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Re: Lessons Learned in Houston--Disposal of Flood Damaged Boxes



An additonal follow-up, as I test out a machine at home that I've set up to try
and read my mail at work.

Clearly, there should be some "re-evaluation" about boxes in light of our
experiences with this flood...given the "real" measurements of how the weight
increases with wet boxes, one would hope that some re-evaluation will occur
about our shelves.

Dennis "No guilt over my vacation time" Moser

On Fri, 22 Jun 2001, Mark Lambert wrote:
> Gang:
> I'd like to add something to Paul Scott's information, that I found out
> last week helping out at the Texas Medical Center archives after it was
> flooded.  [I definitely had survivor's guilt at the end of that day,
> knowing I could walk away from all the damage, and they would have to
> deal with it for months to come.  Needless to say, any plans they had
> for improvements to their archive during the year definitely got washed
> away with the flood.]
> 
> A 1 cu.ft. record center carton full of records, when submerged in
> water, and then allowed to partially dry out, will have expanded (and
> burst the box open) to a size a little larger than that held by a 1.5
> cu. ft. box.  The soggy handles will also now tear under the load of a
> box that has doubled in weight.  I was glad to have learned this, since
> I have wondered about obtaining additional disaster response supplies
> like the "rescue-cubes."
> 
> Save your money, and get much cheaper and collapse-able 1.5 cu.ft.
> cardboard boxes to keep in storage.  The soggy records can be
> transferred to the 1.5 cu. ft. boxes for their trip to freeze-drying.
> They will work almost perfectly.  Records still dripping wet when you
> first get on site can sit a while longer while they drip dry a little
> longer (after first getting them out of the water), and then just line
> the 1.5 cu. ft. boxes with wax paper, just so the box lasts long enough
> to get to the freeze-dryer.
> 
> Paul's email was also correct about the weight of those soaked boxes.  I
> was worn out by the end of the day lifting them, and I'm a big person.
> And I have started wondering if everyone's shelving (most of the time
> probably standard library cantilever shelving, and not record center 4
> post shelving) in flood prone areas could stand the instant doubling of
> the load on those shelves if a flood should occur.
> 
> Mark
> 
> Mark Lambert
> Special Collections and Government Documents Librarian
> South Texas College of Law Library
> Houston, TX
> 
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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>