Salvaging Damaged Family Treasures

We are devastated by the impact this flood has had on our community. During this difficult time, we’re putting our full support behind recovery efforts and doing what we can to help. We want to offer not just words, but practical help. One way we can contribute is by sharing resources and guidance on how to recover personal belongings, artifacts, and items that hold deep emotional and historical value.

A native Kerrvillian and professional conservator reached out to me to provide some quick tips for working to save any personal items that were damaged in the flood. With a little patience and prompt action, saving cherished photographs, letters, paintings, and other irreplaceable objects is possible. Step-by-step instructions included in the photo gallery will help you stabilize your treasured objects and buy you time to make an educated decision on further treatment and handling of your family’s mementos. There are also helpful videos about how to salvage items from TX-CERA, Texas Collections Emergency Resource Alliance. From their homepage, click on the dropdown for “Disaster Declaration DR-4879 Flood Response Resources” to access the videos.  

Later, we plan to schedule a workshop where community members can bring their items in for evaluation and advice from experts. Thank you to Genevieve Pierce Kyle, Preventive Conservator at the Harry Ransom Center for providing these resources from National Heritage Responders and FEMA.  

Resources include:

CulturalHeritage.org has excellent guidance through their Emergency Resources for the Public. They offer tips and contact information for professional conservators who specialize in item recovery.

FEMA has advice for salvaging damaged treasures and may also offer assistance or reimbursements for some recovery-related expenses. Visit disasterassistance.gov for qualifications.