Towards a national disaster response protocol

Since the Florence flood of November 4, 1966, the concept of an organized disaster response for cultural property has been a focus for conservators. In 1976, a decade after the Arno River had retreated from Florence's museums, libraries, and historic churches, a Library of Congress planning conference convened to initiate a U.S. national preservation program. At that meeting Stephen Salmon noted a "glaring . . . lack of preparedness for disaster[s] by almost all American libraries." 1 Now, forty years since that calamitous flood, little has changed in terms of being able to initiate a nationally coordinated plan in the face of calamitous events that threaten cultural property in all collecting institutions. In fact, it is now clearly recognized that only one in five cultural institutions has created an emergency response plan that encompasses collections,2 and it is likely that some or all of these plans will prove ineffectual in the case of a regional disaster. Furthermore, according to meteorologists at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, we now face in the next twenty to thirty years the possibility of stronger, more damaging storms capable of threatening our cultural institutions.3