The State Library of Louisiana and Public Libraries Response to Hurricanes: Issues, Strategies, and Lessons

Transcription

1 Public Library Quarterly, 30:40 53, 2011 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: print/ online DOI: / The State Library of Louisiana and Public Libraries Response to Hurricanes: Issues, Strategies, and Lessons REBECCA HAMILTON State Library of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA This article is about how Louisiana s public libraries and its state library worked together to respond to and prepare for natural disasters, specifically hurricanes. In the process, we demonstrate the essential nature of libraries. Libraries play an essential role in immediate recovery after a disaster as well as in long-term recovery. No one can downplay the reality that through the last half decade, no set of libraries has experienced anything approaching the natural disaster induced challenges to their essential character as have the public libraries of Louisiana. This article focuses on public library response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the organizational follow-up within the State Library of Louisiana. KEYWORDS Louisiana public libraries, State Library of Louisiana, essential role of public libraries, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, disaster preparedness, public library response to Katrina, floods LIBRARIES ARE ESSENTIAL If libraries needed any added incentive for disaster preparedness, we can find it in a quotation from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to Cameron Parish Library. Commenting in 2006 on why FEMA gave so little help to libraries during the hurricane disasters in Louisiana, FEMA declared simply: Libraries are not essential services. 1 Received: 08/10; Accepted: 09/10 Address correspondence to Rebecca Hamilton, P. O. Box 131, Baton Rouge, LA rhamilton@crt.state.la.us 40

2 Public Libraries Response to Hurricanes 41 If one believes that libraries are not essential services, then there is no need to read further in this article. This article is about how Louisiana s public libraries and the State Library of Louisiana have been working together to demonstrate the essential nature of libraries, especially during and after a disaster. No one can downplay the reality that through the last half decade, no set of libraries has experienced anything approaching the natural disaster induced challenges to their essential character as have the public libraries of Louisiana. Nearly everyone has heard of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation that it brought in 2005 to the State of Louisiana generally and more specifically to the state s public libraries. Less attention has been paid to the fact that Katrina was followed quickly by Hurricane Rita, and what has happened in public libraries and their preparations for the next disaster. This article focuses on that subject: on public library response to the hurricanes of 2005 and the organizational follow-up within the State Library of Louisiana. BEFORE THE STORMS In August 2005 I had been Louisiana s state librarian less than two months when Hurricane Katrina struck southeast Louisiana. While Louisiana had been through many hurricanes before, we were not prepared for anything like Katrina or Rita. The aftermath of those storms caught us unprepared. Katrina Hurricane Katrina made landfall August 29, 2005, hitting Southeast Louisiana. On the Sunday before Katrina made landfall, as I was occupied with state emergency preparedness meetings, my deputy state librarian and information technology (IT) staff went into the State Library to shut down all the computers, close doors, and batten down the hatches as best they could. State employees were told to stay home for two days until further notice. That was the extent of our preparations. The State Library had been through this before and nothing had happened. The sky was blue all day without a cloud in the sky. By Monday we thought that although the southeast part of the state had sustained major damage to libraries, homes, and businesses as well as tremendous power outages, we had for the most part dodged the bullet again. The State Library lost power and had some roof damage but no materials or equipment were lost. It was about this time that we began to get state reports and to hear news reports about major flooding in New Orleans. These reports quickly turned into the harsh reality that the levees had failed and New Orleans was slowly being submerged in water. It was a surreal moment for me personally. The feeling that I got seeing this unfold on the

3 42 R. Hamilton news is indescribable, and I can remember it to this day. You know the rest from CNN. When we were allowed back into the State Library on Thursday, we immediately pulled together a task force and made a list of tasks we needed to accomplish. Reference and IT staff members created a Web site of resources for evacuees. Our library development division got on the phone and began calling all libraries south of Interstate 10 to determine specifically what their situation was and under what conditions they were operating. We were unable to get in touch with anyone. Only on our Blackberries worked; cell towers and landlines were mostly down. We had a few library directors home and cell phone numbers and we tried these. We started a spreadsheet of libraries and their status. Our Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped staff got on the phone and started trying to call their patrons in the southern part of the state. Communications were less than sporadic for several months with even landlines not working very well. I put out the call to my fellow State Librarians for computer donations, to which they responded quickly. Book donations began to come in from all across the nation. We were fielding calls from concerned librarians and citizens asking how they could help. As a state agency we could not accept monetary donations to give to the public libraries, so we set up a donation account through the Louisiana Library Foundation so that we could accept donations on behalf of the damaged public libraries. We posted all of the information we had on our Web site, and the support from the entire country was tremendous. Rita Less than a month after Katrina, while we were routing books and computers to the libraries that were open and serving evacuees, including libraries in the southwest part of the state, we found out that Hurricane Rita was coming toward southwest Louisiana, where thousands of Katrina evacuees had fled. The September 24 storm had been a Category 5 and the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, although by landfall it had become a Category 3 storm. Throughout the southwest part of the state, libraries prepared and citizens evacuated. One library director drove her bookmobile with all of the library s computers to the parking lot of another library farther north. This director lost four of her five library buildings to Rita. Ironically, these libraries were where we intended to store book donations until they could be placed in the southeast libraries we had just not gotten them there yet. Had we moved them, they would have been lost as well. In the days after Rita, we discovered that three unaffected library systems in the middle part of the state had no Internet access. Their T-1 lines ran through the main branch of the Calcasieu Parish Library in Lake Charles, which was without power for almost three weeks. We located the facilities

4 Public Libraries Response to Hurricanes 43 manager of that library at his son s house in Memphis and began the process of trying to get a generator into the library when we quickly realized there would be no one to keep it filled with fuel. In addition, it also raised all sorts of liability issues. Meanwhile, we contracted with a wireless Internet company to try to install satellite dishes in the three parishes with no Internet. They were only able to get one library up and running one that had no branches. The parishes that had branch libraries were never able to get the satellite to work properly. This was unacceptable to me and I vowed that we would never be in this position again. In addition to the massive destruction that southwest Louisiana suffered, including the tremendous loss of homes, businesses, and libraries, Rita also caused additional flooding in New Orleans; and parishes all along the entire coast of Louisiana were affected by the storm surge. AFTER THE STORMS Immediately following the storms, one-third of the public libraries in Louisiana were closed. Through the hard work of dedicated state library and public library staff statewide and supporters across the state and the nation, libraries began to reopen immediately. We learned some critical lessons from these storms. 1. Existing emergency plans were inadequate. 2. Business (i.e., library service) continuity both how to keep the libraries open immediately after the disaster and how to maintain the continuity of library business was not a feature of prior public library disaster planning. 3. Traditional lists of staff home phone numbers or other electronic contacts were inadequate. Landlines were down and communication was effectively cut off. Additionally, we learned what was perhaps the most important lesson of all the lesson of community expectations. The striking fact was how, during the disaster, people turned to libraries. I believe that people came to libraries because it is embedded in our psyche that libraries are safe and that people there will assist you. Even people that had never been library users came to public libraries. One statistic is particularly revealing: Even though 35 percent of our public libraries were closed, our overall number of visitors was down only 1 percent, indicating that citizens continued to seek essential library services. After the disaster, citizens turned to public libraries because they thought of them as communication hubs and sources of critical information.

5 44 R. Hamilton Citizens were filing insurance claims, filing for FEMA, using to locate loved ones, looking for recovery work, and, in many instances, just seeking refuge in a safe place. At the State Library, we recognized that we had to provide support and direction. The public libraries looked to us to provide moral support and advice and to help contact state and federal agencies for help. Disaster response was tremendous but differed from parish to parish. We were searching for ways to standardize the response so that we could identify best practices and help the libraries meet the needs of citizens as they attempted to find relief after disaster conditions had ended but with disorganization and uncertainty still prevailing. In this setting, it was clear that libraries needed to be part of state and local disaster planning and solutions, not just part of the short-term recovery. STATE LIBRARY RESPONSES The State Library The State Library responded in the following ways: The State Library of Louisiana quickly dedicated an area of our Web site as a central place for information pertaining to disaster recovery, up-to-date resource information, and information about the affected parishes to be used by librarians and citizens. The State Library managed and distributed thousands of donations of money, books, and materials. We also negotiated significant discounts from vendors, securing continuation of critical services despite financial hardship. We requested, received, and distributed about four hundred donated computers and laptops. These were distributed to public libraries that were assisting thousands of evacuees as well as hurricane-affected libraries. We facilitated the donation of four bookmobiles/temporary facilities for areas where libraries had been destroyed. We worked with First Book to help that group distribute 1.5 million new books to schools and libraries in Louisiana. As a result, we were presented with the First Book Hero Award. We worked closely with SOLINET (now Lyrasis) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to secure funding for temporary facilities, tech mobiles, staff, and materials for the hurricane-affected parishes. Through this effort, more than twelve million dollars has been distributed to public libraries in Louisiana and Mississippi. Because some libraries could not accept donations on their own behalf, the State Library set up a donation opportunity through the Louisiana Library Foundation (LLF). Donors could provide the LLF with a letter

6 Public Libraries Response to Hurricanes 45 explaining to which parish they wanted the money directed. More than $75,000 in private cash donations was distributed to the hurricane-affected libraries through this program. We worked closely with the American Library Association (ALA) to provide critical recovery information to ensure that their annual conference was held in New Orleans as scheduled. This conference brought 15,000 visitors to the city during a five-day period and was the first major convention after the storms. Other Actions Continually reminded state and local government officials of the role public libraries played in assisting evacuees. Solidified the notion that libraries served as front-line responders. Paired affected public libraries with organizations that wanted to adopt a library. Prepared a booklist for children affected by hurricanes. Topics included adapting to change, moving, new school, reassurance, courage, friendship, sadness, loss, resilience, hope, death, and death of a pet. Organized the receipt and storage of interlibrary loan materials that libraries outside Louisiana were trying to return to libraries in affected areas. Solicited vendor discounts for affected libraries. Both Gale and EBSCO offered access to a variety of databases for public library use. Additionally, 3M offered six kiosks (sturdy computers that can be set up in malls, bus stations, etc.) for public use, and Tutor.com offered several libraries a subscription to their online tutoring services for the remainder of the fiscal year. Both OCLC and SOLINET discounted services and credited funding back to the libraries. Established back-up Internet access for libraries. Sent one librarian to FEMA headquarters for two days to assist with reference, information gathering, and explaining Louisiana infrastructure to FEMA representatives. Worked to identify blind and physically handicapped users who were displaced or no longer able to receive books on tape Took over answering inquiries sent to Ask Louise. Ask Louise is a Web site on the state government home page that allows anyone to ask a question about state government services; it is not generally staffed by librarians. We routed all inquiries to this site to our Louisiana Department and they answered all incoming questions. Hosted New Orleans Public Library and Internet servers until they were ready to take over operations. Provided temporary office space to Office of State Museum staff, New Orleans City Park staff, and New Orleans Public Library staff.

7 46 R. Hamilton RESPONSES OF INDIVIDUAL PUBLIC LIBRARIES Traditional disaster planning was often inapplicable. The focus had to be on business continuity rather than on preservation of collections. Information was the critical need during the emergencies. Lon Dickerson, director of the Jefferson Parish Library, wrote an article titled Building from Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina for Alki: The Washington Library Association Journal (March 2006, 22:1, pp. 16+). Mary Cosper-LeBoeuf, director of the Terrebonne Parish Library, wrote an article titled Ill Winds: Hurricanes and Public Libraries Along the Gulf Coast for Public Libraries (May/June 2006, p. 58+). These articles explore the following: Most libraries increased their hours, remaining open late into the evening, and opened specially on the Labor Day holiday. Libraries around the state issued library cards to the evacuees, allowing people to check out books and magazines and to use library computers. Library staff visited shelters, bringing books and magazines for evacuees to read and presenting story times for the children at the shelters. At the libraries, meeting rooms were turned into computer rooms. As many computers as possible were added throughout the libraries to give evacuees access to the Internet. Evacuees checked Web sites to locate other members of their families, checked their , filed for insurance, and filled out FEMA forms online. Staff were on hand to help those who did not know how to use a computer. In some libraries, staff even provided food and drink to the evacuees waiting to use their services. Several directors commented that their staff acted as a sounding board for people to talk about their experiences, letting evacuees talk as long as they wanted and just listening. Libraries in Louisiana also welcomed workers from out of state to use their computers and materials. Even FEMA workers flocked to the public libraries to use the computers. FEMA set up shop in one public library after recognizing that this was where evacuees were coming, which was ironic given the statement from FEMA to Cameron ParishLibrary: Libraries are not essential. At libraries whose physical facilities were affected by the storms, the directors and their staff worked tirelessly to get their libraries up and running for residents returning to their homes. In addition, many of the staff lost everything, including their own homes. At Washington Parish Library, the director worked with local officials and the National Guard to remove the very large tree that destroyed the headquarters eventually, it was removed courtesy of the local paper mill that sent their large crane and paper-mill employees to cut up the tree and lift it out of the building.

8 Public Libraries Response to Hurricanes 47 The Jefferson Parish Library director returned to the main library on the day after Katrina, and did not leave, setting up generators and camping out in the library with other members of his staff as well as parish officials. They worked not only to assess the damage to the libraries, but also to help other agencies in the parish, even to the extent of distributing food for the Red Cross, and cooking at the library for parish employees. The entire staff worked many long hours, beginning the long process of cleaning up the libraries. The New Orleans Parish Library staff hit the ground running, immediately setting up an online blog for library employees to check in and let everyone know where they were and that they were okay. The State Library had been hosting their Web site since Katrina, and several employees used part of an office at the State Library. They also immediately contacted the Munters Company to remove and stabilize the irreplaceable City Archives from the basement of the Main Library. The Plaquemines Parish Library at Belle Chasse was used by parish officials during Katrina, with the field across the street from the library used as a helicopter landing site. The library reopened its doors within a few days of the storm, setting up computers for anyone to use, even though the building suffered significant damage during the storm with seven skylights blown off. As soon as the staff was allowed back in the parish, they came to work and immediately began to clean and remove water-damaged books. They even pulled up water-soaked carpet, and the director was on the roof helping nail down plywood to seal off the skylights. The St. Bernard Parish Library director immediately began to work with FEMA and parish officials to determine what would be done with the library, which was under water. The roof of the Golden Meadow branch of the Lafourche Parish Library was blown off during Hurricane Katrina the staff quickly removed the books and furniture to another building. During Hurricane Rita, that building was again badly damaged. The Terrebonne Parish Library staff worked tirelessly to help the thousands of refugees who evacuated to the parish, filling their meeting room with computers and having many staff there to help. They went to the shelters several times each day, bringing reading materials and presenting story hours for the children. After Hurricane Rita, they also had to rescue whatever books and materials they could from two of their branches, which were destroyed. The Vermilion Parish Library had much the same experience as the Terrebonne Parish Library. After Hurricane Rita, two of their branches were destroyed and another was badly damaged. Library staff went to these branches as soon as possible to assess the damage and to salvage whatever materials they could. Again, some of the staff s homes had been destroyed or badly damaged from Rita.

9 48 R. Hamilton Calcasieu Parish was an evacuation center for many people from Hurricane Katrina who then had to evacuate for Rita. The library lost one branch building, and all are now open again. GUSTAV AND IKE: THE TEST Four days before Hurricane Gustav, we activated the State Library emergency plan. We linked up the library s disaster Web site, posted a link to the governor s emergency site on our Web site, and created a blog to be used by any library in the state needing to disseminate information about its status, damage, or staff instructions. This turned out to be heavily used. We moved some materials to the interior of the building and covered the stacks near the windows in the special collections area. We updated our list of contact information. Those of us with Blackberries made sure we had staff PIN numbers entered in case regular cell service was not available. We had a new head of IT and had just installed the backup server in Monroe, Louisiana, the week before Gustav and had made major improvements to our IT infrastructure. Generator Power: Critical Systems Were Tied to Backup Generators In preparation for the 2008 hurricane season, the IT department had two new AC power circuits run to our server room with two APC brand uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) plugged into each circuit. These new circuits were linked to the building s backup generator, which previously ran the security system and lighting only. Because of this, when 95 percent of Baton Rouge was without power and nearly all of state government was without Internet and , the State Library never went down. Servers: State Library Servers Were Equipped with Redundancy Systems with Interchangeable Components We upgraded and replaced a number of core servers on our network. In doing so, we purchased industry standard Dell 2950 servers with plenty of redundancy and made sure the servers had interchangeable parts in them. This was to ensure that if a core server went down we could use a noncritical server s part to get the core server back up and running without delay. One wall of our server room is entirely glass and faces south. We unplugged the second (redundant) power supply from each running Dell server during Hurricane Gustav in case the first power supply failed. We unplugged less critical servers and stored them in a different, more secure, section of the building. Had we lost our server room, we could recover core services without having to overnight new servers or parts.

10 Backups Public Libraries Response to Hurricanes 49 Multiple backup devices were created and stored in several different physical locations. We used both backup tapes and inexpensive external hard disk drives for backups in case we needed to restore lost systems quickly. These backups were kept in three places: a fireproof safe onsite, on the second partition of each core server, and at an offsite location. We covered all possible areas within the server room in plastic in case of window breakage so water damage would be less likely to destroy servers running critical services. We also located a backup server in a safe location farther north. Backup Server The State Library had long had a backup DNS (Domain Name System) and database authentication server in Vermilion Parish, which is southwest of Baton Rouge and in the hurricane zone. When I was appointed state librarian I wanted to move this server to the northern part of the state, but we didn t get this accomplished prior to Katrina. After Katrina we worked out an agreement with Ouachita Parish Library in Monroe, Louisiana; we would pay for a portion of their Internet connection in return for hosting a State Library server. Luckily, we had just installed and brought up the server the week before Gustav. This site remained functional throughout both Gustav and Ike. Disaster Web Site: Immediately Brought Up and Publicized a Pre-prepared Disaster Web Site Within seventy-two hours after Katrina, the State Library brought up a Web site of useful links for evacuees and libraries. Later, we revised the site and we initiate it any time an emergency takes place. There are four parts to the Web site: 1. General disaster planning links 2. What you need to know immediately before the emergency (e.g., links to road closings, shelters, evacuation routes, etc.) 3. Links to assist after an emergency (e.g., links to FEMA, food stamps, locate relatives, etc.) 4. Links for long-term recovery. We continually maintain parts one and four and only use parts two and three if needed.

11 50 R. Hamilton Wireless Access Staff boosted our WiFi power, providing Internet access to state officials. For five days after Gustav, downtown Baton Rouge (including state government headquarters) was without power. Fortunately, library staff are especially creative. One of our network administrators who lives near the State Library (and who was himself without power) came in and put an additional router in the front lobby of the library. This not only allowed the public, state workers, and emergency personnel to access crucial Internet sites for rapid response from our parking lot, it also allowed our network administrator to be able to work on our network via wireless communications from the safety of his home. We had state officials parked in our parking lot and on the street accessing our wireless. Even though we were without power, we opened the State Library to the public on the Friday after Gustav when everything else in downtown Baton Rouge was closed, including all of the public libraries in the parish. We extended our network so that we could run fifteen laptops off a portable generator and even had a portable air conditioner that we borrowed from the neighboring Louisiana State Museum. These are the high points on how the State Library stayed up and running throughout Hurricane Gustav. However, the most impressive thing that was done was the preparation just in case our building was leveled. Thankfully these preparations were not needed, and we remained operational the entire time. Recommendations for State Library Agencies Keep one living document to track information from different libraries, listing who provided information, who received information, and the date. Put someone in charge of keeping the information up to date. This is critical to provide information to lawmakers who are in a pinch and looking to provide disaster relief to specific areas. Choose a spokesperson to deal with ALA (who will field inquiries) and perhaps an additional person to post to the national electronic discussion lists on a periodic basis. Recommendations for Public Libraries in Preparation for Disasters Have a written disaster plan and procedures in place. Concentrate on business continuity rather than collections recovery. After an emergency, the value of libraries lies in their ability to connect patrons to loved ones, help them find information, and establish some normalcy in their lives. While books are important, in the immediate aftermath these other services take on a much higher priority.

12 Public Libraries Response to Hurricanes 51 Begin updating personnel records and contact information three to six months before the official start of hurricane season. Have copies of insurance policies available. Know where to find staff time sheets and payroll information. Have copies of disaster recovery services contracts and/or memorandums of understanding available. Have a detailed inventory of library buildings, collections, and furnishings, with photographs of the libraries before any storm. Bring all of these items with you when you evacuate and/or leave your library building. After the Disaster Take detailed after pictures and keep them available. Prepare a list of major needs, with cash donations at the top of the list. The public library response must be coordinated with other local emergency management services. Maintain year round, good relationships with parish officials and entities so that you are at the table for all pertinent discussions. Prepare to provide reports hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly for the next three months at a very bare minimum. Prepare to volunteer to work extended hours at your library and at hurricane evacuation shelters where you can provide library services. Prior to a storm, brief your staff on what might be expected from them, such as extended hours, a shift in duties, and so forth. Keep news agencies aware of your status by issuing official media releases. In your release speak about your Web site or central spot where someone can find more information, give telephone numbers on how to contact the director or other administrators; one to two things that the library needs; and how someone can give, volunteer, or provide any assistance that may be needed. Keep it straightforward and simple and ensure that the entire staff speaks with one voice and does not provide conflicting information. Establish a temporary card policy for evacuees. In the policy, stress how long the card is good for, request any forwarding addresses/telephone numbers that an applicant can give, and do not forget about evacuees and recovery workers who may come in from other surrounding states. PERSPECTIVE Many state and local agencies might not experience a real test of their disaster preparedness policy for many years. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, three years after Katrina and Rita, provided a powerful test of how well we had accomplished our disaster preparedness.

13 52 R. Hamilton The good news was that everyone in Louisiana was better prepared. At the State Library we had appropriate contact information, our Web site was ready to go, our library blog was operational, and we had a backup server in northern Louisiana ready to go online. I was able to send out critical and upto-date data from our state EPO (Emergency Preparedness Office) directly to libraries so they would know all that we knew about these storms. They knew ahead of time to expect this from me. Our staff was poised and ready to deploy to the field and to make calls as soon as we could. We were ready for these storms. The proof of our readiness was seen best in our IT preparations. We had a new IT infrastructure in place. When the 2008 hurricanes struck, the State Library systems never lost power while the remainder of state government agencies were down for five days. Our situation was so good that we had officials and staff from other state agencies sitting in our parking lot making use of our wireless connection options with their laptops. This operation was built on these IT features: Our own generator power, a dedicated server room, backups of all our data, a backup server, our disaster Web site, and wireless access. In addition, we had further IT preparations that were not used through this disaster. These included matching servers so hardware was interchangeable; our nonessential servers were secured in a closet; our core services were backed up identically on all servers; and our tape backups were stored in a safe in a secure closet and offsite along with being available on an inexpensive backup hard drive. The best perspective on disaster preparedness is any cliché that involves the idea that your work is never done. Based on this premise, the following preparation remains to be accomplished: Install a portable generator to provide power for laptops Establish more functionality for the backup server in north Louisiana Think and work continually to update our disaster plan as a regular part of our institutional work Continually work with lawmakers to ensure that libraries are funded appropriately and that local and state officials clearly recognize the critical role libraries play While we are engaged in this solid work, we need to communicate with our constituencies to let them know over and over how we are working in their essential interests to serve them well both now and in an unpredictable future. CONTRIBUTOR Rebecca Hamilton is the assistant secretary of the Office of the State Library/State Librarian of Louisiana ( a position to which she was appointed in A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

14 Public Libraries Response to Hurricanes 53 Hamilton earned a bachelor s degree in psychology and a Master s degree in library and information science from Louisiana State University. Hamilton began her career in 1989 as a library associate at the West Baton Rouge Parish Library. In 1996 she became assistant director of the St. Mary Parish Library System and later assistant director for the Audubon Regional Library System, which is the state s only tri-parish library system. In 2001 Rebecca accepted the position of executive director of the St. Mary Parish Library System, and in 2003 she was recruited to the State Library and became associate state librarian at the State Library of Louisiana. NOTE 1. Since this article was accepted for publication, changes to FEMA policy have been made that will designate libraries as temporary relocation facilities during major disasters and emergencies under the FEMA Public Assistance Program.