Hurricane Sandy

As you know, Hurricane Sandy is significantly impacting the east coast of the United States this week. Federal agencies from Virginia through the New England states will be affected by high winds and heavy rains from this historic storm.

Depending on the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, it may be necessary for your agency to implement a records recovery operation. Water damage will likely be the major records recovery issue. For advice and assistance on records recovery operations please refer to: http://www.archives.gov/preservation/records-emergency/federal.html

There,  you will find a template for contracting for records recovery services: http://www.archives.gov/preservation/disaster-response/contracting-emergency-records-recovery-template.pdf

You will also find a list of records recovery vendors. This list of vendors is provided by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for informational purposes. Inclusion on the list should not be viewed as an endorsement of the quality of the vendor’s services. http://www.archives.gov/preservation/disaster-response/vendors.html

NARA staff members are available to provide additional information and guidance. The following are points of contact for national records recovery and records management advice from NARA:

For advice on records recovery issues, please contact Doris Hamburg, NARA’s Director of the Preservation Programs Division on 301-837-1785 or via email at doris.hamburg@nara.gov or Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler, Chief of the Conservation Branch on 301-837-2906 or via email at marylynn.ritzenthaler@nara.gov.

For advice and assistance on other records management issues arising from the storm, including to report on the emergency destruction of records under 36 CFR 1229.10 or the loss of records under 36 CFR 1230.14, please contact the appraisal archivist assigned to your agency. Please see a list of agency staff assignments and points of contact at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/appraisal/index.html.