Here is our latest story from a librarian about a disaster that affected the Mario E. Ramirez, M.D. Health Sciences Library at the University of Texas/Harlingen, TX in July 2008.

Interview for “Stories Told”

Name and position title of person telling the story:
Greysi Reyna, Assistant Director, Mario E. Ramirez, M.D. Library
Kathleen Carter, Medical Librarian, Mario E. Ramirez, M.D. Library

Date of the interview:
10/16/2008

(1.) What happened in your community (i.e., what was the disaster/emergency)?

On Monday, July 21, students, faculty and staff at the UT Health Science Center’s Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) in Harlingen received the official word that a tropical storm, named Dolly, was approaching the Texas coast and was tracking toward South Padre Island, less than an hour’s drive from campus. Most importantly, the storm was projected to intensify to hurricane strength prior to landfall, and the RAHC community had only 48 hours to prepare for the storm.

After reaching Category 2 status, Hurricane Dolly made landfall on the South Texas Coast on Wednesday, July 23, becoming the first hurricane to make a direct hit on Deep South Texas since Hurricane Bret in 1999. With some areas receiving over 9 inches of rain and with winds gusts over 75 mph, widespread damage and flooding was felt throughout the Rio Grande Valley. Tens of thousands of households lost power across Cameron, Willacy and Hidalgo counties.

Despite the efforts to prepare the RAHC for Hurricane Dolly, the building sustained water damage that prevented most RAHC personnel from returning to the building until nearly one week following the storm. In addition, the library was forced to operate from the RAHC’s auditorium for one month while the library underwent repairs.

(2.)   How did the library respond? How did the librarian respond? Were there non-traditional (unusual) roles that the librarian performed?

The campus emergency response team, which includes 2 library staff members, called on the campus to begin preparations. Because the Rio Grande Valley is frequently in the path of hurricanes, the RAHC has a well documented Disaster Emergency Timeline for Severe Weather Emergencies. The RAHC Safety Planning Task Force initiated the Emergency Response Plan, and staff of the Mario E. Ramirez, M.D. Library began protecting Ramirez Library resources from the threat of possible wind and water damage, as dictated by the RAHC Disaster Preparation Timeline. While the timeline calls for preparations to begin 96 hours prior to landfall, the timeline was escalated to account for the rapid movement and projected strengthening of Dolly.

While maintaining normal library operations, library staff began removing key print resources from the collection. This included valuable and heavily circulated materials from the general collection along with the entire reserves collection. As part of its hurricane preparedness plan, the library staff routinely place colored dot stickers on the spine of key print resources to help library staff quickly identify, remove and prepare portions of the print collection for storage in the event of a hurricane. To prepare for Hurricane Dolly, this select group of print resources was placed in a secure location on the 2^nd floor of the building along with laptop computers, and other critical equipment. In the event that the facility sustained significant damage, these resources would be used to establish a small functioning library in an alternate location.

The remaining collection was covered and secured with plastic sheeting and tarps. Materials located on bottom shelves were moved to the shelves above and covered. All desktop computers and electronics were unplugged, moved away from windows and doorways, and covered with plastic sheeting for protection.

By Tuesday, July 22, the tropical storm had strengthened. Now a hurricane, Dolly, was expected to strike South Padre Island on Wednesday, July 23 with 100 mph winds. RAHC medical students were dismissed at noon that day, and the RAHC staff was encouraged to rush preparations to completion. The Ramirez Library ceased operations at 3:00pm on Tuesday. Windows were boarded and sandbags were placed at building entrances by the campus facilities crew that worked well into the evening that day.

A building restoration team was dispatched to the RAHC during the storm, when it became apparent that water was entering the building. Unfortunately, much of that water entered the Ramirez Library causing considerable water damage. The good news was that the collection, furniture and equipment in the library had been spared. However, portions of walls and sections of carpeting had to be immediately removed, as the RAHC facilities crew and the restoration team began the process of “drying out” the building to prevent the growth of mold.

With the small collection of books and laptops stored prior to the hurricane, the library staff, with the help of RAHC administrators and personnel, opened a small temporary library in the RAHC Auditorium. The Library staff did their best to ensure that library services would continue, despite the circumstances. Medical students were able to check out and return library materials, access the Internet, and the library’s electronic resources.

Nearly a month following Hurricane Dolly’s visit, staff, students and community users were allowed to return to the Ramirez Library, and library operations returned to normal on Friday, August 15. Repairs to the Ramirez Library were on-going for portions of the facility for nearly 3 more months, and the Ramirez Library finally opened the entire space to its users on October 15.

(3.)  How has the library (or the services provided) changed as a result of these events?

While the library was able to reopen with minimal downtime, many lessons were learned to help staff prepare for future weather disasters. Since Hurricane Dolly, the following adjustments have been made:

·   Librarians have implemented a process for regularly evaluating the print resources that would be removed and stored in the event of a disaster. Labels displaying a hurricane symbol are now placed on the spine of key resources, so they can be easily identified by all staff and stored properly.

·  All full time staff have been provided a laptop and docking station so that important documents can be easily backed up on a portable computer. Staff take their laptops with them when they leave the library prior to the hurricane making landfall.

·  Should the Library have to operate from an alternate location following a disaster, as with Hurricane Dolly, the Library’s ILS software has been installed on several laptops to ensure that materials can be checked out and returned without interruption.

• Following Hurricane Dolly, library staff were prepared to serve their users, but staff quickly realized they were not prepared to continue with their regular duties. While the library had carts full of medical books and laptops, basic supplies like paper, folders, and staplers had been left behind. The disaster preparedness plan now stipulates that office equipment and supplies will be removed and stored as well.

·   Because cell phone service was unavailable during and after the hurricane, maintaining contact with multiple colleagues was difficult. Now, all staff have been asked to place a single call to the Briscoe Library at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio main campus. Staff at the Briscoe Library will be responsible for relaying information to staff about the status of their co-workers and the Library overall.

(4.)   What, in your opinion, are the roles for libraries (and librarians) in disaster planning, response and recovery efforts?

Libraries can share their disaster plans with other agencies, or provide templates for disaster plans. The Ramirez Library has shared its disaster plan with several local libraries and organizations to assist them with developing their own plans.

Before and after a disaster, community members may need help connecting with local resources. The Library can serve as place for distributing information to the community about lodging, drinking water and meals, telephone service, and more!

(5.)  What are your experiences working with emergency agencies, organizations and groups?

Overall, the Ramirez Library has a close relationship with the campus security team.

Designated Library personnel are members of the Security Task Force for the Regional Academic Health Center. This means that library staff members are present for all security briefings and have a voice in the decision-making process.

The Ramirez Library staff learned to work with the campus environmental health and safety team. Library staff were required to cooperate with their directives in terms of when it was safe to return to the library due to the possibility of mold formation. Library staff also learned that the campus emergency response team was quick to institute mitigation services to lessen the amount of damage to the library from moisture and mold.

The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) has its own CERT!  However, theirs is a Collections Emergency Response Team, rather than a Community ERT.  See the AIC-CERT web page for a description of their mission and capabilities.  They are the “Rapid Response Team for Cultural Institutions,” and they specialize in helping out small organizations where there is not enough manpower or expertise to deal with damage to collections.  They have a 24/7 phone number:  (202) 661-8068.  On the website, there is also a brochure in PDF that you can download and print.  Federal funding has provided AIC-CERT assistance to libraries and other cultural institutions in the Midwest this year after the flooding, and now in Texas after Hurricane Ike.

Many thanks to Holly Herro, Conservation Librarian, NIH/NLM, History of Medicine Division, and one of the conservators trained as part of the AIC-CERT project, for the heads-up about this very valuable and relevant resource.  She encourages any Network members, whose collections were damaged by the hurricane and who need help, to call the phone number listed above to reach AIC-CERT.

Click here for updates from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

KHOU TV from Houston is streaming live, continuous, coverage of Hurricane Ike.   The shots of flooding in Galveston are quite compelling and landfall isn’t expected until later tonight.

Heritage Emergency National Task Force, the folks who brought us the “Emergency Response and Salvage Wheel” and lots of other helpful advice and information, has a new page up on their site called Current Disaster Information , which gathers together many resources aimed specifically at dealing with damage from hurricanes and other powerful weather events and natural disasters.  The page also has a section where cultural institutions can submit damage reports and request assistance, along with the capability to view reports/requests already submitted.  Also, look for the free, downloadable “Guide to Navigating FEMA and SBA Disaster Aid for Cultural Institutions,” a little farther down the page.  This is a rich site, and deserves a close look at the many resources they have provided.  Thanks, Heritage Emergency TF!

Heritage Preservation has produced a video that you can view free of charge from its web site, which demonstrates the basics of salvaging water-damaged materials.  They are providing the video in response to the recent flooding in the midwest, and in addition to describing and showing salvaging processes, it notes the things we need to be cautious about before wading in to try and save our collections.  Check out their online Bookstore–they offer a “disaster combo” of their Field Guide to Emergency Response and their Salvage Wheel, both of which are valuable assets to our preparedness resources (see the link to their site in the right side menu).  The DVD which comes with the Field Guide includes the content of the free video plus much other information, even giving tips on how to deal with wildlife which may find its way into your building after a disaster (probe with a long stick before reaching into a dark area…!).  While most of us probably don’t think of ourselves as conservators, the information from Heritage Preservation might at least help us know what NOT to do until the professionals arrive!

From Hardin’s website ...

The Hardin Library reopened at 7:30am on Monday, June 23.   The Main Library remains closed, so some services are currently interrupted:

Interlibrary Loan requests cannot be processed because the server is down.

Smart Search is down because campus utitilites are strained.

Delivery requests for Main Library materials will not be filled as staff do not have access to the building yet.

Information Commons West is temporarily closed to the public.  Evacuated employees are using it as office space.

This message from Mary Wegner, State Librarian of Iowa, was just sent to me by Kathel Dunn, Associate Director, NN/LM Middle Atlantic Region …

Some of you have asked about the effects of the flooding in Iowa on Iowa libraries. Thanks so much for your concern.

What we know so far is that three libraries have been seriously damaged:

Cedar Rapids Public Library’s main building in downtown Cedar Rapids; the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library located in the Czech Village in Cedar Rapids; and the New Hartford Public Library.

Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa, with a population of 120,000. Their entire downtown was completely flooded - hundreds of blocks - by the Cedar River which rose 19 feet above flood level. A photo of the public library standing in what looked to be at least 5 feet of water was heartbreaking.

Details are not yet known about the extent of the damage to the Cedar Rapids Public Library building, or how much of the collection has been lost. Unfortunately, we expect the damage to be significant - the building is only a block away from the river. The Czech-Slovak Museum and Library was able to load significant items from both the library and museum collections into two semi trailers, although many materials had to be left behind. The public library in New Hartford, population 659, lost 80% of its books and almost all of their computers.

Flooding in Iowa City, just 15 miles downstream from Cedar Rapids, was also severe. The University of Iowa campus runs along both sides of the river; at least 15 buildings were flooded. We had a report of two inches of water in parts of the basement of the University of Iowa Main Library in Iowa City, but fortunately flood waters from the river did not reach the library. As you may have seen in the news, there was a “book brigade” established in Iowa City to move books out of the lower level of the main university library building.

About seven additional public libraries (in Chelsea, Creston, Elkader, Iowa Falls, Rockford, St. Charles, and Waterloo) have had water damage ranging from mild to fairly serious. We believe that all of these libraries are now open, and that none of their collections were damaged.

We’ve been in touch with libraries along the Mississippi in southeast Iowa, and so far all report that they are safe.

We were fortunate in Des Moines - the levees mostly held in the two rivers which meet in downtown DM.

We have received many heartwarming stories about current heavy use of public libraries in and near the flooded areas. Several libraries have made special arrangements to add more computer terminals for public use.

This is yet another illustration that people turn to their libraries in a time of crisis - for information, for computers and internet access, and as a community gathering place.

The financial impact of the flooding, which occurred in scores of communities all across Iowa, is expected to be in the billions. 16 percent of Iowa’s 25 million tillable acres of farmland are or have been under water.

We’re posting updates about the flood situation on our Web site at www.statelibraryofiowa.org

Check out NN/LM Greater Midwest Region’s blog, The Cornflower, for the latest information on how the recent flooding in the Midwest is affecting health sciences libraries in that region.

Jacqueline Leskovec, Outreach and Evaluation Coordinator, NN/LM Greater Midwest Region, reports the following:

Hardin Library, University of Iowa, remains open but is off DOCLINE.  (See http://uiflood.blogspot.com/.)

Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids is off DOCLINE and is experiencing serious flooding.

St. Lukes Medical Center in Milwaukee has water damage and their DOCLINE membership has been suspended as a result.

County Hospital in Franklin, Indiana, also had some evacuation.

Columbus Regional Hospital (Indiana) has closed indefinitely.