NY State Heritage Response Task Force

New York colleagues,

FEMA and the Smithsonian Institution co-sponsor the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, a partnership of 62 national service organizations and federal agencies created to protect cultural heritage from the damaging effects of natural disasters and other emergencies. The Task Force provides resources to help the public salvage cherished photographs, letters, and other irreplaceable objects:

Save Your Family Treasures

Fact sheet: Salvaging Water-Damaged Family Valuables and Treasures (fema.gov)

Fact sheet: After the Flood: Advice for Salvaging Damaged Family Treasures (fema.gov)

The above two fact sheets are also available in additional languages at Heritage Emergency National Task Force | FEMA.gov.

Please help disseminate this important information before disaster survivors throw their precious, irreplaceable objects away.

Following an event, the Task Force (or HENTF) also helps coordinate response and recovery efforts for arts and culture organizations. Please reach out to your members and constituents to find out whether they are safe and whether their facility and/or collections have suffered damage. They can report back to you (and then please report back to me!) or they can email hentf@si.edu with any reports of damage (and we will report that back to you).

The Heritage Response Team of the Alliance for Response New York City (AFR NYC) is poised to assist cultural institutions and arts organizations in NYC that have been affected by flooding and/or other impacts. Please contact AFR NYC at allianceforresponsenyc@gmail.com.

Also available to assist throughout New York State are the National Heritage Responders. The NHR team – comprising conservators, archivists, collections managers, and other professionals – have been trained to provide salvage guidance when organizations have suffered damage following an event. The 24/7 hotline is: 202.661.8068

Thank you. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Stay safe,

Lori

Lori Foley

Coordinator | Heritage Emergency National Task Force

Office of Environmental Planning & Historic Preservation

Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration | Resilience

Mobile: (202) 826-6303

lori.foley@fema.dhs.gov

culturalrescue.si.edu/hentf

Federal Emergency Management Agency

fema.gov