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American Morning

Interview with Reiner Vollkommer

Aired August 16, 2002 - 08:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Flood waters are threatening hundreds of years of history in Dresden, Germany this morning. The Elbe River is expected to crest today at about 30 feet in Dresden, rising to levels not seen in 150 years. And while tens of thousands of people were being evacuated in Dresden, hundreds of museum workers remained in the historic city to rescue priceless paintings and artifacts.
And to tell us more about the race against time and the rising water is the director of the National Archaeological Museum, Reiner Vollkommer.

Mr. Vollkommer, thank you for joining us during this very tense time for you and your museum.

REINER VOLLKOMMER, DIRECTOR, THE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM: Yes, you're very kind. Thank you very much.

KAGAN: First, can you tell us about the situation inside the museum? I understand that a lot of water is flooding into the basement.

VOLLKOMMER: That's right, yes. We are fighting now for two days already. And in the beginning we needed only some little small pumps to get it out. It would take now even much more pumps to get now very big pumps and we still get it out. But it's a question of how long we can still do it. But we hope we will succeed. It's very difficult to say because the water is coming too much, too much high now. It's worse than even the accident 150 years ago.

KAGAN: I'm so sorry to hear that. Could you tell us about some of the treasures that were stored in the basement of your museum that you're trying to save?

VOLLKOMMER: The basement, we could put everything unfortunately out. But the problem will be that upstairs there are still treasures and we have an exhibition working which is a very developed exhibition with high technology. And if the electricity will be destroyed, the exhibition which should take us still six months here will be destroyed, too. So we are very worried. But I think we will get it, hopefully.

KAGAN: Leading up to this point, can you tell me about the efforts of your museum workers as they rally together. How do they actually gather together and save a lot of the works?

VOLLKOMMER: I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you exactly.

KAGAN: How did your workers...

VOLLKOMMER: Hello?

KAGAN: Hello? Can you hear me now? Mr. Vollkommer.

VOLLKOMMER: Yes, yes. Yes, thank you. Yes, I can hear you, yes.

KAGAN: OK, good. Can you tell me how your workers gathered together to save the works that they have been able to rescue so far?

VOLLKOMMER: We have a lot of teams that are working very, very together and some are below in the basement, some are outside and we are putting some pumps constantly inside and outside to get the right balance. And we are changing very often. But workers are now already, most of them didn't sleep very often, only a few hours. So we are very tired. But I think we will succeed and we hope that we will get it.

KAGAN: As I can't...

VOLLKOMMER: But we have to be very quick to help us and now a lot of people are coming from the town to help us.

KAGAN: Help, indeed. We can only hope for the best for you. It is a race against time, as we mentioned.

Reiner Vollkommer from the, director of the Museum of Archaeology in Dresden, Germany. Thank you. We know you're very busy and we'll cut you lose so that you can go try to save even some more works.

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