Governor visits the National Archives

Head of Preservation Roger Craig explains the extent
of flood damage in the Archive’s strong rooms to HE
the Governor and Mrs Dinwiddy. Looking on is National
Archive Director Dr Philip Pedley and Head of Archive
and Records Management Jan Liebaers.

Wednesday,  February 2, 2005

On a recent visit to the National Archive, HE the Governor Bruce Dinwiddy, and Emma Dinwiddy heard Head of Archive and Records Management Jan Liebaers describe the damage caused by Hurricane.

“It was a painful moment, seeing the water rising and knowing there was nothing more one could do to save the documents,” said Mr Liebaers.

He and two other staff members were in a strong room on the ground floor the night of the storm, when water flooded through a door. “We were trying to pack record boxes higher, but the water rose too fast and we had to run upstairs,” he said.

The tidal surge caused extensive damage to the ground floor of the National Archive where many semi-active government documents were stored. Until now, recovery operations have mainly focused on treating thousands of those records as well as others recovered from government offices.

“The full treatment of these records is a long, technical, and costly process,” said Director Dr Philip Pedley. “I commend my staff for working under difficult circumstances, while still dealing with daily requests for documents from all departments.”

Six freezer-containers are being used to freeze approximately 5,000 boxes of records while they await processing. The Archive currently has two freeze-drying machines on loan from Belfor (UK), each of which dries twenty boxes every two weeks. Drying capacity will soon increase, however, when a much bigger freeze-dryer arrives from Belfor (Canada). The new dryer will be able to handle 280 boxes at a time.

After reviewing the progress made with the document recovery task, Mr Dinwiddy met with staff, thanking them for their hard work: “I realize that the hurricane was a big blow to the National Archive, especially since it has always been known locally and throughout the Caribbean for its high standards in all areas, but you have come a long way in the recovery process in four months,” said the Governor.

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