Avoid Flood Damage by Preparing Your Home for Winter

Flooding is one of the greatest dangers to a house, especially if you happen to live near an area with high water. It’s impossible to predict floods and prevent all the damage that may befall your home, but it’s never a bad idea to prepare and save yourself some trouble in the future.

Usually, you will get a degree of warning before a flood, unless it’s a flash-flood, which are more unpredictable in nature. Check your area for dangerous areas such as the ocean, rivers, or reservoirs. These areas are the most common culprits of rising water and can cause you a lot of trouble if you don’t keep an eye on them during storms.

Tips to Avoid Flood Damage

Alerting yourself should be the first step to preventing disaster. Weather apps, knowing warning codes, and listening to the news/radio can help keep you updated, so you’re never caught off guard. Move your valuables upstairs or in attics, and try to put anything else in sealed bags and bins for added protection. Create a flood plan, just in case things get out of hand and you need to get yourself and your family out safely.

If you’d like to prevent flooding altogether, you can take extra measures to try and protect your home. While nothing is foolproof — or in this case, floodproof — it can be in your best interest to invest in things like pumps and sandbags. Know where your house’s turnoff for electrical, water, and gas.

Put important items like cash, cards, passports, and documentation in ultra-safe areas. Have a suitcase ready with your paper-valuables in plastic bags. No measure is safety is too much. Chances are, if you have to think about whether or not you need to bring something, you need to bring it. Nothing is too small, from a spare set of contacts to an inhaler you haven’t used in years.

If you experience flooding, make sure you, your family, and your pets are safe before anything else.

Call technicians and safety professionals to look over your home and electrical, and limit your contact to the water until you know it’s uncontaminated.

Call your insurance company. Insurance companies can potentially help with your home’s repairs and restoration. If you live in a flood zone, you should also have flood insurance.

Finally, call The Dry Guys for flooding and water remediation. We can help you – from pumping out standing water to drying your home out and preventing mold, we will work with you and your insurance company to get your home back to normal as quickly as possible.