Hurricane Ian has strengthened as it moves north-northeastward over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. NOAA is currently reporting that a life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds are increasingly likely along much of the Florida west coast. While the immediate focus is on the Florida west coast – it is important to note that heavy rainfall will spread across central Florida on Wednesday and the Southeast U.S. on Thursday and Friday – likely causing considerable flooding in these areas.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/#Ian
In advance of Hurricane Ian, we remind federal agencies of important records emergency information located at https://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/essential-records, and other useful guidance.
Depending on the damage caused by the hurricane, it may be necessary for your agency to implement a records recovery operation. Water damage will likely be the major records recovery issue. We also have information available to assist federal records managers in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from an emergency.
RECORDS RECOVERY – NARA’s Preservation Division provides information on their website to assist federal records managers in preparing for, responding to and recovering from an emergency.
RECORDS EMERGENCY DISPOSAL – Before agencies destroy contaminated records, NARA approval must be obtained. For more details on this process, see NARA’s information about emergency disposal.
UNAUTHORIZED DISPOSAL OF RECORDS – Federal agencies are required to notify the Archivist of any unauthorized disposal of records in the custody of the agency. For more details about this process, see NARA’s information about unauthorized disposition.
INFORMATION SECURITY – For advice and assistance on issues concerning classified national security information, please contact the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO): 202-357-5250 or via email at ISOO@nara.gov.
ESSENTIAL RECORDS GUIDE – The management of essential records is part of every federal agency’s emergency preparedness responsibility. The Essential Records Guide addresses the identification and protection of records containing information that federal agencies may need to conduct business under emergency operating conditions or to protect the legal and financial rights of the federal government and the people it serves.t
For advice and assistance on other records management issues arising from the storm, please contact the appraisal archivist assigned to your agency. Please see this list of agency staff assignments and points of contact.
Just a thought for added guidance. Not only is record recovery a topic to address with a possible hurricane approaching, so is the possibility of an agencies to retain records related to Disaster Recovery efforts that might be deemed permanent if the storm is catastrophic/landmark in nature. If any agency may be involved in such efforts, they should have this indicated on an approved agency record retention schedule and send a reminder out to staff of this responsibility to retain such records accordingly.