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The information used to start the AIC wiki pages on Emergency Response was initially compiled from two main sources: Handouts used as part of Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (http://www.conservation-us.org/faic) 2012 workshop on Emergency Planning and Mitigation Strategies for Historic Sites funded by FAIC and by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) (http://www.imls.gov/) Posts written for the MoMA blog Inside/Out (http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/category/hurricane-sandy-aftermath-tips-for-artists) by members of AIC's Collections Emergency Response Team (AIC-CERT), now known as the National Heritage Responders (http://www.conservation-us.org/emergencies/nationalheritage-responders) (NHR), to provide information to the public after Hurricane Sandy, November 2012 Over time this information has been edited and supplemented by members of the AIC Emergency Response committee (https://crm.conservationus.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?Site=AICHAW&Webcode=LeadershipDetail&cmt_key=c3405b41-2ff5-4fbd-9fb7-3d38bf4075ae), NHR (http://www.conservationus.org/emergencies/national-heritage-responders) and the AIC membership. This information is intended for educational and training purposes and should not be used in lieu of consulting with a conservator as all disasters involve different and unique circumstances. For additional resources please visit the AIC website Disaster Response & Recovery page (http://www.conservation-us.org/resources/disasterresponse-recovery) Contributors: M.J. Davis, Barbara Moore, Chris Stavroudis, Elizabeth Nunan, Claire Walker, Rachael Perkins Arenstein (/wiki/User:RPArenstein), Stephanie Watkins (/wiki/User:SWatkins)
Contents 1 Emergency Preparedness 2 Emergency Planning 2.1 Risk Assessment 2.2 Mitigation 2.2.1 Creating Strategic Partnerships 3 Disaster Plans 3.1 Developing an Emergency Plan 3.2 Developing a Response Team 4 Emergency Response 5 Collections Salvage and Recovery 5.1 Health and Safety 5.2 Documenting the Emergency 5.3 Determining Salvage Priorities 5.3.1 Dealing with Wet Contemporary Paintings: Tips for Artists—Health and Safety 5.4 Stabilizing the Environment and the Collections 5.4.1 Drying Methods for Wet Collections 5.5 Stabilizing Wet Collections 6 Disaster Preparedness, Response and Salvage: Selected Bibliography
Emergency Preparedness Emergency preparedness complements collection care by prioritizing resources to address the highest potential risks. You can reduce the risks to your collection through assessment, planning, and ongoing preventive efforts. Emergency preparedness is a continual process of identifying risks and taking actions to reduce or eliminate them. This process involved many people across the institution working together: collections managers and conservators, facilities staff, and administrators. The main stages in Emergency Preparedness are: 1. Emergency Planning (/wiki/Emergency_Planning) Risk Assessment Mitigation Writing an Emergency Plan Developing a Response Team 1. Emergency Response (/w/index.php?title=Emergency_Response&action=edit&redlink=1) 2. Collection Salvage and Recovery (/w/index.php?title=Collection_Salvage_and_Recovery&action=edit&redlink=1)
Emergency Planning Emergency planning for collections can be divided into two steps: risk assessment and mitigation, and emergency response planning, also referred to as a disaster plan.
Risk Assessment A risk assessment, whether detailed or broad, is a tool to aid in prioritizing resources for preserving the collection. Conducting a risk assessment of your facility and collections identifies areas of highest vulnerability and provides direction for mitigation efforts. *What is the likelihood of a disaster occurring? Risks as defined by CCI. Know your building - reference risks (i.e. fire alarms, camera/security system, etc) *What do I have? Completing a collections inventory is an important first step toward emergency preparedness. Maintaining a high-resolution photographic inventory can also be extremely useful in the salvage process, as it can help inform a conservator in directing treatment after an event. *What are my risks? What is the most vulnerable? Some materials are inherently more vulnerable than others. Organic materials such as paper and canvas paintings, wood and plant materials, leather/furs, and bone/ivory tend to be the most vulnerable to damage from physical forces, water and high relative humidity, and fire/soot events. Inorganic materials can still experience damage, but often not to the same extent as compared to organic materials. *What is the most important to me? Priority lists are a way to tackle creating a disaster plan for what might be hundreds if not thousands of objects in your collection. Priority is often based on value or significance, which can vary depending on your collection. Common types of value and significance include: Monetary value Research or Scientific value Historic, Cultural, or Social value Artistic or Aesthetic value Importance to the institution's mission Institutional Icons Rarity or replacement possibilities (i.e. irreplaceable, replaceable at high cost, or easily replaceable) Loan status (are objects on loan accorded priority?) More information on defining collection significance can be found in Significance 2.0 - a document created by the Collections Council of Australia. http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/publications/significance2-0/ (http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/publications/significance2-0/) More information regarding priorities can be found in the salvage section. Prioritize the priorities: Within the priority list, have a selection of top priority objects, and perhaps a second tier and third tier. Other factors that will determine decisions at the time of response to an emergency: Vulnerability to the hazard (e.g. generally paper is more vulnerable to damage from most hazards than ceramics) Condition of/damage to objects (e.g. rescue objects not yet damaged) Practicalities: size, weight, proximity Additional thoughts: Who should have authority to decide on what objects are priorities? Each curator within his/her collections? Should the list be decided by consensus among all the curators? The priority list should not be for general circulation. Who should have a copy? Who will update the list, and how often? How will that person know when objects have been moved, or what objects should be added to (or subtracted from) the list? All objects, and in particular all objects on the priority list, should be inventoried with location information and should have up-to-date, well-documented insurance valuations. What will is the most useful way to organize this list? By location? Curator or collection? Another method? Consider how to identify priority objects quickly. Remember that curators may not have access to the spaces – it may be firemen or other emergency response personnel. It may be better to have “priority locations” within each room. Should priority items be better secured in storage (e.g. in locked cabinets)? This relates to the question above – if highly valued pieces are easy to identify, they may also need extra protection.
Mitigation Mitigation is the next step after conducting a risk assessment. The assessment helps identify and prioritize your collection, as well as provide details on where the collection is located and what specific risks it is vulnerable. The mitigation phase involves taking pro-active steps to limit your collection's vulnerability to the risks you have identified. You can use your priority list to identify what actions should be taken first.Mitigation includes those actions that are performed prior to an emergency event and are used to enhance and support the response to a disaster. This is an essential component of your emergency preparedness effort. Such actions include carrying out mitigation procedures developed as a result of the risk assessment, establishing relationships with the first responder community and local salvage vendors, and training staff to perform the designated response roles outlined in the disaster plan before the disaster happens. When a risk assessment has been completed, quite often there are risks that can be mitigated through a few simple and relatively inexpensive steps. They may include: Relocating collections If an area is known to have reoccurring leaks, or high priority collections are located in vulnerable areas (attic, basement, etc), relocation may be the simplest way to mitigate a potential damage. Improve current storage areas If it is not possible to relocate collections or large numbers of objects are at risk, some steps can be taken to improve the current storage environment Draping open shelving with plastic can limit the effect of water leaks Adding bumpers, straps, or ropes around open shelving may help limit damage due to seismic activity Placing collections 4 inches off the floor will protect collections from water damage in most emergencies, especially small to moderately sized emergencies. Collections stored on the floor, even temporarily, are at a greater risk of damage and the damage will be more severe than collections stored off the ground.
Creating Strategic Partnerships You may not be able to cope with responding to a large-scale disaster without some help. Contacting your local first responder community prior to an event - including the local fire marshal and police, Red Cross, local museum personnel and conservators - can help you develop a network of assistance in the event of a disaster. Seeing your facility will help familiarize responders with the particulars of your specific institution, as well as providing you with an opportunity to highlight important information, such as the location of high priority collections or hazardous materials.
Disaster Plans Developing an Emergency Plan Risk assessment and mitigation can help decrease the changes of a disaster affecting your collection, but unfortunately you can't control everything - be it a fire or a broken pipe or a storm that ends up being much stronger than predicted. A disaster plan will help you feel prepared in case you do need to respond to an emergency, and helps give you structured guidelines to follow. An emergency plan provides the overall strategy for minimizing the impact of an emergency as well as describing the organization and responsibilities of a response to an emergency. A well-implemented emergency plan can prevent or minimize the effects of an emergency -the lack of a plan can lead to a small incident becoming a large disaster. Unfortunately, Heritage Preservation has found in their national survey that 80% of U.S. collecting institutions do not have a written emergency/disaster plan with staff trained to carry it out. Ideally the plan is both comprehensive and one that can be distilled into a short checklist. An emergency plan will only be effective if your staff understand the plan and have the resources to implement it. The main components of an effective response plan include: 1. Contact List A swift and appropriate initial response in an emergency requires that the appropriate decision-makers be reachable. Develop a contact list as well as procedures to ensure that it is regularly updated. Integrate this contact list with the emergency plan to ensure that authority to make decisions concerning collections and to spend money can be done during off-hours and holidays. An accompanying document outlining roles and defining responsibilities is also important - see Developing a Response Team (/w/index.php?title=Developing_a_Response_Team&action=edit&redlink=1) below. 2. Inventory and List of Prioritized Collections Knowing what is in your collection and where it is located is critical to an effective emergency response. Without this information, response efforts may not be focused where they are needed. In the unfortunate situation of having badly damaged or completely lost collections, an inventory can greatly assist in understanding the scope and severity of the event. Lastly, shelf lists, catalogues, and other registrarial records are critical to an emergency response. Access to them in an emergency is vital and in many cases response efforts focus on saving these records as well as the collections. Similarly, having established collection priorities before an emergency can greatly assist response efforts. Collection prioritization is never easy‚ even in non-emergency situations, but can be critical to the effective deployment of emergency resources. 3. List of Materials and Supplies Emergencies supplies such as plastic sheeting, paper towels, and fans can effectively deployed in an emergency to prevent harm to collections and to stabilize them if they have been damaged. Staff should be trained in the deployment and use of these supplies. 4. Identification of Backup Storage and/or triage areas In some cases the best way to protect collections is to remove them from potential harm. Relocating collections does have its own risks, but a relocation plan can minimize those risks by providing a protocol and procedure for such an event. 5. Identification of Potential Vendors Trying to make decisions about what to save and who is going to do this work is not recommended while standing in six inches of water or watching as your building is consumed by smoke and fire. Create a list of potential vendors who suit the needs of your collection and institution. 6. Procedures In accordance with safety and security staff at your institution, emergency procedures for evacuations as well as responding to different types of emergencies should be outlined. Operations for collections salvage procedures can also be outlined here (resources needed) 7. Training Schedule Practice reduces panic! On a regular basis, train staff about collection emergency response and how to carry out your plan. Regularly scheduled training workshops will also help to ensure continuity of information in the case of staff changes.
Developing a Response Team As part of your disaster planning and regular training, it is useful to develop a response team structure with clearly defined roles. With specific duties predetermined and practiced during training, staff can work more efficiently and avoid duplication of efforts. Each team will have a leader, to which all other team members will report. This will help streamline information, making communication more efficient and effective. Familiarizing yourself with FEMA's Incident Command System will help you understand the importance of a well-structured response team: http://www.fema.gov/incidentcommand-system-resources (http://www.fema.gov/incident-command-system-resources). It is important to familiarize all of your response team members with ALL roles and their corresponding responsibilities, as any person may have to take on the Response Team Leader role, depending on who is available at the time of the disaster event. Not every event will require all team roles, and you may assign multiple roles to a single individual in a smaller event, or several people to a single role in a catastrophic event. Some response team roles may include: Response Team Leader Health and Safety Coordinator Security and Facilities Coordinator Supplies and Equipment Coordinator Assessment Coordinator Documentation Coordinator Salvage Coordinator Continued practice and regular training will familiarize your team with the responsibilities of each role - this will help ensure your team works together smoothly. Role playing during training sessions may also allow you to match roles with skills - for example, the Security and Facilities Coordinator needs to be familiar with how your institution is designed, while the Supplies and Equipment Coordinator should have the power to make financial or purchasing decisions.
Emergency Response AIC's National Heritage Responders' (http://www.conservation-us.org/emergencies/national-heritage-responders) members are available to provide 24/7 disaster assistance to museums, historical societies, libraries, archives, and the general public. The AIC-CERT emergency number is (202) 661-8068. Under some circumstances, on-site assistance can be arranged. In addition, AIC can provide the names of experts in the conservation of paintings, paper, books, photographs, textiles, decorative arts, sculpture, and wooden artifacts as well as architectural, archaeological, natural science, and ethnographic materials. Local conservators can be found using AIC's Find A Conservator (http://www.conservation-us.org/findaconservator) search feature available from any page on the AIC website (http://www.conservation-us.org/).
Collections Salvage and Recovery Health and Safety First and foremost, your safety is the most important. No one should be allowed into an affected area until emergency service personnel have declared the space to be safe: nothing is worth the risk of injury. It is likely that you will have to wait for some time before you are allowed to assess the damage to your collection - this is a perfect time to revisit your emergency plan, assemble your response team, and begin plans for your salvage efforts. When you can finally enter the affected area, it is important to continually conduct personal assessments, monitoring your mental and physical health. Assess your own ability to respond in terms of physical stamina, general health, and emotional strength. Identify emergency egress paths and exits in case you need to leave the area. 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 art 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.
Documenting the Emergency 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 takes phase 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. A good reference for creating initial damage assessment records can be found here: Initial Damage Assessment Records (http://www.museum-sos.org/docs/Initial_Damage_Assessment.pdf) Another form of documentation are 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.
Determining Salvage Priorities Salvage priorities may vary, but some common priorities include: Vital institutional information Items on loan Collections that directly support your mission Unique and/or most valuable items (see valuation categories above) Items most used and/or most vital for research Materials most prone to damage if untreated The Most Vulnerable Materials Paper, books, some photographs Parchment, vellum, semi-tanned or untanned leathers Wood and plant materials Ivory Paintings Textiles with fugitive dyes Anything with water-soluble or friable colors Finely constructed furniture, veneers, inlays Anything lacquered or gilded. Low-fired ceramics Iron or unstable archeological metals Anything with mold growth The Least Vulnerable Materials Metals other than iron or unstable archeological metals Most glass Most ceramics Most stone Materials most and least likely to be salvaged Easily accessible materials more likely to be salvaged Portable materials more likely to be salvaged Difficult-to-access collections and large or cumbersome objects less likely to be salvaged
Dealing with Wet Contemporary Paintings: Tips for Artists—Health and Safety First and foremost, be safe. In wet environments, if the power has been restored, be particularly careful with electricity and electrical appliances. Using a plug-in GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) on any electrical appliance you are using is strongly recommended. Be extremely careful with heaters that use a flame source for heat; these should probably be avoided. Definitely do not use any solvent-based products until a professional has verified the functioning of the heater. Floodwater may have been contaminated with sewage, in which case due precautions should be taken to avoid exposure to pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. Wear appropriate gloves; surgical (latex or nitrile) or even kitchen gloves. The water may also be contaminated with oily material that floated on the surface or other hazardous or toxic material that was washed along with or dissolved in the water. Mold grows in still, humid environments. Do not wrap wet or even freshly dried paintings in plastic; you are all but guaranteeing mold growth. Paintings exposed to salt water may develop mold growth more slowly, but it will still grow. Mold digests the substrate upon which it grows. It also forms stains that are very difficult and sometimes impossible to remove. Mold is also a potent allergen, and people can become highly sensitized. Sometimes this can happen suddenly after repeated exposure with no or only mild symptoms. Mold can also create mycotoxins, poisons that are hazardous to everyone. While fairly rare, this is a real risk. So, to prevent mold, keep air circulating and keep things as dry as possible. Remove wet insignificant materials—wet carpets, etc.—from your workspace, as these will just add moisture to the air. Dehumidifiers, if available, will remove water vapor from the air and lower the relative humidity. Heaters lower the relative humidity but don’t remove the moisture from the air; warm air just holds more water. In any event, do not overheat or excessively dehumidify the air. When dealing with mold or working in a moldy environment, proper protective equipment is necessary. Wear gloves, as suggested above. Also wear, at a minimum, a P95 or N95 dust mask (properly a Filtering Face Piece, or FFP)—an N99 or N100 would be better. Technically, you should be fit-tested to make sure the FFP is fitting your face properly and filtering the air you inhale. Short of that, if you feel warm air slipping between your face and the mask when you exhale, you are not getting anything near a good fit. Try readjusting the mask, and if that doesn’t work try a different brand, as each brand fits individual faces slightly differently. A half-mask respirator with N100 cartridges or combination cartridges will be much more effective and is easier to fit test. However, a half-mask or full-face respirator requires extra work to pull air through the filters. You should not wear this type of respirator if you have respiratory health or cardiac issues unless your physician has cleared you. OSHA has an evaluation form for a health professional to assess your fitness to wear a respirator. Again, if you can’t get or haven’t had a formal fit test, there are inhalation and exhalation tests that you can perform to get some sense of the fit. These steps can be found online. Ideally, you will be wearing a Tyvek suit in a mold-contaminated environment, possibly with a hood and foot covers. If you are not wearing a suit or coverall over your street clothes, be sure to change clothes, including your shoes, when leaving the moldy space. If possible, wear something on your head as well. You don’t want to bring the mold home with you. Eye protection is also recommended, as you don’t want to get an infection in your eye. Also the eyes drain into the nose, so allergens can be washed down into your body with tears.
Stabilizing the Environment and the Collections Residues
Drying Methods for Wet Collections Discard Dehumidify - Vendor Air dry - In-house Freeze - In-house or vendor Vacuum freeze dry - Vendor Send are or unique items to a conservator Drying Methods for Wet Collections If you will not be able to dry a collection within 72 hours, you can freeze most kinds of artifacts to buy time. While objects are frozen, they will not become moldy. Freezing will also arrest any mold outbreak that is starting, and arrests bleeding dyes and running inks. According to the volume of material involved, use Freezer pods Freezer trucks Local freezer facility Home freezers Whether or not items have been frozen, there are five drying methods to consider: Air Drying, Desiccant Air Drying, Freezer Drying, Vacuum Freeze Drying and Vacuum Thermal Drying. Choice of method will depend on: Volume of materials Type of materials State of materials (how wet?) Sensitivity of materials Need for access during drying 1. Air drying: Normal room conditions (70-75oF at 50-55% RH - heaters? dehumidifiers?) Good air circulation (fans?) Spread wet items on tables with absorbent coverings Stuff out layered objects Change absorbent materials often Advantages Gentle Low cost (existing space, simple equipment) Easy to monitor Collections stay in your institution No risk of over-drying Disadvantages Risk of mold Very labor intensive Requires large spaces Some materials (e.g. coated papers) cannot be successfully air dried. 2. Desiccant Air Drying Non-frozen, air drying Controlled temperature (usually 75 – 80oF) Controlled relative humidity (