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Water in the Archives 2007 The Archives experienced significant water damage due to a water leak on the morning of Wednesday, April 18, 2007. A quick response, led by Facilities Management, enabled us to quickly begin recovery and salvage work. We were able to salvage all water damaged records and documents. Information about recovery efforts and photographs has been posted on this webpage.
Status of Archives Services & Contact Information
For photos of the Archives and of recovery efforts, go to: Recovery Report #1, April 18-20, 2007 On Wednesday, April 18, 2007, the Archives at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, experienced a 'water event' aka 'the flood'. About 10:00 am I heard some unexpected noises from one of our storage areas, unlocked the door, and was hit by a wave of humid air. I heard a large gushing of water and then realized there was about an inch of water on the floor. I quickly called for help and two technicians from IT whose offices are next door came and helped to spread plastic sheeting over the effected shelves. The Archives is located in the basement of the Center building, directly beneath the cafeteria. Facilites Management had been dealing with overflowing drains that morning, not realizing it was also impacting the Archives. It appears that somehow a t-shirt got into a drainage pipe, and that caused the water to back up and flood part of the cafeteria and then drain into the Archives. I called Facilites Management and reported the problem, and then contacted Normandy Helmer, Access and Preservation Officer for Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Oregon. Normandy is also the contact/resource person for disaster response and recovery for archives and libraries in Oregon. My next call was to Belfor, a flood and fire recovery service. We had great support and a quick response from the college Facilities Management staff – from housekeepers, plumbers, painters, groundskeepers and gardeners, and many more. Within about an hour or so we had removed all the wet and damp boxes from the shelves and placed them in the aisles of the other storage room. The plumbers worked hard to stop the leak, others used mops and wet vacuums to get the water off the floor. Facilities staff took samples of the water to get it tested to see if there was any contamination, since the source of the water was not certain, and to plan for any necessary decontamination. Throughout the afternoon on Wednesday we evaluated the boxes and their contents. We were fortunate that the boxes were all standard records boxes and contained paper records for the most part – no photographs and other media. We set up a triage area and designed an impromptu work flow. Those boxes that were soaking wet or very wet were identified and then taken by Belfor to be freeze-dried. We felt we could deal with the other boxes and began to remove damp folders from the wet boxes and transferred them to dry boxes. By late Wednesday afternoon, about half (approximately 75) of the most severely damaged boxes were reboxed and taken to an offsite area in another building where we set up a recovery work area. Belfor set up dehumidifiers and fans in the two storage areas in the Archives. On Thursday, April 19, the remaining water-damaged records were removed to the recovery site. Ten-foot high fencing was erected around the work area. A crew from Belfor then began to enclose this area with plastic sheeting. This took most of the day, and by 5:00 they had completed a sealed space inside of which were the damp records, two large dehumidifiers and a huge fan, which then ran all night. On Friday, April 20, with several volunteers (faculty, staff and a student) we began evaluating the records in the recovery area. The boxes were dry but some still contained damp records. Damp folders were spread on tables and later, when they had dried, were reboxed. Records that had dried overnight, were set aside. Work came to a halt after an hour or two when we were told that laboratory tests showed that the water that had leaked may be contaminated with coliform. Those of us working on the damp records in the recovery work area stopped working immediately. The college is consulting with an industrial hygienist to develop a plan to finalize the cleaning of the Archives and to determine how to proceed with recovery efforts on the archival materials. Until that plan is in place, recovery work on the records has stopped. In all, about 284 boxes had water damage: 51 boxes were taken to be freeze-dried; 181 boxes with damp records in were sent to the offsite recovery work area for processing; 52 boxes with minimal water damage had dried out over night and remained in the Archives to await reshelving. An additional 150 boxes had no water damage but had to be moved from the bottom shelves so that the shelving could dry out. Altogether, this is approximately 10% of our holdings. I don’t believe we will lose any records. I’m confident that we will be able to dry out and salvage all our materials and return them to the Archives in fine shape, although maybe a little wrinkled. It has been an amazing but stressful experience. I’ve been impressed and am grateful for the support and hard work of many people from the college’s Facilities Management who have worked hard to facilitate the recovery and who have been sensitive to the needs of the archival records. Also, the support from the Library director, Nadine Williams, and from Normandy Helmer has been invaluable, both professionally and personally. This experience has taught me a lot about disaster response and recover, to say the least! I’ll also be posting updates on the Archives webpage, so check there for further news. Recovery Report #2, April 23-27, 2007 Recovery efforts during the week of April 23-27 were put on hold as we reevaluated our recovery plans. Reports from the lab and from the college Biology Department confirmed that the water that leaked into the Archives contained levels of coliform and other bacteria. A report from an industrial hygienist outlined cleaning protocols for Archive storage rooms, boxes, and files. Staff from the Archives, Library, and Facilities Management met to discuss this report and begin implementation of the cleaning protocols. We determined that the first priority is to clean and sanitize the Archives office, work area, and storage areas. Then we will preform recovery work on the records that were taken to an offsite recovery locations. Recovery and cleaning work will be performed by personnel from Belfor USA. Recovery Report #3, May 11, 2007 The Archives was cleaned and sanitized by workers form Belfor using appropriate equipment and procedures. Metal shelves, walls, carpet, and floors were cleaned, particle board shelves were disposed of and replaced with new boards, drywall was removed from a section of one wall that had water damage, and a section of the carptet was removed that had become soaked. Approximately 300 additional boxes had to be moved and their shelving dismantled so that the floor and wall could be properly cleaned. As soon as the wall is repainted and the carpet replaced, the Archivist will be able to move back into the Archives. The records that were taken to a freezer storage facility were checked and inventoried. These records looked to be in good shape confirming the first assessment that no documents or files will be lost once they are finally dried out and reboxed. Recovery Report #4, May 14-22, 2007 On May 14 we received the second report from the industrial hygienist on the tests done on the boxes and records that had sustained water damage but were now dried out. The report showed no detectable coliform or other bacteria. Following the original protocol outlined by the industrial hygienest, the boxes stored temporarily in Building 12 were reboxed. This reboxing was done by staff of Belfor wearing respirators and protective clothing. Boxes were sorted into three groups: 48 boxes with visible water damage and 8 boxes with mold were identified as needing gamma radiation treatment. The remaining boxes were taken back to the Archives to be reshelved. The records in the freezer were inventoried. Six boxes that were brought back to the Archives from the freezer along with four boxes from Building 12 were segregated out because they required no further treatment. These ten boxes were wrapped in plastic bags and, since they had met their retention requirements, were taken by Belfor for confidential shredding. The remaining 45 boxes in the freezer were taken by Belfor along with the 56 boxes with water and mold contamination to their facility in Texas for gamma radiation treatment. Recovery Report #5, May 24-30, 2007 On May 24 and 25 all the boxes that had been removed from their shelf locations were reshelved. This included the records that had received water damage but were now dried out as well as the records that had no damage but which had to be moved so that the floor and wall could be cleaned. Staff from LCC's Facilities and Management worked to move the boxes and to place them on the appropriate shelves. Volunteer archivists, Tiah Edmunson-Morton and Larry Landis from Oregon State University Archives and Terry Baxter from the Multnomah County Archives, helped in this process. They worked to sort the boxes and organize them back into the appropriate groupings based on accession and collection numbers. They also identified which shelves the boxes were to go on. Disaster Preparation, Response and Recovery Resources
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