Preserving the Collection: Disaster Planning, Response & Recovery

 Remember, family treasures including documents, photos, and books may look bad after a flood, but they can be saved! FEMA's Save Your Family Treasures page has links to documents in multiple languages with easy-to-follow explanations of what to do with various items after a flood. https://www.fema.gov/disaster/recover/save-family-treasures

 TX-CERA has a list of resources about salvage - both written and video format - on our website. These are resources we find to be particularly useful and practical.  https://www.txcera.org/resources If you are employed at a cultural heritage institution, please consider filling out this Rapid Damage Response (Incident) Form, which will help us assess what damage has been caused by the recent flooding, and what the most critical needs to be met are: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepyTUNCxr0Y3YERjhzXd87y46h4kg3Qyl0okj3Jliv0_VOWg/viewform Cultural heritage institutions are welcome to reach out to us for advice by email ( tx.cera@gmail.com ) or our hotline ((669)237-2243). We are working to find ways to distribute information about salvaging personal items to a wider audience.

Do fireworks have you thinking about fire safety? Michael Kilby is the Associate Director for Fire Protection at the Smithsonian Institution, and has over 20 years of experience protecting collections from fire. Below are links to two videos: a webinar hosted by AIC & FAIC's Connecting to Collections Care about fire suppression systems, and an interview by Fire Code Tech for a more in-depth view of the position of Associate Director for Fire Protection. C2C Care Fire Suppression for Museums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awi7mQHjyRQ Fire Protection for Museums and Collection Storage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8MoBuc9l8w