Heritage Emergency National Task Force
Hurricane Ike Conference Call
October 23, 2008
Larry Reger of Heritage Preservation convened the call and requested updates on hurricane damage by state, as well as information on current funding and response initiatives.
FEMA UPDATE
Alan Aiches, Historic Preservation Specialist at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), stressed the importance of filing a Request for Public Assistance (RPA) application with FEMA. He urged Galveston-area cultural and arts organizations to contact FEMA to get the aid process started. FEMA needs to be alerted to the damage in order to help. FEMA’s filing deadline in Texas for Hurricane Ike is November 11, 2008, and the deadline for the Small Business Administration (SBA) is November 12, 2008.
Aiches emphasized that potential applicants should not assume there will be a deadline extension, but should file their applications as soon as possible. Filing an RPA puts an organization in the FEMA system, at which point a project officer will be assigned to assist with obtaining aid. Aiches also reminded everyone of FEMA’s new animal replacement policy for living collections. The policy has been integrated into the Guide to Navigating FEMA and SBA Disaster Aid, which is available at www.heritagepreservation.org/federal/Index.html.
STATE REPORTS
Texas. Gloria Meraz of the Texas Library Association reported that Texas Humanities convened a Hurricane Response Taskforce to assess the status of cultural organizations in the state. It includes representatives from state cultural agencies and associations. The taskforce has found that museums seem to have suffered the most damage overall, with a smaller amount of damage to libraries. Many museums did not have complete inventories before Hurricane Ike, so they are working to identify what specific holdings have been damaged. Registrars from Houston may assist with this process.
Peggy Rudd of the Texas State Library added that thanks to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Library has been able to carry forward $200,000 of its fiscal year budget in order to help public libraries recover from hurricane damage. An application is available at www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/funding/responds/index.html, and Library staff are available to answer questions about the funding.
Jeff Durbin of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation gave a report on the state of historic structures based on a recent visit to Galveston. Overall, historic buildings fared better than newer construction in Galveston. The main Galveston Historical Foundation building received five to six feet of water and all the organization’s records held there were lost. At another historic building also owned by the Galveston Historical Foundation, a biocide is being injected into the plaster to halt mold growth. The 1877 sailing ship ELISSA received minor damage from the storm, but its dock was ravaged and this will hurt the operation as a whole. The Texas State Historic Preservation Officer has deployed teams to help with further assessment of damage to historic structures throughout the state.
Larry Reger ended the call by suggesting that further communication be conducted via email, and this was agreed upon. Alan Aiches of FEMA and Frank Adinolfe of SBA provided their contact information in case anyone has any questions for them:
Alan Aiches, FEMA Historic Preservation Specialist
202-646-2617, Alan.Aiches@dhs.gov
Frank Adinolfe, SBA Office of Disaster Assistance
202-205-6734, frank.adinolfe@sba.gov
