Abdul, 

Protection from water in a corrugated box is minimal at best.  Years ago at Yale, I had a Monday morning experience of an overhead burst pipe that poured down, and then dribbled down, during a weekend onto both corrugated boxes and archival document boxes which were on sheet metal shelves. The shelves themselves ensured that more water was able to wick up through the bottoms of the boxes (as opposed to wire shelves). The boxes closest to the source were the most damaged. Over 100 boxes were affected. Of those, all the corrugated boxes were ruined and their contents were completely soaked and had to be bagged and frozen immediately. The records in the document boxes fared much better. They were at worst damp from the bottom of the boxes, but none of the papers were moist more than an inch up. While the archive boxes had to be discarded too, they did an excellent job of keeping the water out for over 24 hours, and even on shelves with standing water.

Like Mary said, it's important to have a plan when the disaster happens. Have a freezer facility/vendor ready. This is best done now and not when the disaster happens. I think the NEDCC has documentation on how to prepare for such a disaster.

===================
Stephen E. Cohen, CRM
Records Manager
MetLife | Legal Affairs
212-578-2373 
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