Our town is one of the disaster areas from the floods this week, and we have been kind of swamped - literally. We were some of the lucky ones – other people in our town lost their houses. We had about 4 feet of water in our basement where I had a lot of stuff stored. I lost a lot of craft supplies and woodworking tools. The jury is still out about whether we can save the furnace, washer and dryer. We got the air conditioning back about 5 this afternoon-thank goodness! It is still 97 degrees at 8 at night. I spent most of yesterday trying to save about 2000 family photos. Here’s how to do it.

Gather all the damaged photos. This needs to be done within 2 days, as the photos will be ruined if allowed to dry before being treated, and they will also mildew. Immerse the photos in clean water. Separate them gently, and allow clean water to run over them. Remove and place on a flat surface. Gently pat dry on both sides. Lay them out to dry in a safe place (no sun or wind) image side up. I lay as many as I could on wire baking racks, and when I ran out of those, I lay them on towels (both cloth and paper). I had photos on my kitchen counter, the stove, the dining room table, TV trays, card tables and the ironing board! Turn the photos after the front is dry to let the back dry completely. After the photos are dry, gather them and let them sit overnight to make sure they are dry before you store them again. My photo storage boxes were all ruined, so I need to purchase new ones.

If you can't dry the photos immediately, you can freeze them between sheets of waxed paper. I froze several hundred in packs of 50 or so. Place the photos and waxed paper in a zip top plastic bag.

Any negatives you may have that were also damaged can be rescued in the same way. My new printer, an Epson Stylus Photo 580, has the ability to scan and save the images from negatives, so I’ll be learning how to do that. All my damaged photos and negatives were from before I had a digital camera. My digital files are all backed up (I learned that lesson!).

I’m sure I’m not the only person who has had the heartbreak of irreplaceable photos being water damaged. Now you know how to rescue them if it ever happens to you.