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PREP Table of Contents

BEFORE A DISASTER OCCURS

DURING THE IMMEDIATE CRISIS

IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE CRISIS

WHEN THE BUILDING OR AFFECTED AREA CAN BE RE-ENTERED

AFTER MATERIALS ARE BACK IN PLACE

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Home > TAM Publications > PREP Disaster Recovery

PREP Disaster Recovery

III DISASTER RECOVERY

"The initial response is shock."
Gary Harrington, "The Southwest Archivist, Winter, 1993.

The outline below provides a logical sequence to assist you in preparing and implementing a site-specific Recovery Plan. Knowledge of your own facility and collection needs and priorities is essential as you develop your recovery strategies, however. Disaster response is best viewed in terms of relative time frames, particularly in a catastrophe. Too many plans focus only on evacuation, or assume that the staff will be present and in charge of recovery operations at all stages of disaster response. The range of disasters is so great that recovery procedures must be highly flexible. The first responsibility of the museum is to ensure the health and safety of evel)'one in the building at the time of the disaster. Collections, exhibits, and buildings are necessarily secondary to this.

A. BEFORE A DISASTER OCCURS

All staff members should be trained in standard first aid and CPR (including infant CPR) with annual renewals. Some designated staff members should be qualified in advanced first aid or EMT training, in order to assist with proper evacuations as needed. Any disaster response plan should have the input, approval, and understanding of all staff members. Evacuation drills are important. Skills that are not practiced are ineffective, and reading is no substitute for doing. Phone trees and other systems of emergency notification should be posted both at the museum and at staff members' home, and should be regularly updated. Finally, good relations with enforcement and emergency personnel, set up in advance and maintained during normal times, will reduce some of the confusion and anxiety in a disaster.

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B. DURING THE IMMEDIATE CRISIS

Respond according to existing disaster plans as much as possible. Circumstances will alter this. Much depends on whether the problem is indoors or outdoors, or whether it occurs during or outside business hours. All staff members should know whom to notify, when to evacuate, and how to keep panic from spreading. A building disaster may cause the loss of electricity, water, and access to normal evacuation routes. Alternate plans must be part of the response plan.

A community-wide disaster may limit the number of staff members who can reach the museum. Everyone needs to know who is in charge and where temporary administrative headquarters will be located.

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C. IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE CRISIS (usually the first 48 hours)

Immediately following a crisis, the museum management may not be in charge of the situation. Law enforcement and emergency response personnel may legitimately control the scene until it is considered to be safe for staff to reenter the building. This is a decision best reached by emergency professionals (e.g. police, fire department, engineers). Points to be considered may include structural and electrical hazards, health hazards from fumes or leaks, and the chance of immediate reoccurrence (especially in cases of criminal activities, earthquakes or subsidence, or storms). The museum staff should be able to account for everyone in the building. After determining the scope of the disaster (museum, neighborhood, community, region), the emergency response personnel should assess the availability of staff to assist in recovery procedures. The conditions and procedures of the first 48 hours will significantly affect the remaining recovery efforts.

Remember that a museum staff member should make a video tape or photographic record of the damage immediately after the disaster and continue it all through the salvage and recovery stages. This should be a pre-assigned duty, with a backup assignment in case the individual tapped is not available.

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D. WHEN THE BUILDING ORAFFECTED AREA CAN BE RE-ENTERED

Assessment of damage to objects and buildings begins at this point. Evaluate damage to collections, cases, work areas, and building fabrics. Circumstances will dictate how extensive this needs to be. Nothing affected by a disaster should be overlooked. This is the time when collections and storage materials are usually removed for treatment and off-site storage as needed. All damaged materials should be documented through video tape or photographs with notes made of the images for future reference.

Immediate damage control may involve the hiring of conservators, restorers, or other repair professionals. The museum management should know whom to call in the region. A largescale disaster may overload these people. Good relationships set up in advance help tremendously. Damage should be prioritized under a triage system: the materials that cannot be helped by any attention, those that are stable without immediate attention, and those that will only survive with immediate attention. The last category should be cared for first; the first should be documented as a loss. You will need a conservator to work with and train the museum staff to deal with the second category on their own as appropriate.

Based on the situation, the people available, and the risks involved, the museum personnel, conservators, and other outside experts should work quickly at this point to develop a clear plan for responding to the specific situation before any cleanup or removal begins.

As the first cleanup is going on, systems of pest control, HV AC quality, and environmental conditions should be monitored, particularly if these need up-grades. Furniture and equipment should also ~e surveyed to establish the extent of damage and possible need for replacement.

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E. AFTER MATERIALS ARE BACK IN PLACE

The response does not end here. The staff should prepare a list of all the materials affected by the disaster and an overview of deteriorative changes to monitor at regular intervals (monthly, annually, at the five-year mark, etc.). Changes that cannot be detected at first may turn out to be especially serious in the long run. These include factors such as slow-growing molds, drying and splitting book spines and wooden joints, flaking pigments and stone and ceramic surfaces, rusting and corroding of metals, blanching of paintings, and releasing of toxic substances released by wetting. The effects of overly aggressive drying or other treatments may also become apparent. All these should be documented and treated.

At this time, the disaster policies and procedures should be reviewed and updated. Changes to the building may necessitate changes in evacuation plans; collections may be moved to safer areas; visitor access may be modified. A review of what works and what does not should be made. The disaster response plan should NEVER be set in stone, but it should be upgraded as often as necessary to reflect ongoing changes in circumstances.

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