Disaster Management

Creating a Disaster Management Plan

• Think through what types of disasters can occur. Examples include fire, flooding, mold, pests, earthquake, volcanic eruption, theft. Each of these different topics need to be addressed in the disaster plan.
• Create a list of the types of material that is in collection. For example: textiles, photographs, film, fossils, taxidermy, rare books. The disaster plan should outline how to handle salvage and conservation for different types of objects in the collection.
• Make a phone tree. Identify who are the primary emergency coordinator, building supervisor, facilities staff, artifact recovery team, conservators, local emergency management office, fire and police departments and insurance representative. Keep this list up-to-date.
• Make sure insurance documentation is available. Keep this information available in a safe off-site location.
• Photograph the objects in the collection. Having photographs of each of the objects can help the recovery team identify items and may be necessary for insurance purposes.
• Put together a disaster kit that includes plastic sheeting, brooms, boxes, fans, camera, flashlights, garbage bags, wet dry vac--anything you can think that might come in handy during an emergency.
• Make sure your institution has an inventory of what's in the collection. This list comes in handy during a theft and can be used to identify key artifacts that may need to be quickly salvaged during a more destructive emergency.
• Include facility drawings/records. Floor plans, with locations of electrical boxes, water or gas mains are useful

First Respondents

1. Make sure that you and the staff are safe
2. Evacuate the building
3. Find out what happened/notify insurance
4. Eliminate hazards (turn off electricity, gas, water if necessary)
5. Make sure it is safe to enter the facility.
   • Structural, electrical, chemical, air-quality are all factors that need to be considered.
6. Personal Safety (before re-entering space)
   • Boots/respirator (training & correct equipment)

7. Refer to disaster plan for disaster response team members and to identify what material might be affected in a particular area

Scenario A: Moderate Disaster

Examples: Localized leak from pipes or roof, minor flooding

1. Find and eliminate the cause
2. Assemble response team
   1. Inspect the building and collection
   2. Document the damage
   3. Protect priority collections and records from further damage
   4. Stabilize temperature and humidity
   5. Create salvage plan/ Begin salvage
      1. Gather supplies
      2. Assign Teams/Roles
      3. Prioritize collections to recover
      4. Layout supplies, identify triage space separate from collection
      5. Create Cleaning / Drying area
      6. Post instructions on cleaning / drying / storage

Scenario B: Major Disaster

Examples: Fire, Explosion, Flash Flood, Broken Water Main, Earthquake, tornado, major flood, hurricane

1. Assemble Response Team
2. Establish security procedures, get safety clearance
3. Inspect building and collection for damage
4. Document the damage
5. Protect collections from further damage. Cover them to guard against water damage and debris, or move them if necessary.
6. Stabilize temperature and humidity
7. Create salvage plan/ Begin Salvage
   1. Gather supplies
   2. Assign Teams/Roles
   3. Prioritize collections to recover
   4. Layout supplies, identify triage space separate from collection
   5. Create a triage area that include areas such as “safe & dry”, “air dry”, “pack for freezing” and “deaccession”
   6. Save extremely damaged, cracked, broken objects for a specialist

Discussion Topic

Read through or view one of the following and discuss in the Google Classroom some things these museums or libraries can do going forward to protect their institutions from these things reoccurring?

FloridaC2CEmergencyCaseStudyFlood

FloridaC2CEmergencyCaseStudyHurricane

South Street Seaport Museum Mops Up After Flood. New York Times.

Art Museums in Puerto Rico Face Long and Expensive Recovery. New York Times. Art Museums in Puerto Rico Face Long and Expensive Recovery