Across Ohio—especially in the clay soils and aging storm-sewer landscapes of Northeast Ohio—spring flooding is no longer a rare disruption. Saturated ground from snowmelt, intense rainfall, and overwhelmed drainage systems are changing how quickly water moves from outside our buildings to inside our storage rooms, galleries, and mechanical spaces.

On May 13, ICA and the Alliance for Response Ohio (AR-OH) will host a special webinar designed specifically for museums, archives, libraries, colleges, and theaters across the state. When the Ground Won’t Take Anymore is not a lecture on salvage techniques. Instead, it is an interactive virtual tabletop exercise built around a realistic regional flooding scenario that unfolds in real time.

Participants will move through a sequence many institutions now recognize: a Flash Flood Watch, intensifying rain, water appearing at doors, sump pumps running continuously, interior intrusion, access restrictions, and the challenging first 48 hours after the water recedes. At each stage, the focus is on the decisions institutions must make when conditions are changing quickly and perfect information is unavailable.

This exercise emphasizes what is often hardest during an emergency:

• Who is watching the weather and what early actions are allowed
• How staff and volunteers receive alerts and instructions
• What to prioritize when only part of a building is affected
• When not to attempt salvage
• How to respond when roads are closed, leadership is unreachable, or facilities staff are unavailable
• What documentation matters most in the first hours and days
• How to communicate with volunteers, donors, insurers, and the public
• Small, realistic improvements that can make a big difference next time

The session is designed to build shared situational awareness, normalize uncertainty and imperfect decision-making, and surface the real constraints institutions face—time, access, authority, and staffing—without overwhelming participants with technical detail.

The exercise will be facilitated by Holly Witchey, Executive Director, and Wendy Partridge, Senior Paintings Conservator and National Heritage Responder. Together, they bring extensive experience helping cultural institutions prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters affecting collections and historic buildings.

Whether your institution has a formal emergency plan or is just beginning to think about flood preparedness, this interactive program will help you identify practical, actionable steps you can take immediately, in the coming months, and over the long term to strengthen resilience.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/XXVDyVDlQRiVZqtJpEbLgA