Suburban Chicago museum’s Titanic exhibit takes on water on eerie anniversary

Titanic exhibit at Volo Museum floods

 A strange thing happened at the Volo Museum. The Titanic exhibit flooded on the anniversary of the ship sinking in 1912. Joanie Lum has more on this odd occurrence.

VOLO, Ill. - A powerful round of storms left a suburban Chicago museum with an eerie situation: Its Titanic exhibit flooded overnight, on the anniversary of the disaster.

What we know:

The Volo Museum said Wednesday afternoon that its Titanic exhibit flooded following storms Tuesday night, sharing a photo of the damage on Facebook.

"You can't even make this up… This is not staged. Last night, our Titanic Museum flooded for the second time in three years. Last night… on the exact anniversary of the Titanic sinking. What is going on???" the museum's post reads.

A maintenance worker spotted water rising around the exhibit's display of how the famous ship pitched after hitting an iceberg in 1912.

The museum took on water on the night of April 14th into the morning of the 15th, the same time that the Titanic crashed and slowly sank into the ocean 114 years ago.

Brian Grams, Volo Museum curator, is the third generation of the family business.

"This building has never had water, not a drop. Once we put in a Titanic exhibit, it took on water. Twice," he said.  

The flood is unexplained, and the building sits on high ground. There are no leaks and no plumbing, but there are plenty of stories about ghosts and hauntings at the museum.

"A lot of the stories came from visitors. We've caught some stuff on security cameras that was questionable. All signs point to… it's haunted," Grams said. 

The backstory:

The exhibit is the only permanent Titanic display in Illinois. It tells the stories of passengers aboard the ship and features White Star Line pieces and period artifacts, according to the museum’s website.

The RMS Titanic sank April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into its voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City.

About 2,200 passengers and crew were on board; more than 1,500 died.

There are no living survivors. The last survivor, who was 9 weeks old at the time of the sinking, died in 2009 at age 97, according to a report.