Management of Disaster Mitigation and Response Programs for Historic Sites: A Dialogue

On 27-29 June 1995, the National Park Service will host a symposium on the management of disaster mitigation and response programs for historic sites. It will be co-sponsored by a number of federal, state, and local agencies and organizations. The symposium is partially funded by grants from the NPS Partnerships in Cultural Resources Training and the Historic Preservation Partners for Earthquake Response. This letter is your official invitation to attend this important event. Enclosed is a registration form.

Over the last several years, the United States has experienced an unprecedented series of disasters: earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, floods, landslides, oil spills and accidents involving other toxic substances, fires, civil disturbances, and now terrorists' attacks. Most of these have destroyed or severely damaged archeological and historic sites including cultural landscapes. In responding to these disasters, many of us have acquired experience and knowledge that should be shared before it is forgotten. The symposium will be, however, more than lessons learned from recent disasters.

Preservation and disaster management are two fields that depend on a working relationship at the federal, state, and local levels. They are both good examples of partnerships in government, but the two fields have not always interacted effectively. What are our responsibilities, roles, and functions? How can we all work better together? As federal, state, and local governments downsize, there will be fewer cultural resource management staff to respond to future disasters. We will need to be more effective and efficient. One of the anticipated byproducts of the symposium is the fostering of cooperation and mutual assistance. We will look at a number of agreements developed after various disasters and at a proposal for an umbrella agreement developed by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The umbrella agreement would be in place before future disasters and amended for each disaster.

Disasters will continue to happen. What can we do now:

  1. to protect resources before, during and after a disaster and
  2. to develop response plans for future disasters?
The symposium will build upon the work commenced at the Disaster Summit held in Washington, DC, in December 1994. Each session will be initiated by a speaker who will present background information on the topic and its problems and issues. The presentation will be followed by group discussions.

The symposium will be limited to 60 participants many of whom have valuable experience and knowledge to share. We want to allow and encourage dialogue; therefore, we must limit attendance. The targeted audience is Federal, state, and local government agency and organization staff who must deal with the effects of disasters on cultural resources. This symposium will not be repeated.

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Document version:1.0.6
Document created: August 9, 1995
Document last updated: October 23, 1997
Maintained by: © Dirk H. R. Spennemann , e-mail, dspennemann@csu.edu.au