Suggestions for Handling Flooded Safe Deposit Cleanup, Part I

Waverly Egbert
American Deposit Services
Carrollton, Texas

For business associates who have experienced recent hurricane related disasters, Joyce McLin of The American Safe Deposit Association (TASDA) submitted the following bulletin which includes a suggested procedure for handling flooded safe deposit boxes. This procedure was authored by Life Member Waverly Egbert of American Deposit Services in Carrollton, Texas. This article was written in response to floods in the Midwest a few years ago. For additional information you may contact Joyce McLin at the TASDA office at 1-800-768-8678 or by email at tasda1@aol.com or you may contact Waverly Egbert at 1-800-880-0353 or by email at safedepo@aol.com.

STEPS TO TAKE FOLLOWING SEVERE FLOODING

• USE COMMON SENSE
• Keep documentation on everything. Record names, telephone numbers, dates and times of every person contacted regarding the flood damage.
• Contact your financial organization’s insurance and bonding company. Be prepared to notify them as to the extent of damage, if known, (how many boxes may be involved.) Do they want to be present when the boxes are opened? Ask how yur customers can file claims.
• Contact your financial organization’s attorney. The attorney may wish to prepare an affidavit to indemnify the financial organization if the customer is exposed to contaminated areas when allowed to enter the vault to examine the box. Review with your attorney any and all procedures that you plan to use.
• Contact the Chamber of Commerce and the Salvation Army for any assistance they may provide. Previously in other flooded areas these organizations have provided cleaning materials, etc.
• Contact your local hospital for instructions and procedures on how to decontaminate the building.
• Contact a local security company. You will need to provide armed security any time the building is entered to assure customers that all precautions have been provided to protect their contents.
• Have a building inspector inspect the building for safety prior to entering or allowing entrance to the building by employees or customers.
• Secure a new certificate of occupancy from your county government.
• Contact your county government offices to see if you will receive a refund of some portion of your business license for the time you were unable to use the building.
• Contact your investment department and ask them to prepare a list that you can provide to your customers for document replacement. Names, addresses and telephone numbers can be provided for replacing the following:
  • Military Papers
  • Divorce Papers
  • Government Bonds
  • Marriage License
  • Birth Certificates

Transfer Agents

• Secure the name and phone number of a local business that will “Freeze Dry” wet documents. You will need to contact them in advance for procedures to protect items prior to their receiving them for drying.
• Contact local jewelers to see if anyone will volunteer to clean all jewelry affected by the flood for free. If you secure this service recommend it to your customers via a business card.
• Contact other financial organizations in your immediate area that were not involved in the flood and inquire if they have vacant boxes that could be rented to your customers. If so your organization will pay the rent for any boxes for one year.
• You may wish to secure additional dumpsters for trash removal. Many destroyed items may be retained on microfilm or in computer data and it may be too expensive to dry and restore paper documentation.
• All employees, officer and directors should be given tetanus shots as well as any vendors or customers that are allowed inside a contaminated building. Require a certificate stating they have received the tetanus shot.

(to be continued in the next issue...)

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