After The Storm: Photo Recovery After A Disaster

Whether you have just had a hurricane engulf your home with floodwaters, your water heater burst or you’ve had a house fire when your photos have been damaged, you will likely need some photo recovery after the disaster.

I have never had to deal personally with such a disaster myself, but in the last couple of months, I’ve been contacted by several people who have damaged photos from fires and floods.

One person was my daughter’s classmate whose mother’s house was lost in a fire. They were able to rescue a few of their family photos but they were very damaged. I was able to give them some advice and point them to local resources to possibly restore the photos (their only copies, by the way). My heart goes out to them and the loss of their homes and precious memories.

As a Certified Personal Photo Organizer, I am fortunate to have many colleagues who have vast experience in dealing with disaster-damaged photographs. They have generously shared their knowledge and today I want to pass those resources on to you.

Water Damaged Photo Recovery

What To Do When Disaster Strikes Your Photos

Kathy Stone of Calgary Photo Solutions has witnessed major flooding in Alberta; subsequently, she helped many people save their photos after floodwater damaged them. Kathy offers easy and step-by-step solutions to save wet photos.

Can Wet VHS Tapes Be Saved?

If you still have a box of old VHS tapes in the closet when the flood or fire happens, what will you do? This article at Tech You Like will guide you through the process of saving your precious memories captured on those tapes. (And let this be a reminder that it is well past time to get those tapes digitized!)

Salvaging Water Damaged Photos

What can you do when your photos suffer water damage? This blog post from our friends at Artifcts can help.

Next Time: Be Prepared

If you weren’t affected by the latest disaster, now is a good time to disaster-proof your family’s treasured photo collection. Steps you can take include:

• Store printed photos, slides, negatives, and photo albums off of the floor. Higher shelves are preferable.
• Scan your printed photos, albums, and slides and digitize those home movies.
• Back up all your digital files. I highly recommend Backblaze to back up your entire computer and use the 3-2-1 backup method for all of your most important files.
• If evacuation looks like it’s in your near future and you can’t take your photos, here are some more dos and don’ts.
  • We Have To Evacuate! How To Keep Your Photos Safe – The Photos Managers
  • How to Protect Your Photos from Natural Disasters – Chantal Imbach, Photos In Order
  • Protect Your Photos From Extreme Weather – The Photo Managers With Kathy Stone of Calgary Photo Solutions and Kristen Goodman of Clicking With Kristen

Have you ever had photos or videos damaged in a disaster? How did you handle the situation?

Other Helpful Posts

Print Photo Storage Solutions by Good Life Photo Solutions

Safe Photo Storage is All About Location

Don’t Let Your Photos Fade: Top Reasons to Scan Your Old Slides

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