NEWSPAPER LIBRARY DISASTERS: FLOODS
Unrelenting rains for almost a week in late September, 1986, devastated much of Lake County, Ill., drove hundreds of people from their homes, and caused property losses for businesses, public buildings and schools. The loss of five lives and damage estimated in the millions caused the county to be declared a disaster area.
Though the News-Sun building in Waukegan was not affected by the torrential rains, its employees raced back and forth, morning after soppy morning, in rain gear that was fast becoming second skin. Many hours of reporting, editing and research was done by the staff. The copy generated and the number of pictures taken was mind-boggling. It was at this point that we declared the News-Sun Library a "disaster area" because we were "drowning" in work.
A sense of humor and good organization were essential. One reporter yelled to us, "Town X has been declared a disaster area!" The reply: "Before or after the flood?"
In the library, our plan of attack was to process and file all pictures and stories as soon as they came off the press. Because quick access was important, we filed all material and left it in baskets on the counter in the library. Two weeks later, we finally filed them in the filing cabinets. Cross-filing under each city, town, burg, school district, public building or business that suffered major damage was completed. Several general categories needed complete files on the flood. The processing took hours.
After it became apparent that the News-Sun Library was going to escape damage, we realized that we lacked important data: flood and disaster aid information, flood statistics for the area and a disaster plan for our library.
This is a geographical area in which disaster statistics tend to deal with subzero temperatures, record amounts of snowfall, and tornado sightings. We had little informaiton on floods. Material on the last big flood that had occurred 20 years previous was scanty. Flood disaster aid informaiton needed to be collected from various departments around the county. Information from the Illinois Transportation Department, Division of Water Resources, and the Lake County Health Department, had to be processed and filed.
Our local radio station was "drowned" out and off the air for almost three days. Consequently, our newspaper provided most of the local coverage, although the Chicago media covered some of the more sensational flood stories.
At present, we have remedied some inadequacies, but it is like bolting the barn after the horse has fled. We have a collection of informaiton on floods in general and a wealth of statistics on the "Great Flood of 1986." We have an index to the microfilm that will be available for future reference, and our clip files are easily accessible to anyone who is researching the flood.
What we do not have is a disaster plan in the event that we were to have flooding in our library. The thought of having to dispose of valuable, irreplaceable, water-logged newspaper clips and pictures is a painful one.
The rains finally stopped. The water receded. Like all good swimmers, we have bobbed back to the surface and are back to calmer conditions in the library. In the future, we will have to give thought to outlining a disaster plan of action for our newspaper library or, at the very least, acquiring a couple of life jackets and some K-rations.
| JoMC Library | UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication | UNC Homepage |
This page was created by Barbara P. Semonche and Sheila Denn. It was last updated May 1997. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to contact Barbara
here.