'We'd heard that noise before,' Beth said a day later, while her husband and several neighbors stood on the roof of a building adjacent to their home, shoveling off a layer of icy snow.

The Gilberts, owners and operators of the eight-building compound that includes their home and seven buildings making up the Beaver Brook Farm and Transportation Museum, lost at least $150,000 worth of collectibles after the roof collapsed, a casualty of heavy rain and the third major disaster since the couple opened the museum and Christmas tree farm in 1985.

In 1995, the museum was destroyed by fire. About 18 months ago, heavy rains and winds toppled trees, destroying a roof and the contents of a building.

Monday's accident recalled the two previous disasters.

'What was that?' Beth said she remembered she and Eddie asking each other before rushing out to the building and entering without turning on the power.

'Low and behold, the whole roof on the carousel building had collapsed,' she said.

The accident destroyed a historic carousel that for years was a fixture at the long-defunct Benson's Wild Animal Farm in Hudson as well as a smaller, three-horse carousel, old sleighs, animated Christmas figurines and antique clocks.

It threatened the couple's newest museum structure, a building that houses close to $2 million worth of old airplanes and helicopters as well as a Civil War-era Conestoga Wagon and other memorabilia.

Almost as quickly as the roof caved, workers from the town showed up with a front-end loader and cleared a path for the removal of the debris.

Eddie called a friend or two, and the next thing the couple knew, there were several volunteers, including a local selectman, showing up to help with the cleanup.

'It's a little frustrating, disheartening,' Beth said Tuesday afternoon, while her husband and their neighbors worked on the roof.

She said she and her husband had stayed up for most of the night, reinforcing the building next door, catching a couple of hours of sleep and resuming the cleanup efforts by 9:30 Tuesday morning.

'We could use a prayer that the newest building doesn't go down,' Beth said, after being asked if she and Eddie were in need of more help. 'The exterior isn't finished.'

Ten years after the couple, both Massachusetts natives, opened the museum, a fire destroyed about half of their collection. About 18 months ago, following a spate of rainstorms and heavy wind, a stand of trees toppled on the roof of one of the buildings, destroying its contents, all of it uninsured, as is the current museum collection.

The Gilberts carry only liability insurance.

Beth estimated that more than 100,000 adults and children from all over the country have visited the museum, which has never charged admission.

'We made it free, with a Christmas theme, so families could come,' Beth said. 'When we were small, families could do things together, and today with things so expensive, it's not easy, especially at Christmas."

Indeed, the reward, Beth said, has been to see the expressions of joy and wonder on the faces of visitors, both young and old.

'Once you walk in that door, you could be a millionaire or someone from a halfway house and they're all on equal footing,' she said, adding that through the years friends and neighbors have volunteered as tour guides.

On Monday afternoon, Beth led a visitor through a dimly lit section of the museum filled with Christmas figures and decorations.