The Great Flood of 1966

1. The Great Flood of 1966 Florence, Italy

2. The event, Nov 3rd • It was the day before Armed Forces Day, a public holiday for Italy • It had been raining heavily for eighteen hours • area had received 1/3 of its annual rainfall in the last two days • Florence began to hear of flooding problems of villages up the Arno river

3. The dams above the city began to overflow • The two major dams were being overtopped by 2,000 cubic centimeters of water each second. • All of this water was heading downstream towards Florence • By 2:30 that afternoon the sewers and drains of Florence could no longer hold the water that was flooding up from the river.

4. First area hit was Santa Croce • Area was on a fairly low level with the river • Cellars began to flood • Electricity started to fail • Added to the water was oil from submerged heating tanks • Saving grace—most citizens away for the holiday and public building were closed. It also meant no one was observing the potential disaster.

5. First area to recognize disaster • Ponte Vecchio—the jewelers and gold shops • Night watchmen noticed the river rising and called their bosses • Water burst over the bridge washing the majority of the shop contents away. • A lot of water was backed up into the city by the bridge. • Unfortunately, night watchmen at museums and libraries were totally unaware what was about to happen.

6. 4am November 4th • Engineers were afraid the Valdarno dam (upriver) was going to burst. • To avoid this, they discharged a large amount of water • The water was traveling at a speed of 37 miles per hour towards Florence • When the waters hit the city it carried cars and trees into buildings, churches, and even steel-lined buildings

8. 7 am November 4th • Electricity and gas had to be cut off to avoid more damage • Clocks in the town stopped at 7:26 am • Shortly afterward, part of the river’s embankment collapsed, isolating Florence from the roadways leading to it.

9. 8 am November 4th • Army barracks of the city flooded (and the flood had not yet crested) • The National Central Library and Uffizi Gallery were next hit • The Library’s entrance faced the river so it bore the brunt of the surge of water. • By 8:30 am the Army’s vehicles were covered in water and hospitals had moved patients to upper floors—all while the city residents were still sleeping.

10. 9:45 am • Flood had reached the Piazza del Duomo • Narrow streets caused water to increase in both speed and height • Air compressed inside basements caused explosions causing upper floor to collapse

11. Inside Santa Croce

12. Piazza del Duomo

13. Flood eventually crested, reaching 22 feet in some places By 8 PM the River began to recede

14. Oil slick marks showed crest height

15. The statistics after the flood: • 600,000 tons of debris in the city • Mud, sewerage, oil, etc. • About 30 people died • 15,000 cars wrecked • 5,000 families homeless • 14,000 movable works of art damaged • 3 to 4 million books and manuscripts damaged

16. Document damages • State archive • 40 percent of the archive damaged (300 rooms) • National Library • 1,300,000 items damaged (1/3 of the collection) under mud and water; including one million books under water. • Archives of the Opera del Duomo • 6,000 volumes, 55 manuscripts • Thirty church archives were severely damaged

17. Other areas were flooded Venice—Doge’s Palace

18. Recovery begins

19. Santa Croce

20. Work on Cimabue crucifixion

21. Cimabue crucifixion before

22. Cimabue crucifixion after

23. First priorities were to rescue the documents about the collections • National library had 8 million cards in the catalog • No computer catalogs existed • Pre-freeze drying for water damaged articles. • Sawdust poultices and blotting papers were used—often with disastrous results • Interleaving often left stains on the book pages, and the interleaving had to be constantly replaced. • Sometimes the interleaving would cause bindings to break

24. New triage methods were created to deal with the damage Methods were used to stop further damage by mold and hydroscopic properties of paper.

25. Book Restoration from Florence Flood

26. Forty years later… • Some materials are still being worked on. • Many conservation methods used today were developed because of conservation from the Florence flooding.

27. Angels of the Florence adopt a book program: 14th Century Archive "Capitano del Popolo": Register 2066Angelus de Monte Sanctae Mariae, Liber accusationumDate 1397 - 1398 Parchment cover with rare hand-painted Medieval Coat of Arms and 35 pagesSeverely damaged in the 1966 Florence FloodCOST OF RESTORATION: EURO 400Archivio di Stato di Firenze

28. Flood dates are often referred to as the ‘time when modern conservation was born’

29. National Historic Preservation Act Of the U. S. Created in 1966 Public Law 89-665; 16 U.S.C. 470