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[Note, at the end, the usual comment: "the flood will likely change the way
Parks Canada stores its historical records". Did they not have a disaster
contingency plan?]
Maps from the early 20th century affected in Parks Canada flood
May 15.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Thousands+historic+photos+maps+damaged+Parks+Canada+building+flood/3
031635/story.html
'Thousands of historic photos, maps damaged in Parks Canada building flood' (by
Darah Hansen in the Vancouver Sun).
Parks Canada is taking time out from protecting the wilderness this week
to rescue thousands of historic photos, slides, documents, maps and books from
a major flood in its downtown Revelstoke headquarters. "It has been really
hard," said Marnie DiGiandomenico, spokeswoman for Mount Revelstoke and Glacier
national parks in the B.C. Interior, of the emotional toll of the cleanup.
Dismayed Parks Canada staff arrived at work early Tuesday morning to find
the 6,000-square-foot basement of their leased office space under two metres
(seven feet) of water. The flood badly damaged the parks' huge archival
inventory documenting the cultural and natural history of the area to the early
1900s. "It was underwater," DiGiandomenico said. She credited the quick action
of staff for rescuing much of the historic material.
Thousands of soggy photos and slides -- among them early images of
Glacier House, one of Canada's first tourist hotels, and the construction of
the Canadian Pacific Railway -- were immediately dunked into buckets of cold
water as a temporary method of preservation as they are sorted and hung to dry.
Damaged paper documents -- including historic reports, books and maps -- have
been shipped by the truck load to freezer facilities around the province until
they can be dealt with. "What that does is it buys us time to make a decision
and prevent any further deterioration," DiGiandomenico said.
Parks Canada has since brought in contractors to help in the cleaning and
sorting process. Meanwhile, parks employees have been dispatched to temporary
office space until the downtown facility is restored. Some archival items are
beyond repair, DiGiandomenico acknowledged, adding many paper documents have
been tossed out. But just how much history was lost has yet to be quantified.
DiGiandomenico said the flood will likely change the way Parks Canada stores
its historical records. The cause of the flood remains under investigation by
the office building's management staff.
Tony Campbell
[email protected]
** extract from: 'Latest News' - for the full story see the link above
http://www.maphistory.info/newslatest.html
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