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FEMA Grant Helps Restore New Orleans' Katrina-Damaged Archives

Release Date: February 3, 2012Release Number: 1603-963

NEW ORLEANS, La. -- The Federal Emergency Management Agencyannounced today approximately $1.7 million in public assistance funding torestore New Orleans Notarial Archives book volumes and historical recordsdamaged during Hurricane Katrina.

As a governmental agency under the jurisdiction of the Clerk of Civil DistrictCourt of Orleans Parish, NONA is responsible for filing, maintaining andpreserving historical documents, land records and other related contracts forOrleans Parish. Pre-Katrina, NONAs volumes were housed in the courtbuildings basement, located at 421 Loyola Avenue. During the storm, thebasement incurred floodwaters, resulting in both water and mold damage tomany of the archives.

Through joint efforts to establish NONAs extent of flood-related damages, it was

determined that approximately 2,136 book volumes were affected by HurricaneKatrinas impact, said FEMAs Louisiana Recovery Office Deputy Director ofPrograms Andre Cadogan. Our recent FEMA grant will help stabilize thesedamaged archives and recase or rebind them as needed so that they can onceagain serve as public documents.

The Katrina-affected materials contain the original evidence of transactionsinvolving land transfers, business agreements, mortgages, estates, agencyrulings and other agreements relating to Orleans Parish properties. The volumes,which date from approximately 1965 to 2005, are critical for use in titleexaminations and serve as a rich supply of primary source materials for historical

research on their period, said Clerk of Civil District Court, Hon. Dale N. Atkins. Iwould like to thank FEMA and the team who worked on this project to obtain itsfunding.

To assist with the process of accurately determining damaged contents, FEMAhired a conservator specialist with background in contents stabilization to helpevaluate NONAs inventory. While more than 2,000 book volumes were found to

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be damaged by Katrina, more than 14,000 records were actually evaluated.

We worked collaboratively with NONA and the state, evaluating thousands ofarchives to make certain that all eligible damages were accounted for andrepresented in this grant, added Cadogan.

FEMAs $1.7 million grant will mainly fund in-house stabilization efforts to restorethe damaged archives, including the funding of a temporary workspace, as wellas equipment, supplies and the associated labor costs necessary for NONA tohire temporary conservation technicians to actually conduct the work. These in-house stabilization measures will minimize the disruption of service of therecords.

Other project costs funded through FEMAs grant include the limited outsourcingof 51 volumes and the recasing of 1,885 volumes, where the extent of workcannot be best performed in-house.

When FEMA approves projects through its supplemental Public Assistance grant,the funds are made available to the Governors Office of Homeland Security &Emergency Preparedness, who disburses them to the applicant for eligible workcompleted.

The Public Assistance program works with state and local officials to fundrecovery measures and the rebuilding of government and certain privatenonprofit organizations buildings, as well as roads, bridges and water and sewerplants. In order for the process to be successful, federal, state and local partnerscoordinate to draw up project plans, fund these projects and oversee theircompletion.

FEMAs mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as anation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare

for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.