How the Print Shop Hard Drives Were Saved
As the Cedar River began to rise last summer, the District’s Graphics and Printing Department had very little time to prepare for the impending floods and evacuate their area. Department Supervisor, Robin Rieke, was instructed to put anything of value on top of furniture and at least three feet off the floor. For extra safety, she placed all the shop's computers on surfaces that stood higher than five feet.
The flood waters gushed into the building as anticipated and drenched the print shop, submerging all the computers in more than seven feet of water. The shop’s waterlogged hard drives stored documents from over 40 schools and departments in the District, including newsletter layouts, student handbooks, forms, curriculums and more.
When Reike’s three mud-caked drives arrived at DriveSavers, a professional company in California, their external cases were immediately cleaned and disinfected in the receiving department, then sent to a special triage area to be disassembled for a more thorough cleaning before entering the Professional Certified ISO 5 cleanroom. When the devices were opened, a new set of challenges was revealed: there was a buildup of moisture inside. It took several attempts and multiple technicians, but the company recovered all the lost data.
“They saved my life,” exclaimed Reike. “It would have been devastating if we had to create every document the District lost from scratch.”