Recovering From Flooding

What I Wish I Knew When I Flooded

Below is what I wish I knew when my home was flooded in Tropical Storm ETA in 2020.

I remember how lost I felt, feeling shocked and numb, not knowing when the house would be back together, going through the clean up as well as the restoration and FEMA flood claim process.

I made some critical mistakes along the way, so I wanted to share this so you can learn from my experience.

If you have an expert (contractor, insurance company, engineer, adjuster) telling you something different then please listen to what they are telling you.

This is my recommendations based on my personal experience for informational purposes only.

Please feel free to share this with anyone who needs this information.

First Steps...

1. Call and start your flood claim. It will likely take a while for the flood adjuster to come by (6-8 days for us after Eta). If it’s FEMA, which most policies probably are, they will only pay what the FEMA rates say to pay. I received $600 for ALL of my appliances. This process is not fun, and will take a lengthy amount of time.

They also unfortunately do not cover rent to live somewhere else while the home is being put back together. They will usually give you some money to get started though, so the sooner they get out there the better. Your insurer will be able to provide you with your specific details about your specific policy. True private flood policies are typically a much better experience, but they are also typically 3-5x the cost in flood risk areas.

2. Be mindful of hazards. Wear boots, heavy shoes, gloves. Be mindful of electrical risks especially if water was was above the outlets.

Clean Up Stage

1.Take photos and videos of everything as it sits before beginning work. Put tape measures next to water and scum lines so that the height of water can be seen / recorded. The insurance adjuster is going to want to see this. Best practice is to leave a couple scum lines / high water marks until the adjuster sees it, both inside and outside the house.

2. Take close photos of EVERYTHING you throw out. If it is not documented, flood insurance will likely fight you on it. You will likely also need to put a name and price on everything for insurance as well, so make sure you can read labels, brand names, serial number plates, etc. You will probably take hundreds of photos in this process. You will also probably need to put this in a spreadsheet with item name and brand name, receipts, or link to where you purchse it to prove value. This can be done later as part of the insurance claim.

3. Flood water is *nasty*. It has every body function from every animal that lives in the area (both on land and in the water) including raw human sewage. Also every chemical, insecticide, fertilizer, etc that people apply to their home, keep stored in their garage, and local businesses that were also flooded is now in the flood water. Stay out of it. Use gloves. Wash hands frequently. Evaluate what flood items you keep with that in mind.

4. Once water has receded, if the water was less than 3.5ish feet, all drywall and cabinets up to 4 feet needs to be removed. If the flood water was above 4 feet you likely need to go to the ceiling. You can test / confirm this with a moisture meter from home depot (drywall should be under 12% usually ) but those are probably sold out but may be worth checking on. You have to tear all this out because you have had sewage and chemicals inside your wall cavities and mold is going to eat the paper on the drywall up. Your hand probably won’t tell you if it’s wet or not. Also in our case, they covered base cabinets but gave nothing to the top cabinets since they were untouched by flood water.

5. Any soaked furniture especially sofas, mattresses, etc will also need to be removed / trashed. Those are likely unsalvagable. Particleboard and plywood absorbs flood water and will swell and fall to pieces. “Solid Wood” cabinets are usually just the face, the bodies are plywood.

Solid wood, plastic, and metal can potentially survive but need washing, but you will need to evaluate this risk for yourself and in our case depends on the use. Furniture legs and floor lamps are obviously less risk than a wood cutting board soaked in flood water or a baby crib that was submerged.

6. Hard, plastic objects, metals, bicycles, etc can usually be scrubbed with soapy water and rinsed. However, expect the useful life to be cut short since it was submerged in flood water. Clothes can be washed but use judgement and your risk tolerance.

Rebuilding Stage

7. Treat each and every remediation company with suspicion.

This segment and storms in particular attracts A LOT of questionable characters and tactics. If I had it all to do over, I would use a large chain (Dri Rite, ServPro, Paul Allen) to dry and treat the home, but I would NOT use them to put the home back together. I would hire a normal contractor for reconstruction.

Many cities in the area (St Pete and Pinellas County especially) carry additional contractor registration requirements, and many vultures descend on the area to make fast cash and then aren’t properly licensed and registered to do work in the area, and make TONS of promises they can’t back up.

YOU MUST INVESTIGATE THE COMPANY’S CREDENTIALS IN DEPTH.

This remediation industry also tends to want to WILDLY over bill you, many times for things that FEMA backed flood insurance will not reimburse / cover. A frequent tactic is charging thousands of dollars to run fans for weeks. So make sure that “anything that FEMA’s not paying, I’m not paying” is in the contract. Your adjuster will tell you what they will and will not cover.

If they promise the moon, a pain free remediation, that no money will come out of your pocket, that insurance will cover it all, then you’re probably being lied to.

9. Timeframe. This is going to take time. 6-12 months is not unusual. Mine took two years due to covid supply chain issues. Everything tends to slow down and take longer.

Tons of permits will be getting filled, tons of fines for unpermitted work will be handed out, supplies and building materials will run short. Ft Myers has still not fully rebuilt from Ian in 2022. This was flooding which is a bit different from direct hurricane blast and recovery should be sooner, but it will take months.

11. Your situation is likely unique. The above was what I learned from my specific flood experience. Please take the time to check your specific insurance coverages, as well as what your local city requirements are. St Pete for example commonly needs Demolition permits closed prior to beginning reconstruction. Ask A LOT of questions and take a lot of notes.

Final Thoughts

You will make it through this. It looks like a mountain, and it is a lot to deal with.

But it’s one day at a time, one foot in front of the other, appreciate the little things, laugh at what you can, and enjoy and help the people around you.

If you have any additional concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, and I will help how I can.

Ready to get started?

If you have questions not answered here, or any concerns about the process of buying or selling your home, feel free to contact me via this contact for or schedule a phone call for a time that works for you.