Paula Felder has written an article from the point-of-view of a historian, librarian, and/or archivist, What do we have to lose in a Katrina-like flood? Just our history on Fredericksburg.com. Partly due to the media coverage of genealogy increasing, and partly due to their coverage of natural disasters, more and more of these stories (about preserving historical records) are being published.
Hurricane Katrina really pushed this subject to the forefront, because of the unexpected days-long flooding, but it doesn’t have to be anything that major to cause an irreplaceable lost.
This threat to our historical and genealogical records will hopefully lessen as more and more records are digitized, and therefore easily backed up elsewhere (preferably in other states).