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Water-Based Emergencies

Water incidents are among the most frequent at the Smithsonian. They may not all be 100-year floods, and some may be minor pipe leaks or effects from a passing storm, but as our infrastructure ages and climate changes, we must all be prepared to respond. Every little action helps move the needle towards a more prepared Smithsonian community. This page is dedicated to sharing resources, knowledge, and experiences responding to water incidents that affect collections.


In the following videos, PRICE members talk about basic salvage and triage techniques for a variety of collection materials that have been affected by water. Each video includes a presentation followed by a hands-on demonstration. There are seven videos: an introductory video and six videos, each dedicated to different types of collections, including textiles, paintings, 3D objects, natural history items, archival materials, and books. The Key Point document below summarizes the important ideas from the videos and links to information on collections emergency kits. As you watch these videos, consider what is in your collection and what supplies you might need if a water event occurs at your facility.

Long-Term Drying Methods

The above videos address how to triage items affected by a water incident, but the job likely doesn't end there. This video is on long-term recovery of collections affected by water (i.e., what to do after the immediate salvage and triage). Depending on the scale of the event, you may be able to handle the long-term recovery of items in-house. Or you may need to contract outside vendors and buy yourself time to respond via freezing, freeze drying, or vacuum thermal drying. This presentation will examine the differences between these techniques and their pros and cons for library and archival materials.

Long-Term Drying Methods

Hurricane Preparedness

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there were 20 weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each to affect the United States in 2021. Of those events, four were hurricanes. The following video is a presentation on the effects of Hurricane Irma in 2017 on the US Virgin Islands (USVI) and the collaboration between the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI) and the USVI government.

Hurricane Preparedness

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