SpringfieldNewsSun.com

Historical societies are prepared to present exhibits about historic floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and other natural disasters.

But if disaster struck a museum, what could be done to keep the community's historical collections from being lost to time?

The Heritage Center of Clark County will be one of 15 museums nationwide and five in Ohio to help answer that question as part of Washington-based Heritage Preservation's Risk Evaluation and Planning Program (REPP).

"One of the things they found out from Katrina in New Orleans was how ill-prepared museums are for catastrophes, said Roger Sherrock, interim CEO of the Heritage Center of Clark County. The program will serve "almost like an audit" for disaster preparedness, he explained. It will "just take stock of where we are," what measures are in place and what other steps can be taken.

Heritage Preservation mentioned on practical step toward that end: "Before disaster strikes, it is important to establish relationships with firefighters and others who will respond to the institution in a crisis."

The REPP effort is co-sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and is supported by a grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library services.

The pilot effort follows up on a 2005 Heritage Preservation survey that found "80 percent of collecting institutions do not have an emergency plan that includes collections, with staff trained to carry it out," the organization said.

The Heritage Center of Clark County submitted a grant proposal and request to be part of the program. It was accepted as one of 15 museums Heritage Preservation said "represent the diversity of museums in terms of size, location and collections."

Others participants in Ohio are the International Women's Air & Space Museum of Cleveland; the Kennedy Museum of Art at Ohio University in Athens; the William Holmes McGuffey Museum at Miami University in Oxford; and the Strongsville Historical Society.

Five museums in Mississippi and five others in Texas also will be included. Among them the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Miss., and the Texas Historical Commission's Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historical Site, West Columbia, Texas.

More information about the program is available at www.heritagepreservation.org.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368 or tstafford@coxohio.com.