The Flooding in Cieszyn Silesia in September 2024 and its Impact on Local Archives

In September 2024, the region of Cieszyn Silesia in Poland experienced catastrophic flooding, resulting from extreme weather events that devastated both urban and rural areas of the region. Unprecedented rainfall led to the overflow of rivers, causing extensive flooding in southern Poland. In response to the flooding, local authorities enacted several countermeasures aimed at mitigating further damage and safeguarding cultural heritage. For local archives, immediate measures included the rapid relocation of physical collections to higher ground and temporary facilities to prevent further damage. Emergency preservation protocols were activated, with specialists mobilized to salvage documents and artifacts. These included techniques for drying and decontaminating water-damaged materials. Archivists from the State Archives in Katowice surveyed the damaged archives and prepared a damage report. The article describes in detail what documentation has been destroyed and what actions were undertaken to protect the historical records.