Disaster Response

The scale of devastation wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 created a new awareness and sense of urgency nationwide about the ongoing vulnerabilities of our historical legacies.  The issue was brought home to New Yorkers in 2006 by damaging upstate floods that inundated several repositories.

If you share responsibility for the care of historical records, or you care about records held by particular organizations, you will want to learn more about emergency preparedness. The following resources from around the state and nation offer information for historical records keepers on disaster planning and recovery.

  • The Disaster Assistance page of the New York State Archives provides information on emergency preparedness and recovering from a disaster and describes the services it can provide to State Agencies, to Local Governments, and to Historical Records Repositories.
  • Disaster Prevention - Preparedness - Recovery Resources lists selected resources that will be helpful in the event of an emergency or disaster threatening cultural materials. It is produced by New York State Education Department, Office of Cultural Education.

The New York State Archives has also been playing a leadership role in a national effort, coordinated by the Council of State Archivists (CoSA), to help all state archives and records management programs prepare for natural disasters and other records-related emergencies.

  • The Pocket Response Plan (PReP)™ is a concise document for recording essential information needed by staff in case of a disaster. It was created so that every person having a response-related assignment could carry a PReP with them at all times. The PReP is one component of CoSA's Framework for Emergency Preparedness.
  • Safeguarding a Nation’s Identity. CoSA’s Emergency Preparedness Initiative issued this report to the President, Congress, Governors, and State Legislatures of the United States on the readiness of state archives to protect records that identify who we are, secure our rights, and tell our story as a nation.
  • Intergovernmental Preparedness for Essential Records (IPER).  CoSA is leading this project to develop and deliver Web- and CD-based training for state and local governments nationwide.

These institutions offer additional resources.

  • Stanford University’s CoOL Disaster Preparedness and Response offers “A Primer on Disaster Preparedness, Management and Response: Paper-Based Materials” that combines  into a single pamphlet four basic references originally issued separately by the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, National Archives, and National Park Service.
  • Northeast Document Conservation Center offers Disaster Assistance,  24/7 emergency phone assistance; dPlan, an Online Disaster Planning Tool; and Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness (COSTEP), an emergency response framework for the cultural community.
  • Heritage Emergency National Task Force offers tools and information to cultural institutions and the general public for preparing for and responding to emergencies that affect collections and family treasures.