BATON ROUGE – The USS Kidd Veterans Museum will reopen to the general public on Saturday for the first time since last month's flood.

The veteran's museum sustained the flood without any damage. However, the evacuation shelter that was set up across the street at the Baton Rouge River Center resulted in street closures that restricted museum access to the public.

In result, the veteran's museum shut down and had to wait out the closures.

"This has been almost an exact repeat of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for us," Tim NesSmith, USS KIDD Ship Superintendent, said.

"In 2005, there had been a bowling conference before the storm that brought in a lot of revenue to the area and that helped carry us through until tourism picked up again the following year.  This time, we don't have that luxury," NesSmith said.

The museum says that all of its part-time staff, who went weeks without work, will be able to report back for duty.

"Our situation is just one example of the ripple effect from the flooding. Now that the street is reopening, we have the opportunity to serve our public again and help undo some of the damage that this disaster has caused," Henson Moore, Chairman of the Louisiana Naval War Memorial Commission, said.

For more information, please call 225-342-1942 or visit www.usskidd.com.