Water flooded the basement of the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park late Wednesday morning after a car sheared a fire hydrant in the parking lot behind the institution.
The flooding went on for 15 minutes or more and left 1-to-2 inches of water in the basement, where the museum restores aircraft and stores archives and artifacts, according to David Neville, the museum’s marketing and communications director.
“All the water rushed straight into our basement,” he said. “We don’t know the extent of the damage right now.”
He said staff from the museum and the city are working to get the water out of the basement. “Out number one fear is mold,” he said.
The water ran down a driveway that leads to a loading door at the basement. Neville said the museum has been flooded before, so the most important items are kept off the floor.
He said there was no damage to the exhibit areas at street level.