Archivists work to save parish sacramental records from mold, mildew

Published: 2005-10-28

BATON ROUGE, La. (CNS) -- Although all of the records and artifacts most vital to the Archdiocese of New Orleans were saved before Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29, many of the individual parishes' sacramental records were lost or badly contaminated. Charles Nolan, archivist for the New Orleans Archdiocese, and his counterpart in the Baton Rouge Diocese, Emilie Leumas, have been working feverishly to save the recovered records. They anticipate a new set of document preservation procedures will rise from the mold and mildew. "All the sources we know of on a national level (pertaining) to records recovery for conservation when things are wet say to do (certain things) within the first 48 hours," Leumas said. "Well, our records have been wet for 48 days or more, and there is no playbook for this." There is no proven process to salvage items that have been ravaged by a combination of murky water, heat and humidity that accumulates in closed quarters.

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