It’s clear that something is very wrong at the Evansville Wartime Museum. Outside, the tattered roof is visible. The parking lot is dotted with bits of yellow ceiling insulation.
But inside, it’s essentially raining in 25-percent of the building. There’s wet debris through out. Tarps cover what exhibits are left from the storm; many items have already been moved.
Sunlight streams through the missing roof sections and the destroyed hangar door.
This is the worst disaster the museum has experienced since settling here in 2017. The museum was an important part of the City of Evansville receiving the WWII Heritage City designation for the state of Indiana.
With missing roof sections and a hangar door, they’ll be closed until further notice.
Past Museum Chairman Richard Kuhn was among the volunteers Tuesday morning.
“As you can see, 25-percent of the roof in the hangar is gone, and water just poured in,” he said. “The storm hit about 5:45 I believe … and the the strong winds blew in one of the hangar doors, and then ripped off a quarter of the roof in the hangar and did fairly extensive damage to exhibits and some damage to our P-47 Thunderbolt airplane.”
He said the wind was so strong that a one-and-a-half ton army truck was actually blown into the P-47, damaging a flap.
Display cases were knocked over, glass shattered with water damage to some exhibits.
The Wartime Museum doesn’t actually own the P-47 — that’s owned and insured by the P-47 Foundation. Evansville Regional Airport owns the hangar and surrounding grounds.
Airport staff actually arrived at about 6:30 to help clean up and move exhibit items to a safe location.
While the museum isn’t on the hook for repairing the P-47 or the roof and hangar door — they are stuck until everything is repaired.
“I mean, that door alone is going to be 50 grand plus — who knows about the roof. I mean, I don't have a clue," said Museum Chairperson of the Events Committee Dona Bone.
She said they’ve had to cancel all coming activities — their eclipse event, lunch-and-learns and tank rides. So as they wait for roof repairs, they can’t fundraise as the bills come in and they pay for three employees.
Naturally, she feels a little sad about the state of the museum.
“You know, we've put a lot of work into building this place up. It's almost like we're two steps forward, one step back.”
They have a lot of work ahead of them, and reopening will take facilities repairs and then a lot of cleanup and for now they’re preserving what they can.
Bruce Green and Richard Hockensmith are clambering atop “Rosie's Revenge” — a 1943 Sherman Tank, closing and locking the various ports. The idea is to keep water out of the machine.
A tarp covers the cockpits of both sitting aircraft including the damaged P-47, and individual P-47 engine and 1939 Plymouth built in Evansville.
Chairman of the Board Mike Tiemann guesses it will take about six months to reopen and he’s looking at the bright side.
“It could have been so much worse," he said. "So I think we're as horrible as it is, could have been worse, and we're going to be back.”
Support independent journalism today. You rely on WNIN to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Give to grow our local reporting today. Donate