers.edu>.

Regards,
Megan

Help a Herbarium! https://give.rutgers.edu/Herbarium

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