City Hall in the City of New Rochelle, NY experienced the devastation a burst pipe can bring when this very event happened during the 2010 Easter weekend. According to “Sound Shore,” city government workers tried to do the clean up on their own for a few weeks before realizing professional help was the only way to salvage their building and restore damaged, wet documentsthat belonged to the Development and Parks & Recreation Departments. The City of New Rochelle called in Rapid Refile help save essential documents.
Rapid Refile to the Rescue
Rapid Refile quickly arrived to New Rochelle to meet with city officials to discuss recovery options, and was able to prepare an emergency bid in less than four hours. They restored the city’s documents by drying them, decontaminating them via gamma irradiation and cleaning them of surface debris and mold.
Rapid Refile met the contracted deadline and proudly delivered the remediated documents to the City of New Rochelle’s Development and Parks & Recreation departments on time. It was essential these departments receive the restored documents in a timely manner because the start of the summer season demands the use of them. A staff person from Rapid Refile reports, “During the inspection of work performed by Rapid Refile, one administrator in the Parks & Recreations department stated, ‘I’m very glad to have this back. This is like our Bible.’”
Memorial Day weekend signals the official start of summer, one of the most popular times to fire-up the grill to make backyard cuisines. However, the beginning of summer also signals the beginning of wildfire season. Help keep your home and neighborhood safe by keeping the following tips from the HPBA (Hearth, Patio & Barbeque Association) and the Propane Education & Research Council in mind.
Prepare Your Home and Grill
Cut back your grass and move burnable materials. Keep grass, wood, bush, plants and other materials at least 10 feet away from propane tanks and cylinders. This includes tanks installed in your grill and tanks you are storing.
Do not store propane tanks and cylinders inside a home, shed, garage or any other building.
Read the manual for your propane tank and grill.
Only use grills outside and in a well-ventilated area. If you grill indoors, there is a chance carbon monoxide could accumulate and prove fatal to those in the building.
Make sure the grill is stable. When grills are unstable or placed on uneven surfaces they may fall or tip over unexpectedly, which can cause a fire.
Replace expired or damaged tanks. This includes tanks that have holes, rust spots or cracks.
Use a grill mat. Use a heat-resistance grill mat under a gas or charcoal grill to prevent fires caused by hot embers or drippings.
Keep an extinguisher nearby. When grilling, keep a fire extinguisher nearby. If you do not have an extinguisher, keep baking soda, a bucket of garden sand or a garden hose close.
Outdoor fire prevention is quick, easy and worth the effort so you do not have to deal with the consequences of a full-blown, damaging blaze.
One of the worst nightmares of a file clerk in a hospital or even a small-town doctor is finding patient records and other medical documents damaged by water, humidity, mold or a fire. When medical documents are damaged, they will only get worse with time. To help those in the medical field solve this dilemma, Rapid Refile provided instructions on what to do to recover critical medical documents in Facility Care magazine.
Hire a document restoration vendor. Choose a restoration company that offers in-house reclamation services. Doing this will improve the lines of communication between the client and the vendor and speed up business continuity.
Provide a HIPPA partnership agreement to a representative in the recovery firm. This will allow the restoration company to inventory the wet documents, remove them from the affected area and stabilize the damage. Joe Perko for Rapid Refile states, “Recording the location and order of documents ensures a proper chain of custody and enables an efficient reintegration of documents once reclamation services are complete.”
Begin the document reclamation process. Restoration specialists should load inventoried boxes into a monitored freezer trailer so they can immediately be reclaimed at the document reclamation center. At the center, professionals will either vacuum freeze dry or desiccant dry the wet documents and wet books. In addition, restoration professionals may reproduce files digitally so they can provide copies of these important documents to the client quickly. The restoration company should provide the client with a Certificate of Destruction.
In an effort to provide services to individuals with limited access to a computer, radio and/or television, FEMA now offers a mobile website to smart-phone users. The site, m.fema.gov, is simple, straightforward and easy to use. FEMA administrator Craig Fugate states, “Smart phones are becoming more prevalent, affordable, reliable and more viable to locate and obtain information and assistance. The service will provide yet another avenue for the sharing of important information that is so critical to ensuring the public is prepared for emergencies.”
Features of FEMA’s Mobile Website
FEMA’s mobile site has two sections: “How Can I Find Assistance?” and “What Should I do in a Disaster?” The assistance section provides FEMA’s phone number (1-800-621-3362) and links about applying for FEMA aid or assistance. It also includes information about how to keep your family and others safe.
The disaster section of the mobile site provides tips on what do to in the event of a flood, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, terrorism, thunderstorm, tsunami, wildfire and winter storms. The natural disaster tips tell individuals what to do before, during and after an event. The terrorism tips include information about what to do before, during and after an explosion, chemical or biological threats, a nuclear blast or a radiological dispersion device (RDD) event.
“FEMA officials are planning technical improvements to the site, including interfaces with other federal, state and local agencies and private nonprofit organizations, such as the Coordinated Assistance Network; integrating additional controls for waste, fraud and abuse during emergencies; and surge capability through a federal cloud solution.”
This user-friendly mobile site offers a wealth of information at a smart-phone user’s fingertips. During an unthinkable event, anyone who bookmarked this site on his or her phone’s mobile browser will not regret it. Learn more about emergency preparedness.
Rapid Refile recently participated in the RIMS 2010 Conference in Boston. The company successfully accomplished its mission to raise awareness about the importance of document recovery as part of every disaster plan.
International risk management professional stopped at Rapid Refile’s booth and learned valuable information about preventing and managing damage to critical documents and records. The conference gave representatives from Rapid Refile another opportunity to speak with current and prospective clients and vendors so they could understand the needs and interests of consumers better.
