Salvaging photos

A question about : Salvaging photos

Some of you probably know this already but I think it's one thing that people who have had their homes flooded could well forget when throwing out flood damaged things. Photos can be salvaged by taking them to a place that does 'photo restoration'. First time I saw it was on Extreme makeover Home Edition special after Hurricane katrina. They had, I think it was a marquee which had electric supply from somewhere. In it they had scanners, pcs and printers. They were able to do reprints as good as and sometimes better than the originals of photos that had been under 6 feet+ of water. I've also seen Extreme Makeover Home Edition take photos which have been fire damaged to be redone. I hope this helps someone.

Best answers:

• A friends flat was damaged by a leaking pipe. All her photos were stuck together in a lump. Peeling them apart tore the surface ruining them. As photografic paper is waterproof I soaked the stuck together photos in a bucket of water. When they had seperated they were laid out seperately to dry. When dry they were as good as new. Please note, this does not work for polaroid photos.
• Keep the negatives separately from the prints, ideally in a water-proof box.