Can One Company Handle Damage to Both My House and My Things After Storm Damage and Flooding?
8/12/2020 (Permalink)
Do Not Juggle the Competing Interests of Your House and Its Contents at a Stressful Time-- SERVPRO Provides Comprehensive Mitigation and Remediation Services for Storm-Related Flood Damage.
It is the time of year we hunker down in anticipation of the Atlantic hurricane and tropical storm systems pummeling Rocky Point and other communities on Long Island Sound. If your home lies within the path of the torrential rains and fierce, sustained winds possible during these weather events, you might need to cope with overland flooding, foundation seepage, and water loss from structural storm damage. Even if you move your most valuable and vulnerable furnishings and possessions above the basement or even first-floor level when your roof fails, windows or doors blow out, or siding tears off and disintegrates, storm water flooding finds those carefully stored items.
Who Can Help When Both Structures and Contents Have Severe Flood Damage?
Disaster recovery companies take on a staggeringly complex job when homeowners in Rocky Point seek flood damage assistance. One of the ways to manage any complicated challenge is to invoke the principle of "divide and conquer." Making a decision to move your electronics, furniture, window coverings, rugs, clothing, household goods, and other personal possessions to a space outside of your flood-damaged house is an excellent option to give both your household goods and your home's structure a fighting chance at speedy recovery under the circumstances. The restoration company with which you partner must be able to transport, track, process, remediate, and store the items moved securely for this opportunity to work.
How Do Professionals Manage a Pack-Out During Flood Damage Mitigation and Remediation?
SERVPRO has a robust protocol for move-outs during all types of disaster emergency services. The Contents Claim Inventory Service (CCIS) we employ provides a variety of ways to document what is removed, the conditions of the items packed and moved, and the processing that our specialized contents technicians complete for each article inventoried. This comprehensive system is beneficial as we correspond with your insurance company, providing real-time evidence to form a basis for the carrier to pay for restoration interventions or to approve a claim value for items that cannot endure appropriate restoration.
How Does the Pack-Out Work? Do I Have Responsibilities?
Our managers work closely with you to determine what items are of the highest priority to move to a safer place. Particularly with categories of property like documents and seasonal clothing, we want to make sure that you can have access to needed articles quickly. Because of this goal, we ask you to sort out the possibly needed items or give us instructions to effect this for you. The production crew does the inventorying, packing, labeling, and transporting. When the boxes and other containers arrive at our production facility, they have been inventoried as follows:
- Written lists are produced for some items -- including explanations and instructions from you, if applicable, to be followed by our crew members
- Digital photographs are taken at the time pack-out and throughout the remediation process -- an excellent way to document the original damaged condition and the results of interventions
- Barcoding -- perfect for matching up items pre and post-processing
- Container labels -- definitely needed if we retrieve items for you out of our facility before pack-back and useful when our crew reintroduces the packed-out inventory to your cleaned, disinfected, and dried out house
What Is the Overall Procedure at My House While Contents Are Managed Off-Site?
We assess and control safety hazards, and then our crews dig in, perhaps literally, if silt and mud or other debris are issues. We then follow this general agenda:
- We pump and/or extract visible standing water (containing and disposing of it per local regulations)
- We use moisture detectors and meters to locate hidden water and measure moisture content for baseline drying data
- We use controlled demolition tactics like flood cuts and drilled holes to release the water trapped behind structures and provide better airflow for structural drying
- We clean and disinfect soiled surfaces with EPA-registered products using appropriate techniques and tools
- We design a scientifically-based drying plan and implement it with air movers, hearts, and dehumidifiers
SERVPRO of Port Jefferson is ready for everything severe storms and flood damage can bring to our region's residents. Call (631) 476-5300 to explore how we can clean and dry both your home and your possessions.