Intrepid Museum Works To Clean Up And Reopen After Sandy

To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum is working to get back up and running after Hurricane Sandy. NY1's Roger Clark filed the following report.

The shuttle Enterprise is quite a sight on the flight deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, but the pavilion that protected it since it went on display last summer is gone.

"Because of losing power, we lost the air pressure, and it deflated and it ripped on a light pole, and so we lost the pavilion," said Susan Marenoff-Zausner, the president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.

A temporary shelter is in the works until a new pavilion can be built. That's just some of the work that needs to be done as the Intrepid bounces back from Hurricane Sandy.

While the aircraft carrier, its planes and helicopters and submarine were not damaged, the lack of power has forced the museum to remain closed.

"Three to six feet of water flooded our welcome center, which has our electrical room, and the electrical room has the switches and has the transformers, and a transformer blew," Marenoff-Zausner said. "And our redundant power, which is a generator, which is on our pier, was flooded as well by three to six feet of water."

The museum had to skip Veterans Day activities this year, but it did host veterans Friday for its annual Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony. It was held on the pier rather than the flight deck since elevators remain out of service.

Now the effort is underway to get the museum up and running for the usually busy Christmas vacation week. Marenoff-Zausner said the target date is December 21.

"We want to back to be a part of the community, just for us to be able to give back to our veterans, which we do every day, for us to be able to continue our education programs, which is at the core of our mission," she said. "That's what we really want to be doing again."

While rebuilding, museum officials are keeping in mind what happened during Hurricane Sandy.

"What we will able to do is work on how we can mitigate any future damage," Marenoff-Zausner said. "So if there was electrical type of equipment that is vulnerable to a level of water coming in, we'll raise it now."

Marenoff-Zausner credited 25 staff members who rode out the storm at the museum, putting themselves at risk to protect the complex.