Salvaging Water-Damaged Records

The records most likely to be salvaged after a disaster are those that have water damage. Several options are available for treating water-damaged records. The steps to follow vary according to the record medium and are described below.
Paper -
When paper records are slightly damp, air-drying (natural drying) may suffice. If records are soaked, they should be freeze-dried, regardless of quantity.
  • Air-drying: To air-dry paper records, hang the paper on lines. You may want to interleave pages with special blotter paper as a preliminary step before hanging the paper.
  • Rooms used for drying areas should have good air circulation and low humidity. Use fans, dehumidifiers and/or air conditioning. Handheld hair dryers (set on cool) may be used to speed drying.
  • Freeze-drying: The most effective procedure for stabilizing water-damaged records and archival materials is to blast-freeze them to a temperature of -20 degrees F, and then dry them using a thermal vacuum process.
Freezing allows time to estimate recovery costs, prepare and coordinate subsequent steps in the drying and recovery operation, and clean up the disaster site. In addition, freezing stabilizes water-soluble materials (inks, dyes, etc.), that may disperse during air drying.
Thermal vacuum drying causes water to pass from a frozen state to a vapor without returning to a liquid form. It reduces stains and removes the odor caused by smoke. Determining a source for thermal-vacuum drying services should be part of disaster planning. It is recommended to use available recovery services which comply with state procurement standards.
Microfilm
- In recovering microfilm or microfiche, speed is essential to avoid the breakdown of film emulsions and the onset of bacterial growth which destroys images.
  • Immerse the film in clean, cold, preferably distilled water. Send the film to a professional laboratory for cleaning. Generally, film should not be frozen because ice crystals may harm it.
Electronic Media -
Off-site storage of backups is the best possible disaster recovery strategy for electronic records. If electronic records on portable media are water-damaged, do not use them until they are thoroughly clean and dry, and their housing or containers have been replaced. This reduces the possibility of damage to equipment, especially for disk drives.