Rebuilding After Disaster

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There are few things more traumatic for a family than seeing their home damaged by fire or severe weather. The loss of treasured items is compounded by the financial loss and inconvenience of getting things back to normal.

If you have had the misfortune of experiencing one of these events, you already know what a complicated process it is to clean up and repair things. It is also a time when it is very easy to make mistakes because there are many people involved, including insurance adjusters, contractors, salespeople, and even government entities like FEMA and your fire department.

As you get the process underway, try to stay on track with these tips. They’ll help you focus on the right steps to recovery.

Know How To Prioritize

When your home has been damaged, you want to save everything. But in a practical sense, spending hours and hours trying to restore replaceable items in your home is not a good allocation of your time.

Focus on the things that are irreplaceable but salvageable and work on those first. Don’t worry about general belongings like furniture. A couch that is soaked with water from a flood or from firefighting efforts will take days to thoroughly dry, and even then will be filled with odors, dirt, and fungus. Bernhardt Furniture can replace those items, so put your energy into finding and preserving things like heirloom china and family photographs.

Make Sure The Damage Has Stopped

When a disaster strikes, there is an immediate reaction to the problem and then there is a need for longer-term attention. Floods in particular are notorious for creating additional damage even after the water recedes, because it has penetrated into so many spaces that it can be nearly impossible to clean them all.

Remove sources of further damage. Items that are full of smoke odor should be taken outside so that they don’t perpetuate the smell in other items. Get into walls and let water drain out, and be sure that wet floor coverings are taken outside. If your home has been properly protected from groundwater, it should stay dry once flood water is removed.

Prepare For Next Time

It can be so easy to get in a hurry when you’re trying to recover from a disaster. You just want to get things cleaned, repaired, and replaced as quickly as possible and return to the routine you had prior to the event, and that’s understandable.

But during that recovery, it can also be very easy to make some preparations for next time, in case the unthinkable happens twice. If you’ve had a fire in your home and you’re doing extensive repairs, investigate a residential sprinkler system. They have a documented ability to reduce fire damage and contain flames to a smaller area.

If you’ve been flooded, see about improving drainage around the home and possibly installing barriers to divert swollen streams. You might also be able to change floor coverings in the lowest parts of your home to make them more tolerant of another flood.

Remember that much of this work is cheaper, easier, and faster when you’ve already got a mess from the previous damage, so try to slow down enough to check into these options. There may also be insurance incentives to help defray the costs, or at least discounts on your premiums.

Fires and floods are incredibly traumatic. We see the things we have worked hard for being consumed in hours or even minutes. Recovery is the first thought we have when the event is over, but it is very important that you manage that correctly in order to make it the best recovery it can be.