It was the worst storm I had ever seen. Though the local weather reports were already warning us about the strength of the storm and constantly barraging us to prepare for the worst, no amount of preparation made us ready to face this kind of natural calamity.
Coming from an area where storms frequently bombard, you can say that we are pretty steadfast when faced with this situation, but this was the most terrible storm to ever cross our path.
The hardship did not stop once it was declared that the storm is out of our area of responsibility, because the aftermath was probably worse than the storm itself. Thankfully, we live in a much higher area so the water damage in our place is not too vast, compared to people whose houses became unlivable.
The flood levels peaked at 6 feet, submerging cars, houses and other establishments. In our area, the flood levels reached 3 feet, and for that we are very grateful. We did lose some of our properties to water damage, though, but it’s not too great compared to others.
No matter how hard it was, we faced the challenging task of restoring our house and neighborhood. Saving our things from the water damage was a hard thing, but it became doable once we knew what to do.
We categorized our things and placed high priority for those things which are very important and are irreplaceable. Time is really of the essence. By moving quickly and efficiently, we salvaged more of our things from water damage, eliminating the need to professionally restore them or to buy new ones altogether.
One of the first things that I did was to turn off the main power switch, even if the whole town is surrounded by a power outage caused by the storm. In switching off the main power switch, I eliminated the risk of a family member suffering from an electric shock or the house catching on fire.
Additionally, for safety purposes, I encouraged my family members to put on protective clothing before salvaging our things. We put on plastic boots, disposable plastic gloves and hard hats. These protective clothing ensured that we were not exposed further to any additional dangers like getting sick from the contaminated flood water.
We also tried our best to assess the amount of water damage. We took photos of the damaged items and noted everything that was ruined. As expected, our home insurance covered a huge chunk of the total amount of damages incurred. It greatly lessened our financial burden after such calamity.
As the saying goes, there is always a rainbow at the end of the storm. In our case it was both literally and figuratively speaking. After the storm, we had a renewed sense of hope that we can surpass anything that nature throws at us as long as we are well-informed and we know what is supposed to be done.
Every happening is a learning experience. The next time that a similar situation will happen again, we know better and we are definitely better equipped in overcoming the situation.
