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Post-Katrina salvage of audio gear and software

First, I consider myself fortunate to have made it out of our downtown New Orleans hotel-shelter with my elderly parents and Brittany spaniel. I am very grateful to the hotel staff, national guard, friends, family and kind strangers I have encountered along the way. I also want to thank the audiogoners who have made and encouraged contributions to Katrina relief efforts. My home in the Lakeview section of New Orleans was inundated with aproximately 10 feet of brackish water after the levee adjacent to the 17st Street Canal broke on August 29th. Inside was enough gear for two tube-based and one solid state system. At present, it is unclear when I will be allowed to return to inspect damage. What should I and others similarly situated do with our audio equipment and software? I am thinking that we should consider all the audio gear a total loss with the possible exception of the cables. Any thoughts about this matter and what we should do with our vinyl and CD collections would be much appreciated. David
mrwigglewm
chadnliz's avatar
chadnliz
3,737 posts
 
Dont let any bone heads tell you to give up on your gear, maybe it will be ok and maybe it wont, but for those who suggest you give up without trying I would suggest putting yourself in others shoes. God Bless you guys and I hope you can get back to some normal life as soon as possible.
piezo
304 posts
 
I feel for you dude. I used to live over by Elysian Fields and Robert E-Lee. I've been homesick for New Orleasn since the day i moved out 15 yrs ago. I was just back in April taking time off of doing some Hurricane related work in Pennsacola. Bummer to think of all that was ruined. One can only hope the city's groove wasn't included in the big list. A bunch of my friends in the city and Slidell have had better days. One of them playes for the Iguanas and i think he was on tour during the Hurricane. I'm guessing he lost a bunch of his instruments.

the records and CDs should be fine with a proper cleaning though lables and covers will be toast. i'm going with the guys that say try to save the gear. My brother found an abandonded QED power amp laying in a field filled with silt and rusted in places. It worked fine after a little cleaning. (If you don't want to try send me the tube stuff and i'll let you know how it turned out.) the biggest problem will be with the salt in the water trashing connections but if you get to the pieces and give them a good cleaning before they have much exposure to air you may be OK. cleaning the pots may be a pain but they are relatively cheap to replace. Transformers may be a problem depending on how they were sealed. I'm guessing cables may be a bigger problem since they are twisted wire rather than solid core which would allow water to migrate into them around the casing. Make sure that everything is bone dry before you put power to it. I'd set the cleaned pieces under heat lamps for a couple of days if it were me. Then i'd just turn things on and wait for the big puff. If it passes that test then you may be OK. If it fails it still may be a relatively cheap fix.

good luck with everything.
tobias
1,534 posts
 
just turn things on and wait for the big puff

Oog. Maybe that isn't such a good idea.

A competent audio technician will power up your gear using a variac, which raises voltage slowly. At the first sign of anything wrong ("What's that smell ?") the tech cuts power and looks for signs of trouble.

If I had any gear I cared about, that's how I would treat its first powerup after cleaning.
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