Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness (Costep)

Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness (CoStEP)

An Emergency Response Framework for the Cultural Community

Meeting MinutesMarch 21, 2008

Opening:

The meeting of the Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness (CoStEP) group was called to order at 10:15 AM on March 21, 2008 in Massachusetts Archives, Boston, by Gregor Trinkaus-Randall.

Present:

Dr. John Warner, Massachusetts Archives; Michael Comeau, Massachusetts Archives; Martha Clark, Massachusetts Archives; Jennifer Fauxsmith, Massachusetts Archives; Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners; Nancy Rea, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners; Beth Wade, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners; Sara Wolf, National Park Services; Andrew Raddant, Department of the Interior; Lori Foley, Northeast Document Conservation Center; Beth Patkus, Northeast Document Conservation Center; Jack Sullivan, Federal Emergency Management Agency; Katherine Griffin, Massachusetts Historical Society; Patricia Bruttomesso, Massachusetts Humanities; Ruth Kowal, Boston Public Library; David Glazebrook, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency; Kate Viens, New England Museum Association; Matthew Siegel, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Lucy Loomis, Sturgis Library, Barnstable; Michael Steinitz, Massachusetts Historical Commission, Mel Klayman, Massachusetts Department of Capital Asset Management; Scott Calisti, Massachusetts Department of Capital Asset Management, Nanci Young, Smith College; Edward Swartz, Massachusetts Information Technology Division

Opening remarks

Dr. Warner welcomed everyone and gave an introduction to the area. He also spoke in his welcoming remarks about a roof leak emergency at the Archives. “People come together, and they do a great job; but it would have been that much more effective if we had a plan… Hopefully, next time I will have the expertise of everyone is this room.”

Nancy Rea, from the MBLC, recalled in her welcoming remarks about her experience with a flood at the Haverhill Public Library that was mitigated with help with the MBLC Emergency Assistance Program.

Overview of Statewide Preservation Activity

Gregor Trinkaus-Randall provided a brief background of preservation and emergency preparedness in the Commonwealth.

1973 – NEDCC was created as the first regional conservation center. In 1981 they added the position of Field Service Director to begin to work with other institutions in the field.

1988 – In response to a number of representatives from libraries in the Boston area (Northeastern University, Harvard University, Boston University, Boston College, Boston Athenaeum, Boston Public Library), the MBLC created the position of Preservation Specialist to develop and implement a statewide preservation program for libraries and archives in Massachusetts.

1989 – In the spring of 1989 a statewide Needs Assessment Survey was distributed to some 1,100 institutions in the Commonwealth to determine the extent of preservation issues and knowledge. 958 institutions responded. One key finding was that greater than 85 % of the respondents did not have a disaster plan in place. Moreover, of the remaining 14.6 %, 6.9 % said yes and 7.7 % said that one was in preparation. We were not able to discover whether these plans really did address the materials or just the evacuation of people from the building, although the responses to lean towards dealing with the collections. The survey results set the stage for the development of the statewide preservation plan.

1989 – National Conference on the Development of Statewide Preservation Plans was held at the Library of Congress with representatives from each of the states and territories. The representatives included the state librarian, the state archivist, a college or university librarian, and the head of a large historical society as well as representatives of the conservation and preservation communities. NEH, Division of Preservation and Access, George Farr, announced that NEH would be making planning grants available for the development of statewide preservation programs. Massachusetts was one of the first three recipients of these grants in May 1990. The plan was to convene a meeting with representatives from as many types of cultural resources as possible. The activities were a joint venture of the MBLC and the Massachusetts Archives.

1991 - Because of his previous activities, the Preservation Specialist continued to offer disaster preparedness workshops open to the staff of all types of institutions from 1991 to the present. In recent years, he has expanded their scope and would be willing to offer them to emergency management personnel as well. On two occasions presentations were made to fire chiefs at the MA Fire Academy in the past.

1992 – Preserved to Serve: The Massachusetts Preservation Agenda was published as a result of the NEH grant. While none of the seven goals specifically addressed disaster preparedness, goals one and two address to the need for preservation education (including disaster preparedness).

1996 – In January 1996, Ms. McDonough, Director of the Massachusetts Historical Commission, assembled a number of people from the cultural and emergency management communities to address the need for cultural resources to be included in the discussions of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery in the emergency management community. The initial result was a conference held at MEMA in May 1996 with representatives of FEMA, NPS, MEMA, DEM, MBLC, MA, and a wide variety of cultural institutions. The conference resulted in the creation of the Cultural Resources Disaster Planning and Mitigation Task Force. The Task Force held two Forums (Stockbridge and Marshfield) to bring the need for these institutions to consider the possibility of a “catastrophic” disaster and how their communities would respond and include the cultural community in the preparedness and response.

1996-present - One of the results of the Conference in 1996 was the invitation to cultural resources to be represented on the MEMT. (Description for those who are not familiar with it.)

1997-present – As a result of our presence on the MEMT, cultural resources were invited to participate on the Massachusetts Inter-agency Hazard Mitigation Committee to bring the cultural resources perspective to issues raised. This has also led to the inclusion of cultural resources in the state hazard mitigation plan.

1998 – In 1996 the New Marlborough Public Library in southwestern Massachusetts burned to the ground. As a result, the Board of Library Commissioners requested of the MBLC staff the development of a program through which the MBLC could respond to disasters in libraries and other organizations in the future. The result was the MBLC’s Emergency Assistance Program that has five components: Training, Supplies, Technical Assistance, Freezing and Drying, and Weather Alerts (subsequent addition).

2000 – In spite of the numerous disaster preparedness workshops conducted throughout Massachusetts, there was still a paucity of actual institutional disaster preparedness plans in existence. In response to a discussion about how to assist more institutions in developing such plans, the NEDCC (with the MBLC as a partner) applied for and received an Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant to see whether it was possible to develop an online disaster planning tool. After several years dPlan: the Disaster Planning Tool was created. It is a series of templates that institutions complete, and once it is completed (the appropriate parts for that particular institution) a completed disaster plan, with a significant amount of background material not initially visible, is printed for the institution. dPlan was launched nationally in June 2006. As of March 14, 2008 there are 1,704 institutions and 2,096 individuals registered. Of these institutions, 224 are in Massachusetts, 206 in Illinois, and 139 in New York.

2003 - In early 2003, Heritage Preservation provided a small amount of funding to groups in Boston, Cincinnati, New York, and Austin to pursue the possibility of bringing together representatives of the cultural and emergency management communities. The object was to begin a dialog to permit each to understand the other’s position and to begin to work together to address the needs of cultural resources in the event of a disaster. In Boston, the Alliance for ResponseForum was held on November 17, 2003 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The morning plenary session was the stage for speakers from each community to talk about the need for this cooperation. The afternoon session was a series of breakout groups addressing specific topics.

2004 - Following the Alliance for Response Forum, the Cultural Emergency Management Team (CEMT) was convened. This group has continued to meet regularly and recently created two sub-committees to address educational/curriculum needs and relations with first responders. Having representation by the NEDCC, MA, MEMA, MBLC, MHS, NARA, FEMA, DOI, NPS, etc. allows the group to consider the concerns of both communities. On December 16, 2006, CEMT hosted another Alliance for Response meeting to bring together another group of interested parties to inform them of the progress that had been made and to spread the word that this was an issue that needed attention.

2006 - Following the impact of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma on cultural resources in the SE, the NEDCC with a number of partners including the MBLC, MA, SOLINET, FEMA, CoSLA, and others applied for and received another IMLS National Leadership Grant to develop a process for creating a statewide preparedness plan for cultural resources. With a national advisory committee and a consultant (Beth Patkus, who was also the person behind the text and format of dPlan), the current draft of the Framework for CoStEP has been generated. This is why we are here today. It should also be noted that the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) has developed its own Framework for dealing with public records and has just received a $2.6 M grant from FEMA to expand greatly on their previous work. The CoStEP work is targeted to compliment the work of CoSA and to expand the coverage beyond public records.

2008- In late 2007, MEMA and the Lieutenant Governor have launched a new initiative called the Massachusetts Recovery Alliance (MRA) on which cultural resources also have a seat as of 2008. In addition, three days ago we held two meetings with public libraries in southeastern Massachusetts to explore possible roles that these libraries could play during and subsequent to a disaster.

Introduction of Attendees

Gregor suggested that the group introduce themselves to see what everyone brings to the table.

Jennifer Fauxsmith, Massachusetts Archives works at the Archives and is on the CEMT committee.

Kathy Griffin, MA Historical Society, noted that she was new to preservation. She said Appendix A seemed geared to state agencies rather than individuals.

Michael Steinitz,MA Historical Commission, spoke about not having an active emergency management plan for all the records that they hold in the Commission’s building which include all the historic places throughout the state. He noted that Katrina was a giant wake up call for cultural institutions. They have maintained records on sites since 1963; there are 80,000 properties, and inventories for 250,000 properties. They are in the process of automating their full records into electronic files for post disaster uses, with mapping.

Lucy Loomis, Barnstable Public Libraries,talked about how the library houses genealogy files and a library and is the oldest library building in the country, being built in 1644. She noted that authorities had just put up evacuation signs, all pointing in the same direction, around the Cape.

Lori Foley, NEDCC, said that they provide emergency assistance 24 hours a day. She is also on CEMT. Lori noted that this is a model for other states and that MA is far ahead of every other state and should be the flagship state.

Beth Patkus, NEDCC, is author of draft and came to listen and learn.

Ed Swartz, MA Information Tech Division, is from the data center in Chelsea that houses all the computer information for the state.

Patricia Bruttomesso, MA Humanities,was there to represent all small historic places in the state, almost all non-profits. She was thinking of ways to spread the information. Due to the fact that her group are small organizations there is a high staff turnover, andmostare volunteers.

Matt Siegal,Museum of Fine Arts, said that he was there to represent the private organizations, which have a very large staff and lots of resources at their fingertips. He wants to try to get private institutions to work mutually with state and agency teamwork.

Ruth Kowal, Boston Public Library, noted that there are 30 facilities that fall under the Boston Public Library. They have to worry about both items and user safety. The staff is driving this dPlanand the emergency response plan to go with this plan.

Elvernoy Johnson, State Librarian, said that she was new to the MA State Library and found it was helpful to fill out the survey.

Kate Viens, NE Museum Association, has 400 museums in the New England and 250 museums in MA. She noted that there is a great disparity between readiness of libraries and museums, and that there were no lines of communication to museums. Due to the educational role of museums, they may have hundreds of school children on a given day. Museums provide communities with their identities. The museums have so many different kinds of collections it is hard to generalize.

David Glazebrook, MA Emergency Management Agency Operations Manager. David noticed a lack of preparedness from MEMA with schools, libraries, and museums. Their roles are much larger than they are given credit for. To evacuate one facilitymay involve 60,000 people. He was present when Baghdad fell and museums and libraries were raided, which took a national identity from the people. MEMA wants to maintain a close relationship with cultural institutions to hone the institutions’ abilities in planning. There are two kinds of emergencies—those you see coming and those you don’t; we have to prepare for both. Libraries are a central point for people to meet.

Mel Klayman, Knowledge Manager of the Division of Capital Asset Management. He is the manager of all state buildings. DCAM is responsible for new buildings and renovations. He noted that they have records of all building plans and energy records. They also have all the licenses for office space. If an agency needed an emergency space DCAM would help get one.

Scott Calisti, State Colleges Manager for DCAM, talked about having a program relocation plan for state facilities.

Jack Sullivan, FEMA. Environmental officer. There are ten regions; he considers himself the envy of the other nine, because they are not close to what we have here with MEMA. They are responsible for coordinating cultural resources, and their role would come into play during a presidential declaration of emergency. It would be impossible to get up to speed with CEMT if had to do himself. He said that he would like to expand the relationship throughoutNew England.

Andrew Raddant, Department of Interior, Office of the Secretary. Eight locations around country. Coordination disputation when there is a threat todepartment holdings. Ranges from small hydropower to CapeWind, oil spills. They work with EPA and with FEMA. He is familiar with ICS. There is a new National Response Framework, ESF-11. Five emergency support functions. USGS, Indian Affairs, minerals mgt., parks, managing mission center to work on impacted properties, of impacted by response issues –where are you storing debris? On a burial ground? They provide support to Corp. of Engineers. Andrew commented that nice work had been done on the document and that “even thought here aren’t a lot of questions I can answer myself, it very much brings home the breadth of what could be involved in a disaster.” Tremendous value nationwide for ESF-11, which is very “Washington-centric,” and oriented on emergency, not on preparation.

Nanci Young, Smith College Archivist, who noted that she was also “representing the western part of state.” The Five Colleges have numerous collaborative groups. She found the assessment sobering. At Smith they thought they had great disaster plan, but there are major holes.

Sarah Wolfe, National Parks Service, said that her organization is responsible for over 29 million artifacts and objects. She had questions about how to answer appendix A, as an individual or asan office. She pointed out the need for follow-up—“you never get to what do you do afterwards.”

Martha Clark, Curator of MA Archives.

Michael Comeau, MA Archives. (On CEMT.) He likened the plan to “being on the first bus.” CEMT trying to identify cultural resources, connect the two groups. He said he has learned a lot at MEMT about establishing relationships. He would like to craft a process-driven deliverable that will help us in a coordinated effort.

Dr. Jack Warner, MA Archives, commented on events after September 11. UMASS held a huge meeting with public safety and the state police; 30,000 students at UMASS Boston had to be evacuated; no one was willing to take the lead, be incident commander. Still called for a disaster plan, and we still have a lot to build on.

Goals

Identify the institutions/groups that should be included:

• Do we have enough people from western MA?
• Department of Public Health-Vital records
• Local Branch of ARMA
• Local government that is not a library-town clerks
• MA Municipal Association (maybe instead of town clerks)
• Tribal/Native American Communities

• Churches
• Mayor’s Office
• SHRAB

Identify the most important emergency preparedness needs of cultural institutions: