Mitigation of Potential Water and Flood Damage

With the potential of heavy rain, flooding, and wind later this week, we’d like to remind you of a few guidelines and resources to help mitigate potential disasters which may cause water and flood damage to your public records.

• Stabilize your records storage areas
  • Ensure that records are a minimum of 3-6 inches off the floor.
  • Ensure records are in record boxes and clearly labeled
  • Remove records for bottom drawers of filing cabinets
  • Consider relocating records to more secure areas in your building. Move records out of areas prone to flooding such basement and attic areas and away from windows and exterior doors.
  • Cover records with plastic sheeting for additional water protection.
  • Compile some recovery supplies, including plastic sheeting to cover records and additional record boxes.
• Locate the retention and disposition schedule for the records in your office.  Retention schedules for both state and local government are available.
• Compile an inventory of records and location in the building.
• Compile information on disaster recovery vendors.
• Compile an emergency staff contact list.

If records are damaged by water, the State Archives offers these preliminary resources: Initial Steps Before Recovery of Wet Records, sample inventory control forms, and a selected list of disaster recovery services.

If you have further questions on disaster preparation or in the event that your records do get impacted by a disaster event, please contact the State Archives immediately.