Conservation & Collections Care News

Disaster Response Summarized

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

I continued to provide the disaster recovery coordination, coming home every night exhausted.

The staff at each site — Czech/Slovak Museum & Library and the African American Historical Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa — were phenomenal. They kept their cool. They followed all the disaster response steps — assess before going to work, divide into teams, assign a coordinator, keep the disaster recovery service in the loop, have the director deal with PR/insurance/board/volunteers, etc. They unflinchingly made tough decisions based on an in depth knowledge of their collections — keep if possible because hard to replace or direct link to a collection (provenance), toss because they had several or easy to replace, stabilize and make a decision later. They took time out to talk to NPR and FEMA. Worked hard to keep their volunteers in food and drink.

Our response company, Steamatic out of Alsip (Chicago area), deserve high praise. Mark Cosgrove was unflapable — well, except for once which you can pry out of me with a drink, I almost lost it over the same incident, too. His staff is well trained in collection recovery. They were polite and listened to my reiterations without complaints; careful with collections and very supportive.

Textile conservators from the Chicago Conservation Center came on site to clean textiles on Saturday. Our wood conservator was onsite today to do initial assessment and provide drying out advice that has already been implemented.

Things that couldn’t not be frozen or rescued on site are on their way to a University of Iowa storage site. Some materials have already been conserved by the State Historical Society of Iowa book and paper conservator, Jane Megger.

I stopped in at both sites today to take care of some last minute details before heading out to ALA tomorrow. I saw happy faces — everyone pleased with what they had saved, that they had done what they needed to do, and could now take a step back before tackling the long recovery ahead.

Late this afternoon, I received word that we can now start getting into our University of Iowa Art and Music Libraries. The first thing that greeted us was about 7,000 slides under water. Mold will be a problem but has not yet invaded our collections. We’re keeping our fingers crossed!

Back At Work Sorta’

Monday, June 23, 2008

It’s very weird to be at work. Twenty university buildings have been shut down due to flood waters. Three of buildings have library collections in them which means that we are busy shuffling staff around. The preservation department was assigned to work in the Business Library. Actually, this was just a spot for us to meet to decide how to proceed. Susan Hansen, Book Repair Supervisor, thought to pack our book repair equipment into her car before heading home on Friday the 13th. Brilliant!

Susan and I had discussed off and on over the years that we’d like to set up temporary book repair stations at some of the branch libraries. Here was our chance to test the idea out. After some discussion we decided to set up two temporary book repair stations, one at Hardin Library of Health Science and another at the GeoscienceLibrary. We also decided that staff could stay home part of the time, working on the online Preservation 101course. Kristin planned to work with Jane Meggers at the State Historical Society of Iowa conservation lab on some of the Czech/Slovak items.

We all agreed to keep everyone posted via email every day as to where we were for the day.

Salvage Begins

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

To our great disappointment we were not able to get into the Czech/Slovak Museum/Library today due to some sort of safety hazard. We spent a lot of time waiting around at the barricade hoping to get in. But no luck.

We were, however, able to get into the African American museum late morning. The freezer truck was inside the barricade at the Czech Slovak museum so Steamatic had to find another freezer truck. Best laid plans and all that. The African American museum was not as heavy with mud. The carpeted floors were already thick with mold. It took a while to get doors open and paths cleared for bringing material out. We set up two work streams – one for clean material and one for freezer truck. We actually ended up with three to address museum objects. Susan Kuecker, museum curator, did a great job of prioritizing what to salvage. She decided not to even try to rescue the library books. She had an inventory and she should be able to purchase replacement copies. It’s much better to focus energies on the really unique, irreplaceable material – the archives and museum objects.

She’s “lucky.” The shelves are very tall. The flood line is at 5 foot. Half of the archival material were above the flood waters. We were able to pack almost all the African American Museum archival material out. Hurray! They had to make some difficult choices as to what to save and discard. I had just given the Cedar Rapids area library and museum staff a refresher course in disaster preparedness and response about 3 weeks ago and my staff and I had visited the Czech/Slovak and African American Museums a couple weeks ago. They knew what to do and I knew where everything was. What a coincidence! Plus the Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortium held their annual Save Our Stuff! SOS preservation workshops the first Friday in June with a session on disaster preparedness. So the staff couldn’t have been better prepared. They are doing a superb job.

Dry stuff is in the Masonic Library and wet stuff is in the freezer truck. We’ve put a call out inviting local churches, libraries and museums to add their stuff to the freezer truck. We want that truck packed full when it leaves. The company will dry the archival material out. And we’re working here to gear up our conservation labs to restore the stuff over the next 2-3 years.

Jane Meggers, State Historical Society of Iowa Conservator; Anna Embree, University of Alabama Conservator; and Gary Frost, University of Iowa Conservator were onsite all day and will return to help tomorrow. My spouse, Randy Roeder, also assisted. I talked him into assisting as I thought his height (6’6”) would a great assistance.

The flooding waters are heading south. And if this is like 1993, the flooding has just started.

False Start

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Cedar River came up fast and ugly, going way beyond the 500 year flood plain, more than 12 feet over projected flood level, exceeding all past records. On the plus side, it is receding very rapidly allowing us to begin the recovery process.

Most of our cultural resources are along the river — the public library, art museum, opera house, African American Museum, Czech/Slovak Museum & Library. You get the idea. The 1st floor of the public library is wiped out. Luckily it’s all replaceable books. The rare material is on 2nd floor but they can’t get to the library yet so we may be dealing with mold here soon.

Today with the help of some local politicians we were able to get an exemption and get a recovery team and freezer truck into the Czech Slovak Museum area. The mud and guck was so thick that we weren’t able to do much today except get some of the mud out and open doors to get some air circulation going. Tomorrow we plan to start packing the material out and “fight the good fight” to get the African American museum exempted so we can start packing them out, too. Gary Frost, UI Libraries conservator, joined me today and will continue to help this week as will his partner, Joyce Miller.

Travel is difficult and patience-testing, taking at least double the time to get anywhere. Roads have been washed out so even if the water goes down, the road isn’t there anymore anyway.

We Dodge the Bullet

Monday, June 16, 2008

Mike Lee and the Facilities folks who are based out of the Main Library checked our basement. There is about 1/2 – 2 inches in various parts of the basement, including the Special Collections and books stack areas. No collections are wet and do not appear to be in danger of getting wet. The utilities are still on, which will be a big help. We are working to see that the area is checked regularly and to see how soon we might be able to begin getting that water out of there. Turned out that just what it was. We only got 2″ in the basement.

The University of Iowa is on the Iowa River. It came up slow, giving us a lot of time to prepare. It, too, exceeded all previous records but did not get as high as projected. Our Art and Music Libraries are on the 2nd floor of flooded buildings. We’re very concerned that we’ll have lots of mold. We think we’ll be ok with the collection in Main Library.

In the morning I met with the African American museum staff at their temporary office and suggested that they coordinate recovery efforts with the Czech Slovak museum. They, too, thought this would be a good idea. They, also, have found temporary storage for their dry items. We then headed out to join the Czech Slovak museum staff who has arranged a meeting with the disaster response company. It’s a good meeting. We’re hoping to get into the disaster area tomorrow. The Brucemore director is anxious to assist with recovery efforts. I stopped to talk to him on my way home. He plans on acquiring preservation supplies and has office space if needed.

Preparation

Sunday, June 15, 2008

We enjoyed our time at our friends – shower, food, and conversation. Back home, I discussed strategy with the Cedar Rapids Public Library Director. She has no idea when she will be allowed back in. We’re in agreement that trying to salvage first floor flood-soaked materials doesn’t make any sense. All the titles are easily replaceable and will cost less to purchase new than to try to clean and restore. The library catalog includes location for each title. Getting an inventory of the items on first floor should be fairly straightforward. I met with the Czech Slovak Library/Museum staff at the director’s house. Her living room is very ghostly as it is full of male mannequins in Czech and Slovak costumes. These costumes are the hardest to replace so during evacuation they were taken to her house. David mentions that the director, Gail, is fairly new and that during her first couple weeks on board, he went over the disaster response plan with her. I’m very impressed. We discussed disaster response procedures. They already have temporary office space, storage for their dry materials, and a disaster response company on tap. Again, I’m impressed. I suggested that we should coordinate with the African American museum. We could pool resources. Everyone thinks this is a good idea.

Resting Up

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Gary Grout caught an announcement that volunteers should report to the Main Library this morning at 9AM. The report was meant for volunteers to report for sandbagging. Gary was at the door this morning to re-direct volunteers and Kristi alerted the UI Press that they needed to have a better statement out. We’re having quite an adventure. It’s all very surreal. All our utilities are on but we are on restricted water use and plan to visit a friend outside of Cedar Rapids tomorrow to have a much needed shower. The water in Cedar Rapids is starting to recede. Firemen are escorting people into their businesses or homes so they can get essential things out and to check on the structures. We’re starting to think about the recovery process. I’m not sure how long it will take for the water to recede so people can actually start repairing, cleaning, etc. so they can move back in.
In Iowa City, the river still hasn’t crested. The crest is predicted Tuesday morning. I don’t know if I can survive the suspense. So far the University of Iowa Main Library has stayed dry. But I’ve looked at the flood level projections and the building elevation. It’s not good. We might make it through. We have over 250,000 books in the basement that could get wet. Today we are spending time recovering. I was too wound up to sleep more than 6 hours. But I did treat myself to a 1 1/2 hour massage and should sleep really well tonight. I plan on using my week “off” helping the Cedar Rapids libraries and museums in their recovery efforts. So getting rested up is really important.

Evacuation of the University of Iowa Main Library

Friday, June 13, 2008
At 6AM, I sent the following email to Nancy Baker and others: “After seeing the Czech/Slovak Library/Museum under water almost to the roof top and many roof tops and church steeples and watching flood level forecasts, I’m thinking we should revise our scenario of about 1 foot of water in Main to 5 feet. Last night before I left, I talked to Greg, he feels that emptying the next shelf up will go quickly and most if not all will fit into the same room. I’m thinking we should go up 3 shelves instead of 2. Maybe this sounds radical but officials are now starting to say they don’t know if all the dams, etc. will hold. We can discuss the storage book collection. We need to get some of those out, too. I’m starting to think I’d rather pack out dry rather than wet books.” We packed our bags, planning to stay overnight, and left around 6:15 so we could be at work around 8AM. It was very eerie as there was hardly any traffic on the road; we arrived around 7AM.

We had a very brief meeting around 8 AM. We agreed that Paul Soderdahl would direct evacuation of computer equipment, I would direct my staff evacuation of their work area, Sid and Greg would direct move of Special Collections, circulation staff would coordinate volunteer sign up and I would coordinate removal of collections out of the basement. We agreed on the proposed 5 foot mark.

One of my staff was in tears as she was concerned that her house would be flooded. We agreed that after all equipment and materials were out of the preservation department, staff could go assist her in sandbagging her house.

At the time we decided to remove materials up to the 5 foot mark, we were being denied sandbags. Of course, once we had most materials out, the sandbags arrived after all. On Thursday we were told we had two days to evacuate — Friday and Saturday. Knowing that dams might break, we assumed one day. We were told sometime on Friday that a dam or levee of some sort did break and that we could not come back on Saturday. Actually we were told to stay home for a week. We had hundreds of volunteers. Our evacuation was phenomenal. I’ve never seen anything like it. We have 3 elevators and 2 stairwells to the basement. Our collection storage is crazy making, unfinished floor, compact shelves, and narrow aisles. We used carts and elevators, human book handing chains in the stairwells, box brigades. I told everyone that I hoped my worst fears were just that and that all this evacuation was just a practice exercise. We had a hard time keeping up with our volunteers. We’d identify a section for packing out, point them to it and like locust they’d swoop in and empty the shelves out. H Pedelty did an incredible job of keeping everything coordinated in the circulating collection storage area. When we were short of carts, we packed items in boxes. We had 3 and 4 human chains going at a time, sometimes belly to belly. A couple volunteers suggested that they could organize the evacuation better than we could and get stuff out faster. I’m sure they could have. But we were mindful that we would need to put everything back in place and were trying to keep some semblance of order as items were stacked on tables on 2nd floor.

Meanwhile the Library IT staff moved the servers out of the Main Library with the goal of having them operational by evening. They sent out a reminder that in the interim all the Libraries’ electronic resources would be unavailable. We had until noon to save everything to the H or L drive so we could have access to our files from another location while we are evacuated.

At 2:11 PM we received the following email notice: “With the closure of University classes and programs, University faculty and staff are not to report to work effective immediately, unless involved in providing patient care, utilities, security, facilities or other essential services. … Faculty and staff not needed to meet emergency needs should stay away from the campus to assure their safety. Individuals whose work place is closed or unavailable will continue to receive their normal earnings for the immediate period (June 13-22). Additional information will be provided to address any period beyond June 22. During this period of time, those who can perform work at home should do so, or consider volunteering their service to the community to meet emergency needs. Please watch for public announcements as to when University faculty and staff will be asked to return to the workplace.” Course none of us had access to our computers to get this announcement!

At one point we were told we needed to be out by 5PM. Then they heard that the Governor and other dignitaries would be visiting the campus, including the library. Suddenly we were given until 9PM for our evacuation efforts. Par for the course, the Governor and his entourage arrived during a break. No one was working. Everyone was taking a well deserved food and water break. We’d had problems acquiring food and water. The UI Libraries credit card could not be used for food and water. Ed and Paul finally ended up using their personal funds to buy food and drink for our volunteers.

We very effectively used our elevators and stairwells and successfully evacuated all staff (150), over 100 computers, all Special Collections material up to 4-5 feet from the floor, a majority of theses, plus dewey, art, and music books up to 4 feet from the floor and our 16 mm film out of the basement. Priorities were set in storage based on collective knowledge of what might be the least likely to be replaced balanced against how to make the best use of our volunteer labor without running into each other. It was incredible. We worked until 8:30PM. We had several offers for places to stay overnight. We were a little concerned that if we didn’t get home, it might be a while before we could get home. Almost all roads are under water and closed. It took us over 3 hours to get home as we had to go over an hour west (Grinnell) before we could head back to Cedar Rapids. We got home around midnight.

Constantly Changing Picture

Thursday, June 12, 2008

In the morning we were told that there are no current plans to evacuate the Main Library. The Main Library is one of the buildings that they know MAY need to be evacuated at some point because of our location– but we are NOT at that point now nor do we anticipate this today.

In the afternoon we learned that the Corps of Engineers expects the flow to increase and we are under a 5pm Friday deadline for what we need to move from the basement. At this time, we are concentrating on the lower shelves of Special Collections in the basement. Plus we started working with the members of the Preservation and Shipping departments to prepare to move them out of the lower level, if necessary.

Our attempts to organize sandbagging the dock to prevent any flood waters from entering the lower level is having its ups and downs. First we hear we can; then we hear we can’t. The UI is having problems with keeping a steady supply of sandbags. One encouraging note is that the power to the Main Library is on fairly high ground and not in an underground tunnel.

Joel Maxey, Sid Huttner and Greg Prickman worked with teams to move Special Collections materials out of the lower level storage area. Some material was moved to higher shelves; the rest was moved up to the 5th floor study lounge at the south end of the building. Enough staff pitched in to help that the move is completed before the end of the day. The move was accomplished with a combination of human chain to aisle to carts to elevator.

I believe we are all in agreement that if we do a 2nd phase of removing material from the basement, we should wait and make that decision during our 9AM meeting. Ed Shreeves is reviewing a crude list of items in the basement storage and Sid Huttner and Greg Prickman are regrouping/reviewing what is in the special collections area of high value.

At some point we get new high water levels : Iowa Avenue to Burlington Street – 650.5. That’s us! As Gary Grout stated, “Not good news.”

At 5PM, Nancy Baker received word that the Main Library will be closing, Friday, June 13 at 5 p.m. for an indeterminate period of time. All staff members will evacuate by Saturday, June 14 at 5 p.m. Libraries and University officials are re-locating staff to other campus locations for the duration.With so few roads and bridges open, it took us 2 1/2 hours to get home. We are met with the unbelievable sight of our town, Cedar Rapids, under water. Sight seers further delay traffic. It is hard not to cry.

Flood Prep Continues

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Flood Advisory Update: The Linn County Emergency Management Agency has provided the following information to the Chamber for distribution to our members: The 1st, 3rd, 12th, and 16th Avenue bridges are now closed. Bridges on 2nd and 8th Avenues will be closed by 8:00pm this evening. The only way to get across the river will be on the I-380 Bridge or across the Highway 30 Bridge near Highway 13. Mid-American Energy has shut off gas to all businesses and residences in the 100 year flood plain and will soon extend that shut-off to customers in the 500 year flood plain.

As of 1:00 pm, Alliant Energy continues to manage the current flooding and prepare for the forecast increases. Pumps located in the downtown area continue to operate well with the current water levels. However, Alliant is preparing the downtown system (located between the river to 8th Street SE to the east and from the River to 5th Avenue to the south) to operate at higher water levels. With the historic nature and length of the flooding predicted; it is not possible to assure that the downtown system will continue to operate normally. The system is designed to work even when underground vaults are flooded, but flooding could reduce the reliability of the system. As a result, businesses located in the downtown business district are strongly encouraged to initiate their contingency plans for the loss of electric service. If flooding is occurring in a downtown office building, the facility manager is encouraged to disconnect their electrical systems for safety.The city will be starting mandatory evacuations in the 500 year flood plain shortly. As a precautionary measure, if your business falls in between 10th Street east and 10th Street west, you may want to consider voluntarily closing your business tomorrow and Friday for the safety of your clients and your employees. Parking will be severely limited in the downtown area over the next few days.

Businesses are starting to close down to help with filling sand bags.

I send out an email stating: WE NEED YOU TO WALK THROUGH ANY AREAS YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF THAT ARE IN THE BASEMENT AND MAKE SURE THERE IS NOTHING ON THE FLOOR – NO CARDBOARD BOXES, NO COLLECTIONS, ETC. METAL OR STEEL ITEMS CAN REMAIN ON THE FLOOR. I’ve had to haul out wet, muddy, soggy, icky empty cardboard boxes. It is no fun. (More “fun” than full, wet soggy boxes.)

We met with David McClain, Water Utilities Engineer from Facilities Management, to discuss flood levels and options for protecting the Main Library. David brought an elevation map with him and current flood level projections. His figures show us at high risk of flooding. The area of greatest concern is the drain at the bottom of the loading dock. This drain feeds directly to the river. As flood waters rise, water will eventually emerge through this drain. I believe we’re all in agreement that we need to have sandbags in place in the loading dock area and that we need to remove items from the bottom shelves in special collections area in the basement. We’ll finalize plans tomorrow (as much as one can finalize plans in this type of situation!). We have a phone tree and monitoring in place and are working on contingency plans.

Library staff started moving Special Collections bottom shelf material around 1PM. Some items will be placed on top of items on the top shelf; others will go to the 5th room lounge in south area of library. Joel will coordinate and use student help. Based on experience this afternoon, he’ll determine whether to call for additional help tomorrow.

The UI Museum of Art needs 6 volunteers to help move some of the collections out of the Museum as a precaution against the rising river level. Jeff needs helpers with experience in handling objects and/or lifting and moving heavy boxes as there isn’t time to fully train first-timers! Kristin Baum, assistant conservator, volunteered to help.
We buy bought boots for Jennifer on the way home. They are out of Randy’s size.