As I mentioned in my earlier post (below), these Archives contain millions of notarial documents -- the raw materials of Louisiana (& other) history. But AP report that troops _refused_ entry to equipment essential to salvaging the documents. I have emailed the following about this:
The Federal Preservation Officer in charge of such rescue:- John Ketchum (john.ketchum@fema.gov) (see David Beito’s comment.)
The Chairman of the Preservation Section, Society of American Archivists:- Gregor Trinkaus-Randall (gregor.trinkaus-randall@state.mass.us). The President of the SAA:- Richard Pearce-Moses (president@archivists.org). Its Executive Director:- Nancy Beaumont (nbeaumont@archivists.org).
The Heritage Emergency National Task Force (taskforce@heritagepreservation.org) -- they ask on their website for such information.

Quite possibly senior officers of the OAH, the AHA, & the Southern Historical Association should also be informed.

Hurricane Katrina caused a great human tragedy. After whatever help one can give there, I suggest the above should also be tackled. Please email one or more.

David T. Beito - 9/8/2005

Sudha. You have done great work on this. BTW, I still have not heard back from Mr. Ketchum....perhaps he is on the job.