Rule #1, Don't Panic

Last week I attended a workshop on Disaster Preparedness and Object Salvage.  For a museum, one of the most important things to have is an Emergency Plan in place. For a museum in Florida, one of the most important things is to know how to save your collections during a hurricane. Our instructors work for a nation wide conservation disaster team and have been sent to New Orleans, Cedar Rapids and are getting prepared to be sent to Haiti.  They told us that it becomes a difficult balance when you have been in a natural disaster because you have to not only deal with your own personal life but also your museum's.  

Part of the workshop was to pretend like a disaster had happened and then we had to try to save as many objects as possible.  We used kiddie pools and soaked lots of different types of "artifacts" from paintings to shoes (all from the salvation army of course!).  Then we broke up into teams and tried to salvage as much as we could, mostly using materials that could be easily purchased in a hardware stores in case our supplies had been destroyed too.  It was amazing to observe how people acted during this scenario. The stress level rose and even certain people in my team were running around acting like a hurricane had really just hit.  Role play is not for everyone i suppose :) 

Triage area

 

Wrapping books in wax paper can help pages not to stick and stop bleeding

Most books would have to be frozen if wet

 

The little shoe I saved.  Padding it out will help it keep its shape

Remember to replace the wet tissue every 1/2 hour!

There have been several instances where all the objects in the museum have been taken down and put into the vaults to prepare for hurricane warnings.  Now that hurricane season is approaching I do feel better about being both physically and mentally prepared to deal with such a destructive natural disaster. Lets just hope I won't have to!