MAY DAY: This is a drill!

On May 1st if you drove by Government House in a trolly, you might have seen a dozen people running around the courtyard wearing bright yellow vests. There was no hurricane, no break in the water lines, or risk of flooding--but in the minds of the people wearing the yellow vests, all hell was breaking loose.

They were participating in the St. Augustine Archivist Societies first annual May Day training event to prepare their collections for when disaster strikes!

May Day is heritage emergency training event that takes place at various institutions across the country, including the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Participants are familiar with the Incident Command System, so when given a scenario at the start of the morning, the first thing they do is identify who will play the part of the Incident Commander (IC). The Incident Commander then assigns roles to other participants, such as Operation Section Chief, Planning Section Chief, and command roles that report directly to the IC such as an Informaiton and Safety Officers.  

ICS standardizes positions, responsibilities, facilities, reporting, forms, and language. It is used by emergency managers on the scene and applicable to all kinds of hazards or preplanned events. It can expand and collapse as the emergency unfolds or resolves, therefore it can be used in the first hour during the initial event, for days and hours as responders begin and end their work, and for the days and years it takes for recovery. 

So how does this apply to heritage insitutions? Many museums and libraries house important collections that are not always on display. These collections are particularly vulnerable during natural disasters as they are often housed out of sight, like in a basement or attic. Collections on display can also be impacted by fire, flooding, or if spinklers are triggered. Objects may need to be evacuated before disaster strikes, or when wet they need to be removed from the site to be dried and stabilized. When a collection meets with a disaster, this is the time to initiate ICS and identify who is in charge of the incident. If the institution has an emergency management plan, it will provide guidance to the IC so they will know where to start and what actions to initiated.

It turns out the event at Government House was not original to our drill. In the 90s a pipe burst in the basesment where a significant archaeological collection was housed.

Miss this year? Contact Sarah Miller at the Florida Public Archaeology if your Florida institution is interested in participating in a 2020 May Day event. 

Thanks to Mercedes Harrold, Matthew Armstrong, and Laura Marion for collaboring on this year's event and looking foward to next year!

Text and Images: Sarah Miller, FPAN Staff