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FW: Major flooding in the McGovern Collections Archives



The following message comes from Dennis Moser down in Houston. Dennis as
many of you may or may not know is an archivist in the Texas Medical Center.
He needs some information concerning local resources ie Texas and Houston
area, that provide disaster recovery services for wet videotape and film.
read his message carefully and please reply directly to Dennis at
mailto:aldus@angrek.com and not to the listserv.

to see more of the devastation that has hit Houston here are some links.

http://www.txcn.com/houstonnews/

http://www.khou.com/news/stories/8804.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/slideshow/0609flood/1.html

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


-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Moser [mailto:aldus@angrek.com]
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2001 8:55 AM
To: peter.kurilecz@WOODSIDESUMMITGROUP.COM; PAKURILECZ@AOL.COM
Subject: Major flooding in the McGovern Collections Archives


Peter,

 As you
know, Houston got hammered by the storm, the worst of it this
Friday/Saturday. The HM-TMC library, where the McGovern Collection is
situated, took a "direct hit" with complete loss of power due to some three
feet of water flooding everything below ground level. It wiped out an
entire public computer lab and all of the offices on that level, including
all of the systems administrations offices. There are no phones, no email,
no climate control for the entire building. As a result, communications are
dicey, at best.

Now the bad news: the first two shelves of the entire archives stacks area
and some sections above them (the area slopes to one side) were soaked.
Saturated. Books, films, papers, manuscripts, supplies...everything at that
level.  The water came through, as it is wont to do in such situations,
with tremendous force, toppling much in its path. We spent about 12 hours
yesterday getting started on what is going to be a very long job. We had
wet vac crews in until atleast midnight, a cooling/dehumidifier unit has
been set up and running for about 12 hours (as I write this), and a
freeze-dryer truck will be there later this morning, so we are taking all
the steps that we can. However...

I wanted to message you to ask if you could inquire if anyone on the list
could suggest some local resources for wet videotape and film work. I got
VidiPax's number and will be calling Jim later this morning, but I wanted
to see if there was anyone close by to Texas. Folks can email me directly
at this address (we never lost power at home for more than two minutes,
thank heavens, since we're on the 5th floor and everything in here is
electric!) and since I am 1 mile from the Med Center, I'll be shuttling
back and forth checking mail and making phone calls every few hours.

We haven't made an official announcement as to closure, but unofficially,
the McGovern Historical Collections is closed indefinitely. We expect that
there will be announcement about the HAM-TMC library later today. I've only
heard from one other library in the Med Center (the M.D. Anderson Library)
and they ARE open.

Moredetails, and maybe a QuickTime movie, as the story unfolds,

Dennis

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
mailto:aldus@angrek.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time"
--John Stuart Mill (1806-73)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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