Resources

Real-Time Forecasts

• Texas A&M Forest Service - Observed & Forecast Fire Dangers - Real-Time Map

• NOAA - National Hurricane Center - Atlantic Graphical Marine Forecast Map

• TexasFlood.org - Near Real-Time Maps (water levels and real-time highway conditions)

ICS & First Responder Community

• Find you Regional TDEM Assistant Chiefs and District Coordinators

• CCAHA - An Introduction to the Incident Command System

• Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM)

• TDEM - Texas Emergency Management Advisory Committee (TEMAC)

• TDEM - Current Funding Opportunities

• NJ State Library - Webinar - Implementing The Incident Command System @ The Repository Level with David Carmicheal

Planning & Preparedness Overview

According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, an Emergency Preparedness Plan establishes arrangements in advance to enable timely, effective, and appropriate responses to hazardous events or emerging disaster situations.  It provides the overall strategy for minimizing the impact of an emergency, describes the organization and its collections, and clearly defines staff roles in varying emergency situations. An emergency plan will only be effective if your staff understand the plan and have the resources to implement it. 

This includes activities such as: 

• Create A Contact List: Creates a chain of command and ensures that the authority to make decisions concerning collections can be done during off-hours 

• Create An Inventory and Priority List of Collections: Include types of collections, access restrictions and locations and then share this information with first responders

• Create An Equipment and Supply Cache: Have at least a basic emergency supply kit available on-site - e.g. plastic sheeting, paper towels, nitrile gloves, masks

• Identify Alternate Collection Storage or Triage Locations: Have a safe alternate place to take collections to remove them from further potential harm

• Develop A List of Emergency Vendors: Have contracts and priority list information in place prior to an event or incident to expedite recovery (this can include mutual aid agreements between institutions)

• Share and Practice the Emergency Plan: Every staff member should know the institution's emergency procedures and  understand their role in implementing them

Emergency Planning Tools

• ArtsReady - dPlan

• NEDCC - 3.4 Worksheet

• AIHA - Cultural Heritage Emergency Preparedness and Response: Guidelines for the OEHS Professional 

• CCI - Emergency Preparedness for Cultural Institutions: Identifying and Reducing Hazards (questions to ask during planning phase)

• AIC Wiki - Emergency Preparedness & Response

• Harvard Library - Jump-start Your Emergency Plan: Collections Emergency Preparedness Benchmarks (fillable document)

• Chicora Foundation, Inc. - Protecting Your Institution From Wild Fires: Planning Not To Burn And Learning To Recover

• NEDCC - Recommended Wildfire Resources for Cultural Heritage Organizations 

• SCRI - Planning, Preparedness, Mitigation Resources

• CoSA - Emergency Preparedness Resources

• TAM - PREP Planning for Response & Emergency Preparedness Manual

• GCI - Building An Emergency Plan: A Guide for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions

• NPS - National Park Service (NPS), Museum Handbook, Part I: Museum Collections, Ch. 10c-f: Emergency Planning

• Ready.gov - Hurricanes

• ICOM/ICMS - Handbook on Emergency Procedures: Disaster Resilience

Health & Safety in Disaster Recovery Environments

Your health and safety is priority number one (1) in any response situation. 

• • • ARCS - Safety First! Personal Protective Equipment for Collections Emergencies

    • NHR Tip Sheet - Health and Safety After Floods 

• OSHA - Personal Protective Equipment

  • • AIC Wiki - Health & Safety

    • Donning and Doffing PPE - Instructional Slides 

• OSHA - Appendix D

• OSHA - Fact Sheet: Protecting Workers from the Effects of Heat

• TDI - Museum and Cultural Heritage Industry Workplace Program

• Asbestos and Mesothelioma - Asbestos and Natural Disasters Guide

Emergency Kits & Go-Bags

• • • SI - Pan-Institutional Collections Emergency Kit Survey Report

    • SI - Collections Emergency Kit Survey Poster

• SI - Collections Emergency Kit Brochure

• NPS - An Emergency Cart for Salvaging Water-Damaged Objects

• FAIC - Disaster Supplies Shopping List

• ARCS - Emergency Supply Development Manual - English / Spanish

• ARCS - Sustainable Emergency Kits

• CCAHA - Water Emergency Supply Kit List

Table Top Exercises

• • • LOC - Scenarios, Level of Collections Emergency

    • LOC - A Preservation Planning Tool: Table Top Planning Scenarios, Level of Collections Emergency 

    • ARCSchat - Virtual Emergency Tabletop Example

Planning & Preparedness Webinars

• HAA - Prepare Your Building & Collections

• AIC CC2C - Working with Emergency Responders

• ARCS - Planning for the Unexpected 

Planning & Preparedness Document, Contract, and Form Examples

• Emergency Response Procedure - Draft Template

• THC - Emergency Preparedness Checklist

• NEDCC - Mutual Aid Agreement Template

• LANO - Disaster Preparedness: Continuity of Operations Planning for Nonprofits

Mitigation Overview

FEMA describes “mitigation” as the "effort to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters." In order for mitigation to be effective, institutions should take action now—before the next disaster—to reduce loss or risk to collections later (analyze risk, reduce risk, and insure against risk).

For cultural institutions, having a solid understanding of your institution's risks and hazards will allow you to better communicate your emergency plans to employees, management, and board members and create a safe working environment for staff, researchers, volunteers and the general public.

• Identify Potential Threats and Hazards: Protect internal interests by identifying potential hazards to building sites and collections. 

• Perform Risk and Disaster Assessments: Perform credible risk assessments using scientifically valid and widely used risk assessment techniques. A risk assessment, whether detailed or broad, is a tool to aid in prioritizing resources for preserving the collection. 

• Analyze and Incorporate Findings: Incorporate risk, disaster, and hazard assessments into the Emergency Planning process. 

Mitigation Resources

• FAIC - Risk Evaluation Planning Program

• 1000 Friends of Florida - Disaster Mitigation for Historic Structures

• National Park Service - Guidelines on Flood Adaptations 2021

• Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service - Assess and manage risk in collections care: a Collections Care How To Guide

• GOHSEP - Resilient Heritage - Protecting Your Historic Home from Natural Disasters Booklet

  • • NARA - Fire Safety Self Inspection Form for Cultural Institutions

    • ARCS - Risk Assessment Process Manual - English / Spanish

    • ARCS - Emergency Prep During Construction: A Risk Assessment Addendum - English / Spanish

• SHARE Museums East - Assess and Manage Risk in Collections Care: A Collections How-to Guide

  • • ICCROM - A Guide to Risk Management of Cultural Heritage 

• Museum of London & Birmingham Museums - Risk Awareness Profiling Tool (RAPT)

Hazards

• Smithsonian Institution - Chapter 24: Collection-Based Hazards

• AIC Health and Safety Committee - Controlling Hazardous Collection Materials, PPT

• AIC News - A Conservator’s Guide to Labeling Hazardous Chemicals 

• American Museum of Natural History – Residual Pesticides (Information on chemical pesticides commonly found in collections materials)

• U.S. Department of the Interior - Frequently Asked Questions about Contaminated Museum Collections

• Smithsonian Institution - Hazards in Collections Chart

• Museum of London - Hazards In Collections E-Tool

Mitigation Webinars 

• THC & TX-CERA Part 1 of 2-part webinar series - “Recovering from a Disaster: Procuring Insurance and Managing Risk Before a Disaster Occurs”

• THC & TX-CERA - Understanding and Upgrading Your Collection Preservation Environment

• Citaliarestauro - 4 Key Points for Risk Management

• DHPS|NY - Risk Assessment Webinar for Collecting Institutions

• AIC - Risk Assessment Webinar

• C2CC - Identifying and Managing Hazardous Materials In Museum Collections

Mitigation Document, Contract, and Form Examples

• OSHCON & National Park Service - Fillable Risk Assessment Worksheet

• FAIC - Site Questionnaire

• FAIC - Walk-through Checklist

Response Overview

First and foremost, personal safety is more important than any collection. No one should be allowed into an affected area until emergency service personnel have declared the space to be safe. This may take time. Use this time to revisit your institution's emergency plan, contact and assemble your response team, and begin plans for your salvage efforts. 

***Special Note from the American Institute for Conservation***

Even after the building is deemed safe to enter, you still have to consider the following hazards: 

• Exposed hazardous materials such as: asbestos from insulation, and other building materials, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) found in some transformers and in old fluorescent light bulbs, lead from lead paints, mercury and mercury vapor from fluorescent lights, broken glass, nails and other debris.

• Beyond building issues, the collections themselves may also be hazardous. Zoological collections may contain residues of old pesticides including heavy metals such as arsenic and mercuric compounds, or other pesticides like DDT, paradichlorobenzene, or naphthalene. Specimens themselves may be stored in formaldehyde, ethanol, and/or isopropanol.

• In the case of tropical storms and flooding, the flood waters may also have left hazardous residues such as sewage or heavy metals.

AIC Response Suggestions

• Initial Damage Assessments (Document and Photograph) - It is important to take the time to document the emergency from the beginning. Photographic and written accounts will help to capture information that may otherwise be forgotten in the rush to salvage your collection. Incident records will not only help you learn from the event, but also provide needed documentation for questions of liability and insurance. The initial damage assessment phase begins as soon as access to the site of the incident is granted. Damage assessment documentation should capture the broad picture quickly, without getting caught up in details. 

• Incident Reports - Incident reports will help chronicle the response and salvage efforts, in addition to outlining damages to the building and collection. An incident record can be as simple as notes on a legal pad, to forms specific to your incident's needs.

• Salvage Priorities - Salvage priorities may vary, but include vital institutional documents, items on loan, the unique and valuable objects previously listed on the priority list, fragile objects or those made from vulnerable materials.

Response Resources

• AIC - Emergency! If You're First

• CoSA - The Pocket Response Plan (PreP)

• The Museum of Modern Art - Immediate Response for Collections

• NHR Tip Sheet - Removing Large Paper Items from Flat Files

• NHR Tip Sheet - Drying Wet Collections & Buildings

• NHR Tip Sheet - Evacuating Collections: What You Should Know

• Preparing Alaska’s Cultural Organizations (PACO) - Situational Awareness and Initial Damage Assessment 

• FAIC - NHR Disaster Response Timeline

• ICCROM - First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis - Toolkit

• ARCS - Theft and Vandalism Response - English / Spanish 

• ARCS - Emergency Pest Control Measures - English / Spanish

  • • Infograph - English / Spanish

• AIC - Initial Damage Assessment Record

• TX-CERA - Soot Removal Resource

• NHR Tip Sheet - Mold In Collections

Salvage Resources

• FEMA - Save Your Family Treasures - Fact Sheets Available in English and Spanish

• Western Association for Art Conservation (WAAC) - Salvage at a Glance by Betty Walsh

• Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) - Preservation Leaflets

• National Archives - Objects Recovery

• Kathleen Kiefer - Wet Textile Rescue - Five Points to Consider

• FEMA - After the Fire: Advice For Salvaging Damaged Family Treasures

• CCAHA - Salvaging Photograph Collections

• CCAHA - Salvaging Photographs (Spanish)

• CCAHA - Salvaging Books

• CCAHA - Freezing & Drying of Books, Paper and Photographic Material

• CCAHA - Salvaging Art on Paper

• CCAHA - Salvaging Art on Paper (Spanish)

• NSFA - First Aid for Water Damage (Films, Tapes and Discs)

• Image Permanence Institute - Response and Recovery of Fine-Art Inkjet Prints during Water Emergencies 

• Colorado-Wyoming Association of Museums - Ash Cleanup for Museums

• CCAHA - Damage Glossary 

• TruVue - Disaster Recovery: Fire and Soot Damage

TX-CERA Quick Guide to Wet Salvage Methods - Posters

• Books

• Inorganic Objects

• Magnetic & Optical Media

• Paintings

• Photographic Materials

• Skin & Leather

Mobile Apps

• NCPTT - Emergency Response and Salvage

• DOT Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration - Emergency Response Guidebook App (for both Apple and Android)

• NIOSH - Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards 

• NCPTT - Risk Calculator App

Heritage Preservation Videos

• 1. • Heritage Preservation Video - Getting Started (11:09) 

• Heritage Preservation Video - Water Segment (10:50)

• Heritage Preservation Video - Mold (7:58)

• Heritage Preservation Video - Soot & Ash (7:00)

  1. • Heritage Preservation Video - Mud (7:33)

     • Heritage Preservation Video - Corrosion (6:30)

     • Heritage Preservation Video - Broken Objects (3:29)

     • Heritage Preservation Video - Hazardous Materials (6:37)

Salvage Videos

• GHF - Rescuing Textiles After a Flood

• GHF - Rescuing Heirloom Furniture After Flood

• GHF - Rescuing Heirloom Books After Flood

• GHF - Rescuing Heirloom Photo Recovery

• NPS - Salvage Techniques

Response Webinars

• • • NPS - Response and Recovery

    • THRAB - Response for Archives

    • RCWR - Hands On! Detection and Cleaning of Soot

• TX-CERA & Guest Speaker Tara Kennedy - Managing the Mustiness: Mold Control and Collection Emergency Response

  • • Link to Presentation Slides

Response Document, Contract, & Form Examples

• AIC - Rapid Collection Assessment Form

• FAIC - NHR Job Descriptions in Timeline Form

• FAIC - NHR Deployment Report Form

Recovery Overview

It is important to know that the recovery process may take time. The goal is to stabilize the collection and avoid or reduce future risk. 

This may include: building repairs or renovations, conservation of the collection, or applications for grants or relief funding to support recovery efforts. 

Recovery Resources

• IMLS - Natural Disaster Recovery Resources

• AAM - Finding Financial Relief and Support

• Grants Plus - Emergency Grant Opportunities for Museums

• THC - Grants and Fundraising

• AIC - Funding Resources

• FAIC - Find A Conservator

• FAIC - Emergency (CAP) Program

Recovery Webinars

• THC & TX-CERA Part 2 of 2-part webinar series “Disaster Response: Insurance Claims and Collections Recovery”

Recovery Document, Contract, & Form Examples

• • • NHR Tip Sheet - Working With Recovery Vendors: What You Should Know

• FLICC Preservation & Bindery Working Group - Disaster Recovery Contract  - contains recommendations for the content of a contract for recovery services, and what you should expect from a viable recovery service vendor 

Additional Courses, Institutions & Programs

• Important FEMA Courses: ICS-100, ICS-200, IS-700, IS-800

• AIC Learning Community - Previous Courses, Webinars, and Programs

• National Heritage Responders (NHR) Hotline: (202)661-8060

• Connecting to Collections Care (C2C) - 

  • • Webinar Link

    • Webinar Archives

• Texas Historical Commission (THC) - 

  • • Texas Statewide Preservation Plan 

    • Texas Historic Sites Atlas - The Historic Sites Atlas is a self-enlisting database of all cultural entities in Texas.

    • Webinar Link

• SI - Heritage Emergency and Response Training (HEART)

  • • SCRI - Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative

• NEDCC - Disaster Assistance

• COSTEP MA - Recovery

• CCI - Notes

• ARCS - Emergency Preparedness

Valuable Resources - Requires Purchase 

• Book by David Carmichael - Implementing the Incident Command System at the Institutional Level

• Book by AIC and SPNHC - Health and Safety for Museum Professionals

• FAIC - Field Guide to Emergency Response

• Heritage Preservation - Emergency Response and Salvage Wheel