What to Do After Your Home Floods

Flood damage is no joke. The intergovernmental economic group, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, conducts international surveys on annual losses due to flood events and damage. Their latest report found these costs averaging approximately 40 billion U.S. dollars each year.

While we don’t get worldwide record-setting flooding levels in the Midwest, that doesn’t mean floods and flood damage aren’t still problems here. After all, it’s been a very wet June and July in the Twin Cities metro, with some storms dropping more than 6 inches of rain overnight. This rainfall increase has left many local homeowners facing flash flood watches and warnings, wondering what they’d need to do if their home flooded. 

That’s because even if you make concentrated efforts to prevent flooding in your home… sometimes a flood gets in anyway. This post will cover the things you’ll need to do if you find yourself in that unfortunate situation.

What should I do after my home floods?

First things first, take your time. If the flooding was dangerous enough for you to have unwillingly left your home, take caution upon returning. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has guidelines for things to watch for upon re-entering a home after natural disaster damage. These things include: structural damage like warping and cracks in the foundation, holes in flooring, and damage to any utility lines. Make sure there is no live electricity or leaking gas before any further inspection.

Document everything. Don’t start removing water, making repairs, or doing anything until you document the space exactly as is. This is going to save you a potential maelstrom of headaches when dealing with insurance later on. It’s best to document with digital media (cell phone, digital camera) than traditional (film) because it’s easier to store and transfer.

Call your insurer. You’ll want to inform your insurance as quickly as you possibly can after the flood. If the flooding has drastically affected your community at large, you might have to contact your insurance company’s headquarters instead of your personal agent. They might be busy handling their own home’s recovery. Groundwater flood damage isn’t usually covered by conventional homeowners insurance, so you will have work to do when it comes to determining the extent of your available coverage. 

Start the process of water removal. Once your insurance carrier is appraised of the situation and your documentation has been saved, it’s time to get the water out. The simplest method will be to rent a shop vac or a wet vac from a local hardware store for a couple hundred dollars. You can use that to soak up saturation left behind after you get the majority of the flooding out via more traditional dumping methods. A few things to note during this process:

• Don’t rush water removal. This is mostly true for basements, where the extent of flooding happens. We recommend doing a quarter of the total standing water per day. This will help to make sure no waters or flooring buckles during the process. It’ll also help protect your health and wellness, as this type of work will be strenuous.
• Make sure to ventilate. Flooding can unleash sewage or other unpleasant contaminants into the standing water in your home. It can also exacerbate mold development. Because of this, it’s essential to ventilate the best you can while cleaning up by opening windows and doors. If you’re unable to do that, make sure you’re wearing a ventilating mask while doing active water removal.

Sanitize. Once water removal is complete, your job won’t be over. One of the problems with floodwater is that you can’t accurately track the various things it may come into contact with. That’s why thorough cleaning and sanitation of all surfaces or areas impacted by floodwater has to happen before moving on to rebuilding and repair. As an additional precaution, we recommend tossing any unsealed food products that were in the same room as standing floodwater. Even if they didn’t get directly wet, it’s not worth the potential risk.

Crisis Avoided. But What Now?

Once these steps are done, it’ll be on to long term projects: repairing and rebuilding the parts of your home damaged by the floods. One important thing to remember about rebuilding post-flood: flooding can lead to mold. Make sure you know how to clean and remove mold to prevent one disaster in your home from creating another. 

When it comes to repairing any damage to your home’s heating, cooling, or air thanks to flash flooding, you can always call on the professionals at Welter Heating.