Heavy Storm Causes Damage To Chew Museum

Repairs to Chew Museum after a heavy storm. (Inset) the inside of the museum. 

The heavy thunder storm which occurred on the afternoon on April 16 damaged over 100 shoplots in Ipoh and unfortunately Ignatius Chews family museum was one of them.

Ignatius Chew the curator of the museum said the roof tiles of the two story building roof was damaged. The museum is located in the compound of Ban Hoe Seng (Auto) .

Debri from behind had landed on the roof ...

.. the roof tiles at the back were blown off . 

“The roof tiles at the back portion of the house were blown off while debris blown over from the school located behind had landed on the roof and damaged other portions of the house.

Inside at the top floor of the museum ...

Pails to capture rain water. It happened during the Covid-19 pandemic and MCO regulations applied.

Most of the major damage was at the top floor. There was damage to the photographs but it was minimal. Nevertheless it remains to be seen if damp might have affected more of the photographs”.

The storm occurred one month into the Covid-19 pandemic when the Movement Control Order (MCO) was in effect. Any repairs that was required at the time needed Police approval.

In the meantime rainwater had seeped through the missing roof tiles and spread to the other rooms causing several photographs to become damp.

..the exhibits were covered for the duration of repair works

With approvals in hand repair work started 2 days after the storm. Due to limited manpower resources the work took ten days to complete.

At first glance the repair was anticipated to be minimal but upon inspection damage was far more extensive.

The downstairs too was affected as the water seeped down the beams causing a lot of watermarks. Luckily again there was no major damage to any photos. 

Water from upstairs ... 

......had seeped down.

According to Ignatius a comprehensive cleanup will take place once the MCO has been lifted.

               

JAG