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Freezing Saves Tennessee County’s Water-Damaged Records

August 24, 2010

Recent events in Johnson County, Tennessee, show that quick action and use of advanced recovery techniques can save paper records for future use. In this case, the water damage was caused by a broken water line that flooded the basement in which the records were stored.

Quick action resulted in 230 hours of staff time devoted to removing the documents and 50 docket and ledger books from the water-soaked boxes and putting them in dry boxes. Those boxes were then transferred to Nashville, where they were placed inside a commercial cold storage facility.

In a recent article in the Johnson City Press, Steve Richards, co-owner of a records storage and recovery facility in Nashville, said, “Once a document is wet you only have hours – less than 100 – to stabilize it. The only way to stabilize it is to blast freeze it. ... That’s taking it to minus-20 degrees.”

The records recovery is not yet complete, however. The records will have to go through a freeze-drying process, in which the records will be placed in a specialized chamber where they will be vacuum-sealed and the moisture extracted into a gas form. This will return the records to a usable state.

It is important to note that extraordinary measures needed to recover damaged records do not come inexpensively. Costs for the recovery of these records could total as much as $50,000. Staff time has been needed to rebox the records and prepare them for freezing, and transportation expenses will be incurred for shipping the records to Texas for the freeze-drying process.

While it is valuable to know that water-damaged records can be recovered when needed, it is also important to note that proper storage of these records initially could have prevented the disaster. Basements do not provide the optimal temperature and humidity conditions that protect records from damage. And, as this story shows, basement locations are easily flooded.

ARMA International’s publication Records Center Operations, 2nd Ed. provides guidance for storing inactive records in ways that will protect the records from unintended damage.

Diane Carlisle, CRM

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Records Management