Crisis Management: Floods and Flood restoration

Any time a disaster happens it’s important to take a few steps properly to handle it. Floods are a typically vicious type of disaster because they do more damage than people expect and can be very hard to clean up from. The important thing is to handle the situation when it arises intelligently and prepare for the process of flood restoration. The good news in all this is that even on the relatively isolated island of Hawaii, there will be a good local support system in place to help get you back on your feet through the flood restoration process.

The first thing is to identify the cause of the flood. If it’s an external cause there’s not much you can do about it. If it’s an internal cause, see if you can’t shut water off to what’s causing the flood. Obviously be cautious inside a house with electricity and flowing water. After that, it’s a matter of assessing the damage and calling for insurance or emergency services if needed. If your house is being flooded by something serious, then it’s time to get out. If it’s safe to stay in the area it’s important to resist despair and try to remain rational. Pictures need to be taken; insurance contacted, and flood restoration companies contracted. If you can get anything particularly valuable and mobile out of the water, if it’s not ruined it might be salvageable. If the water is flowing fast though don’t bother, the risk is too high. When it comes to electronics you can pull them out and see if they’ll dry out. If you keep them from being powered on while wet they might be able to be saved, it’s worth a shot, just be careful, give them plenty of time to dry properly, and if possible disassemble them so the inside can dry properly.

Flood water is rarely clean. As beautiful as Hawaii is it’d be tempting to assume that even the flood waters wouldn’t be that bad for you. However they can be, they can carry a lot of trash, filth, and waste with them and be rather unsafe for exposure to the human body. If you have to climb into flood waters for a prolonged period then make sure you hose yourself off and you might want to ditch the clothes and shoes. The second step is to contact the people you know who’ve had to deal with a flood and ask who they turned to for flood restoration. There’s no easy process to getting everything repaired and taken care of, but if you document things properly, save what you can, and get in touch with professionals as quickly as possible.