Alachua County Schools
Hurricane Preparedness for School Libraries        home
Your school's media center contains the highest concentration of valuable materials in the entire school.  Even small media centers have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of books, audiovisual materials and equipment within its walls. These expensive materials are very fragile in that water may ruin electronics and will cause mold in books, which will destroy them. For these reasons it is important to make your media center a priority when preparing for possible hurricane damage.  Listed below are suggestions for protecting your school's most valuable assets.
 
Steps to take long before the hurricane comes
1.  Ask school custodians to trim all trees near the media center to prevent falling branches and limbs from damaging the media center and allowing wind and water to enter.
2. Locate sensitive electronic equipment and irreplaceable items away from windows or known roof leaks if possible.
3. Make sure everyone knows that the media center is a priority and must be dried out within 48 hours if flooding occurs.  Mold will destroy your school's book collection, which is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
man working on a roof4.  Put in a work order for any known roof leaks in the media center as soon as you notice them.  Make sure this is handled as a priority case since the potential for expensive damage is very great in the media center.
5. Purchase and store large garbage bags, waterproof sheeting and lots of masking tape.
6.  Identify the location of fans at your school, or elsewhere, that could be used to assist in drying carpets. 
7. Identify carpet cleaning companies who can come in and remove water from carpets when needed.   Make sure everyone knows that this may be required immediately after a hurricane to prevent mold from destroying your school's book collection. Fans alone are not enough if your carpet gets wet.
8. A person should be designated to inspect your media center as soon as the storm is over.  This person should be authorized to call a designated carpet cleaning company for water removal in the media center if the carpets are wet. Ideally a blanket PO should be done in advance for this.  If you are lucky and this PO is never used in a particular hurricane season just cancel the PO after hurricane season is over and spend the money elsewhere.  Doing a blanket PO ahead of time would allow you to have an immediate response, and this is what is needed in libraries and media centers.
 
When a hurricane is approaching
When a major hurricane is expected, the following measures should be taken in every school media center, if possible.trees blowing in a storm
1.  Back up all critical data on a disk or flash drive and take it home with you.  Instruct all your teachers to do the same.
2.  If possible, move critical computer systems and irreplaceable materials away from windows. The safest places are in interior rooms with no windows.
3.  Unplug all computers and other electronic equipment, (except uninterruptible power sources. They will beep if you unplug them.)
4.  *After unplugging them, cover all electronic equipment, (computers, etc.) with plastic and tape it down.  (Large garbage bags and masking tape will work.)   Do the same with irreplaceable materials such as local histories, tapes of important local events, historic photographs, valuable artwork, etc. (If in doubt, cover and tape it.)  The school tech person should also unplug and cover electronic equipment and servers outside the media center .
5.  Computer hard drives should also be at least 2" off the floor, in case of flooding, particularly if your school is in a low area. 
6.  Put all loose papers and small electronic items like digital cameras in covered drawers, file cabinets, closets, etc.
7.  Because of the extremely high value of media center contents it is recommended that windows and large exterior glass doors be boarded up before any "major" hurricane passes over the area.  If this can not be done put masking tape in a repeated cross hatch pattern on any large glass areas.
8.  Video head-end and editing equipment should be unplugged and covered in plastic.
9.  Outside book drops should be brought inside.
10.  Windows should be closed and locked and blinds should be lowered.
11.  In a major hurricane consider removing external antennas and satellite dishes from rooftops since they will likely be damaged or destroyed if left in place.
12.  Use waterproof sheeting to protect unusually valuable shelf areas, (like reference), or those books in particular danger of getting wet.  Cover and tape down sheeting.
 
After the storm
question mark1.  A designated person should inspect your media center immediately after the storm.  If significant damage or water is present the Media Supervisor should be informed as well as the school administration.
2.  If carpets are wet the designated person should call a pre-selected carpet cleaning company immediately to have water removed. Water must be removed within 48 hours to prevent the formation of mold on books. Use several fans, (if there is electricity), to aid the drying process. 
3.  Remove all plastic sheeting, garbage bags and/or masking tape from books, equipment and external glass.  Plastic sheeting may be folded and stored for re-use next year.
4.  Do not plug in or try to turn on wet equipment.  Call Steve Caldwell at 955-6860 for instructions.
5. A media specialist should evaluate damage to books.  Remove water damaged books from thepencil shelves and discard. Record barcode numbers so that you can remove them in Horizon.
6.  A media specialist should also record statistics on damaged books, equipment, furniture, etc. along with costs and items that had to be discarded. A copy of this damage report  should be turned in to the school administration and to the Media Supervisor.
7. If equipment is dry and electricity is restored, undamaged equipment can be uncovered and plugged in again for use.
8. If the media center is undamaged, but the air conditioning unit no longer works, repair of the media center's air conditioners must also be a priority.  Going without air conditioning in the summer will allow moisture to build up in books and will cause mold to begin to grow.

Additional disaster preparedness information can be found on the SUNLINK site at http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/disasterprep/default.html

*Items which are covered and not turned off and unplugged will overheat and the equipment will most likely be destroyed.