March 2012

Hi Scott,

I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you about my experience with my 97 year old great aunt. You see, we were recently moving her from her home in Daytona Beach where she’s been for many years, up the coast to her son’s horse farm in North Carolina. As I’m sure you can imagine, a woman that age has collected a lifetimes worth of cherished memories in the form of pictures, photo albums, cards, letters, keepsakes and collectibles. She also had a couple of china cabinets and a hutch brimming full of cups and saucers and tea pots she has collected for herself over the years and that were gifted to her by family and friends.

The Florida coast gets battered by hurricanes almost annually, it seems. Through the loving kindness of her daughter-in-law Shana, many of the treasures we packed to move with her had been protected and preserved. It seems that Shana had purchased your book, How to Save Your Stuff from a Disaster and, over time, helped my aunt to seal and protect paper mementos against the damages of torrential rain and flooding. She also used museum wax to anchor my aunt’s precious tea cups, all of her framed photos and all of her wall hung photos and art. They were such little, simple and inexpensive things to do but they meant so much to my aunt and gave her piece of mind during the last couple of rounds of storms and high winds.

My aunt now lives slightly more inland in North Carolina but, having seen the advantages of such simple ideas well executed, she insisted on all of the same safeguards when she moved in with her son (my uncle). Of course his wife Shana, being the one who set everything up for her in Daytona Beach, was prepared with wax and wall anchors to do those things again as we unpacked and set her up in her new home.

Your book and your products are wonderful tools. I thank you for helping an old but gracious southern woman keep what is so near and dear to her and to preserve it for her heirs.

Best regards,

Francis

In fact you may be pessimistic about forecasters… they’ve “blown it” and “oversold it” so may times in the past and it hasn’t happened to you yet. But it is a bad bet to assume that some unknown force will prevent all hurricanes. And you can be sure, that when the next big one hits, plenty of folks will be caught napping for just that reason.

Every prediction this year reflects the fact that conditions are perfect for an above-average hurricane season. Warmer water, reduced shear, disaster denial, and budget cuts for satellite monitoring all point to concern. And there are weather patterns that are pushing cold air from the North, dry air from the West and moist warm air from the gulf all converging in the exact same spot. One hurricane can change lives forever. Not only if you are directly hit at point zero, but the indirect losses caused by the disaster (houses and businesses shaken badly, supply shortages, lost business, insurance premium hikes) will have major impacts. Why will your employees come to work if they are concerned about their families?

2011 has already brought record catastrophes:  Many major earthquakes, devastating tsunamis, and radiation in Japan, over 900 tornados in the Southeast, and major flooding on the Mississippi. Why would you expect hurricane season to break this pattern? Yes, hurricanes will come. Several will more than likely be major. Media will show scary pictures. Homes and businesses destroyed, and lives lost. We cannot stop all events. We can predict them and plan for them.

Federal forecasters Thursday May 19^th called for an “above-normal” 2011 hurricane season, with:

1. 12-18 named storms predicted to form in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

2. Of those, 6-10 should become hurricanes,

3. including 3 to 6 major hurricanes, with wind speeds above 111 mph.

Climate factors in this outlook include unusually warm Atlantic Ocean water, with temperatures some two degrees above average, reports Gerry Bell, lead seasonal forecaster at the Climate Prediction Center. Additionally, the impacts of the La Nina climate pattern, such as reduced wind shear, are expected to continue into the hurricane season. The NOAA forecast is similar to earlier predictions by researchers at Colorado State University and the AccuWeather commercial service.

Watch out Florida!

See this video report: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/hurricanes/2011-05-10-hurricane-season-forecast-noaa_n.htm

Here are 3 mega-important Tips

for preparing that

you may not be aware of:

1. Grab n’ Go Box

Get ready to run! Plan ahead what you will take with you. Important docs, photos, legal papers, prescriptions, scrapbooks, creative/intellectual material. Digitally send copies to family and friends in other remote locations or store them online. Have a copy of these essentials in another location (city or state). Keep a camera handy.

2. Insurance

Keep a copy of all insurance papers in another location or on an online back up service. Remember, insurance needs may include water damage and mold or specialty items like fine art or collectibles which are not included in a “normal” policy. You may need additional coverage. Make a call to you agent and find out. Federal insurance programs can be cheap! . Keep a camera handy.

3. Anchor Down Collectibles

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles invented an anchoring wax20 years ago or so to protect fragile collectibles from shaking buildings. But it was found that not only the items were saved but… collectibles become flying missiles in a hurricane or earthquake. Protect your family and pets by keeping things anchored down. Its more likely that you will be harmed by something flying through the air than the roof falling in on you. See “museum Wax” below top photo for videos and more info.

For more information

on protecting and saving your valuable personal items go to www.saveyourstuffblog.com

What goes in the grab n' go kit?

For appraisal questions go to www.faclappraisals.com

For conservation and restoration questions go to www.fineartconservationlab.com

Scott M. Haskins

scott@saveyourstuff.com

805 564 3438

Denying That Hurricane Season Could Impact You?

It’s being reported that the Florida Division of Emergency Management says almost two-thirds of people who live in hurricane evacuation zones didn’t know they would be at risk, and that most people polled don’t have a definite evacuation plan. For the story, go to http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/hurricane-apathy-polls_2010-06-03. I previously reported in my interview of hurricane experts at the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando that there is a consensus from hurricane labs and research centers North to South, East to West that there is a severe hurricane season ahead.

In a personal conversation with Deborah Schuneman, director of the national research center and clearinghouse for Small Business Development Centers, (www.SBDCNet.org) the need for small businesses to prepare and have a plan will make the difference between survival and closing, even if the business is not at ground zero. And including, in that plan, a contingency for saving assets (artwork, intellectual and creative property), company records, employee personal items, legal papers, collectibles and historical material etc can make a huge difference in the result or effectiveness of that plan.

There are ways to protect your personal possessions.

Why are you special? Why can’t bad things happen to you? Have you ever had a near miss or been involved with a disaster, fire, car accident, or major illness? Even if you have never been hit with a disaster, you take precautions: a spare tire and seat belts in the car, insurance coverage, candles-food storage-first aid kit in storage, locks on your doors, an alarm system, fire extinguishers.

3 Hugely Important Tips!

1. A grab n’ go kit with documents, ownership certificates, medical info, emergency contact info, important photos and certificates, videos of contents etc

2. A back up of digitized important info in a separate location

3. Update your records: appraisals, inventory, video of contents, copy new receipts. Think ahead of what the insurance company will ask you for to PROVE you owned something, what it was worth and what condition it was in. DON’T depend on your bank or lawyer to provide you with back up (extremely expensive even if they are able to provide it).

These items can be as easy to put together as getting your location set up for fire extinguishers or alarming your premises… and even more important. These tips may mean the difference in being able to reopen after a disaster has come to your area.

FEMA reports that water damage is the source of more damage than any other disaster. You can plan ahead for these events with very little effort with help from www.saveyourstuffblog.com. Matt Steward, disaster relief community volunteer, wrote home to parents that when he arrived in a devastated area where flooding had occurred in Ohio, “All they had us do was look for people’s memorabilia floating in the water.”

Only two inches of water can put you knee deep in debt

After a hurricane or heavy storm and everyone is safe and accounted for, the biggest reason people mourn after the disaster is for the lost memories, keepsakes, collectibles, photos, family history and things that can’t be paid for by insurance. For businesses, the matter is even more dire: the loss of intellectual property, collections and items that make up the corporate culture can badly cripple the reopening. But there are ways to prepare for the shaking, water damage and mold.

For additional information go to www.saveyourstuff.com

Page protectors can be put into any notebook

A small historical museum asks great questions about archival storage. These are questions and answers that someone at home will benefit from and is very important for a business.

Scott, Hi.  I’m still trying to get a handle on the most effective (but also economical) way to store paper items archivally.

1. Is it OK, for instance, to put paper items in archival manila folders and/or archival poly pages (all acid and lignin-free), but then put those folders and pages in nonarchival hanging files from a regular office supply store?  (I’m hoping so because the archival hanging files are expensive!) Yes, once an item is enclosed, or isolated, away from “regular” or acidic materials in an impermeable material (for instance, acids from paper don’t migrate through the plastic page protectors like they do through a regular paper envelope) then they can be stored in regular office files.2. I could really use a short primer on acid and lignin and how they travel. Acids in paper cause yellowing and embrittlement. The acids are a byproduct of the breakdown of impurities and unstable products in the paper. One of those unstable products is lignin, which is added for the mass production process. I have a 300 year old piece of paper from Italy that is as clean and strong as the day it was made… its in much different condition than the 75 year old paper from the 1930’s I have which is brittle, loosing pieces around the edge, yellowed badly etc.

Once acids are present in paper, then they can contaminate any cellulose material (paper or cloth) and cause it to deteriorate, discolor etc… unless the item has an alkaline reserve! An alkaline reserve in paper is called a “buffer” and it is there to neutralize the acids should the paper be exposed.

Now, here is where maybe I’m getting into the “more than you want to know” category but I think its interesting: some materials can’t, by their nature, be acidic. So, technically, its impossible for plastic and glass to contain acids. If you see plastic advertized as acid free either they are just using buzz words that they don’t understand or they are idiots.

3. Also, for instance, if I move a paper item from a non-archival environment into an archival enclosure, will it stop further acidification? No, cause the acids are created from within the paper, not from without. Once the paper is contaminated, then putting it into an archival folder may isolate it from further contact with other acidic materials but it will still be falling apart from the acids within.

4. And if I move several items (say, 3 ads from the same old brochure) into one archival enclosure, do they all still degrade each other, in

which case they should each be in a separate envelope/folder or bag? Yes, see answer to 2 and 3

Questions submitted by:

Kathie, Hatfield Historical Museum, http://hatfieldhistory.weebly.com

$10 for an archival album from a warehouse-type store

Hurricanes are a big deal… the most violent of weather related natural disasters. The Director of Human Resources at Amgen told me that if a hurricane made a direct hit on their production facility in the Caribbean and shut them down, they would be in a world of hurt. The domino effect would impact businesses all over the world.

So, the question to you is, “Are any of your suppliers or major clients in hurricane country?” What will happen to your company if:

… you stop getting supplies?

… your supply routes are blocked or closed?

… your customer’s businesses are closed?

What are the chances this will happen?

The predictions from the experts over the last few months and from the National Hurricane Conference that I reported to you on previously… will all be updated in June 1^st. The updates will reflect a worsening of the predictions and more pessimistic prognosticators. The experts warn a ‘Hell of a year’ for hurricanes.

Weather Services International said the coastal region from the Outer Banks of North Carolina northward to Maine was twice as likely as normal to experience a hurricane this year.

STORY LINK: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37360717/ns/weather/

And here’s something most people haven’t been talking about: What will a hurricane do with all the oil floating on the oceans? The picture isn’t pretty. This week the BP CEO announced the oil disaster was caused by “an unprecedented combination of failures.” We are about to see “an unprecedented combination of failures” regarding this hurricane season. Both were predictable. The second will impact your business even if you are not located on the coast.

President Obama declared this week, “Hurricane Preparation Week” and Hurricane Season officially starts next week. The past seasons have lulled us into a false sense of security and disaster denial. All forecasts point to an elevated number and severity of hurricanes this year. Probability and risk statistics should not be your key driver. But, “What if?” is the key question to ask this year. Will you be impacted or not, directly or indirectly? If you do not understand all the impacts and don’t have monitoring plans, triggers, and predetermined action plans in place, your business is at risk. Failure to plan places you at personal risk.

For example, supply chains will be the single greatest point of failure for businesses across the U.S. during hurricane season. Do you know who your key suppliers are? Have you reviewed their business continuity plans? What metrics did you use? Do you know the shipping routes used?   You are betting your company on them. Hurricanes will occur. There will be a disruption. Are you ready?

Your greatest tool in helping your contacts, suppliers and customers be better prepared so that your business is protected (against the impact of their losses), is to keep a “Be Prepared” conversation going with those with whom you have personal contact and relationships. Here are five tips to stay present with:

1. Copy important documents, contracts, legal papers and keep the extra copy in another location (another state or on-line)
2. Update appraisals, ownership certificates and insurance policies (and the documentation for those policies) and keep a duplicate copy somewhere else (another state or on-line storage).
3. Can an alternative communication system be implemented (short wave) to stay in contact?
4. A walk through the business with a video camera looking at details and making comments that will be of interest in settling an insurance claim make be invaluable.
5. Consider the value to a company that photos, art, collectibles, awards, antiques etc may have. They make up a corporate culture and some items can heavily influence the asset sheet balance.

Helping your support system in business and functioning will keep you in business and functioning.

For a copy of “How To Save Your Stuff From A Disaster” click now, on

http://saveyourstufffromadisaster.com/productssupplies

More free tips are available at

www.saveyourstufffromadisaster.com

Good news, it doesn’t take all that much effort to protect and save your collectibles, memorabilia, scrapbooks, photos, artwork heirlooms, business project files ( very important intellectual property!). So, here’s a practical example of regretful damage that could have easily been avoided:

Hurricane Damage: The nail pulled out of the wall when there was a little shaker.

Even if you think you have a strong enough wire on the back of your painting, is the eye hook that attaches the wire to the frame solid enough? Even if the artwork’s hanging hardware looks strong, you might have it barely hanging onto a nail on the wall! Even if you think its a good sturdy nail, it could pull out of the plaster wall board fairly easily. In other words, the weakest link will be the one that causes the whole thing to come crashing to the floor… JUST LIKE THIS $25,000 PAINTING! I’ve seen hanging items come off the wall with as little as a sonic boom and playing, rambunctious kids. This damage happened in a public place.If you don’t take care to prepare, then it’s a $1,200.oo repair bill for the painting and another $800.00 for the frame which got badly bashed. But, the good news is, it can be repaired to be invisible… but will a perfectly repaired work of art be as valuable as a virgin, undamaged work of art? If you have appraisal questions, go to www.personalpropertyappraisals.com.

Want to see some magic?!

So, the rip was kind-a ugly: As I said, it ripped when the nail gave way and it fell off the wall… and got uglier when the fibers frayed.

So we turned it over and, under magnification, the fibers were realigned and rewoven. Then the ends of the fibers were “re-welded” back together. The photo on the right is the back of the rip after the “re-welding” and readhering of the ends back together. Nice, huh?

Even though the rip looks great and is now flat, the stress from the impact will result, in the future, in a disfiguring spiderweb or bull’s eye type cracking pattern. So this painting will be lined to keep that from happening.

Quality retouching or “inpainting,” as we say, will be applied only to the area of loss and be very restricted in order to ensure the maximum value and that the originality of the painting is maintained.

This sort of thing is TOTALLY preventable. Is it worth riping a hole in or breaking the glass on grandma’s portrait before you make sure your hanging items aren’t going to come falling down with the smallest tremor?

For a copy of “How To Save Your Stuff From A Disaster” click now, on
http://www.freehurricaneinfo.org/productssupplies/