Your House is Flooded - I've Been There

It's incredibly scary, your house is flooded, now what should you do? Here's a list of a couple of things that need to be done first.

Brick is under a State of Emergency because of the flooding yesterday. They had close to 8" of rain in such a short period of time and houses are flooded as well as roadways.

Photo by Justin Louis

It happened to me several years ago. My house was flooded and I was freaking out. Not only did I have about 7" of water in my house, everything on the floor was totally damaged, and that smell cleaning up after was just horrible. I remember my neighbor fishing in the hallway of our apartment building--the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

I've been there, this is what I did:

*Before you go back into your house, make sure it's safe. Make sure everything is turned off.

*Be careful walking around the flood areas of your home, my kitchen and living room had the highest level of water, just take it easy walking through -you wouldn't want to trip on anything.

*If there's anything like pictures that fell during the flood, you might want to pick them up. You might be able to save them. All those memories as you're walking through, hopefully some can be saved.

*Call your insurance company and see if there's anything they can do for you, even if you don't have flood insurance. I had renters insurance, so it helped a little bit.

*Once the water recedes you'll see the total damage and hopefully it's not as bad as you thought, but that smell of cleaning up is horrendous. Wear a face mask and try to save the things closest to your heart. Other things in your home can be bought again, as long as you have that one picture of your family hanging on the wall. I remember grabbing that one picture that meant so much to me and I saved it and I felt so good about it.

*Right now it's incredibly hard going through what you're going through, it will get better.

There will be tough times ahead, just cleaning out, airing out, and gathering everything...My thoughts are with you. You are strong!

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