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Re: RAIN 5/10: Burst Pipe Inundates NASA Photo Archives



Just as interesting is this paragraph
<snip>
Unsure how best to go about the initial rescue of the soggy material, she
said, "we called Kodak, Polaroid, the National Archives, the Smithsonian,
National Geographic. All the leading experts. . . The main thing, of course,
was not to do further harm."
<snip>

Didn't they have a disaster plan in place? If they had one why didn't it
identify the following potential problem?

<snip>
The breach occurred in the building heating and cooling system, at a solder
joint where a one-inch pipe branched off from the main four-inch pipe in a
ceiling above the archives, according to Goddard spokesman Mark Hess.
"Because it was a main, it dumped a lot of water in there," he said.
<snip>

To get an idea of the size of the pipe look at a 3.5 inch floppy diskette or
fold a piece of letter-size paper in half (vertically not horizontally). it
surely did dump a lot of water especially if under to pressure of any sort

It seems to me that if a disaster/contingency plan had been in place they
would have had the structure in place to first identify a potential problem
(water main directly over the archives),  secondly have in place
preventative measures in case of a break, and third have identified and
contracted with vendors for just such an eventuality.

I know 20-20 hindsight is always the best, but it is examples like this that
should be examined carefully and then look at your current set-up. How many
out there know if water pipes are running directly over their material?

Peter A. Kurilecz CRM, CA
Manager, Records Management Group
Woodside Summit Group Inc
Midlothian, Virginia
Office: 804-744-1247 x23
Fax: 804-744-4947
mailto:peter.kurilecz@woodsidesummitgroup.com

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