I never had to deal with the problems of water damage until my husband and I transferred to New Orleans, where his mother lives. His mother, a 71-year-old widow, just broke a hip, underwent surgery, and needed constant supervision. Being the eldest in the family, my husband decided to take things in his hands and take care of his mother himself. We both did not want to put our parents in nursing homes, so we decided to just relocate to New Orleans so as to keep an eye on his mother. Having no children, it was easier for us to relocate from New Jersey to New Orleans.
Of course, New Orleans was known to be a flood zone area, and I had my first taste of flood and water damage when the rainy season arrived. Though the house we bought was said to be prepared to withstand floods, employing wet flood proofing techniques like using water-resistant materials, the house was, unfortunately, not above flood level. So you can just imagine our surprise when one rainy morning, my husband and I awoke to find the first floor of our house submerged in a flood. Good thing it was just around 2-3 inches high, so water damage was not that extensive.
The first thing my husband did was to scoop the water outside the house using a pail so as to prevent further water damage from occurring. We later realized that it was a futile attempt because water still keeps on entering the house. For the meantime, we carried most of our appliances upstairs so that they would not get damaged.
It was after the flood outside had subsided that we started getting rid of the floodwater inside our house. This took us a few hours to finish, and we were left with a floor drenched in contaminated floodwater and evidences of water damage everywhere. We removed the carpet at the living room and exposed it the outside air to dry. As for the vinyl floor, we also removed the vinyl covering so as to allow the trapped floodwater underneath to escape, preventing additional water damage. The wooden subfloor was the hardest to dry. We opened windows to let air in, plus made use of a fan to dry the wood subflooring faster.
After the drying process, we had to scrub out the mud and dirt that the flood left in our house using soap, water, and disinfectant. Cleaning up after the flood entailed lots of hard work, and that is something that my husband and I vowed never to do anymore. Fortunately, that was the only problem that we had with regard to water damage. There were no roof leaks, and the walls only needed a little scrubbing to disinfect.
After that incident, we had some pumps installed, plus other flood barriers, like sandbags and plastic barriers. We opted to elevate most of our appliances by placing them on platforms. My husband also consulted professionals as to the measures we should take in case of water damage, while a friend advised me to apply for a flood insurance, which I did immediately. However, we still could not yet afford to have our house elevated, but we have plans on doing it soon as the circumstances permit us.
