Flooding can cause massive damage to your home and property, and there isn’t a whole that can be done to mitigate those costs if you haven’t prepared. If you live in a flood-prone region, it’s crucial to make a plan now to protect your family and pets in case bad weather strikes.
MAKE A PLAN
Come up with some kind of plan in the event of a flood. If your home is in danger from being flooded, make sure you know what you will do with your pets and how your family will get out safely. Evaluate the area around your home and choose routes accordingly. Make sure you avoid standing water if at all possible, as the risks of disease from pathogens and toxins are of huge concern.
As a part of your plan, you will want to move furniture, valuables, and important documents to a safe place. Copies of critical documents like birth certificates or insurance policies should be stored in a waterproof safety box and this should be done before evacuation, and ONLY if you have time.
Make sure you take into consideration your personal situation (ages and abilities of family members), geographic location, and budget before making your plan. All of those differences can play into how you choose to keep your family safe.
BUG OUT BAG
It’s crucial that you have a bag in which you can grab in a hurry on your way out of the house. This kit should include (at the very bare minimum) three days’ worth of water (one gallon per person per day) and food, along with flashlights, medications, copies of personal documents, cellphone chargers, and a first aid kit. If you want to avoid a public shelter, consider having a tent and some sleeping bags so you can camp out away from others.
Because a lot of water is difficult to carry especially for those with larger families, a Life Straw could be worth its weight in gold. If you have to leave quickly and use Mother Nature’s water sources, a Life Straw will make sure the water is completely filtered.
PROTECT YOUR HOME
After your emergency plan is established or as part of it, you can do a few things to protect your home and reduce the cost of damages. If you have a fuel tank in your basement, be sure to anchor it. An unanchored fuel tank can cause serious damage, such as tearing the supply line and spilling oil. If you live in an area in which a flood is likely, consider waterproofing your basement. This typically requires a large sum of money, so keep that in mind.
FLOOD INSURANCE
If you live in an area that is likely to be flooded, you probably already have flood insurance, but if you don’t, consider buying it if your budget will allow. Regular homeowner’s insuranceDOES NOT cover flood damage costs. Talk to your insurance company and find out what could work for you.
Following even a few of these steps can help you reduce your financial burden and keep your family safe in the event of a flood.
If you live in a flood prone area, the inspectors should be sent to NK for punishment, in keeping with their own belief system.
I don’
t live in flood prone area but I will definitely freak out if a fella named Noah moves in next door.
#1 is rule don’t buy property in a flood plain.
I once lived near a community called Snoqualmie in WA state.
It floods there virtually every year.
My Daughter who lived in Snoqualmie would give me a call her, her husband, and I would move their household goods to my shop. My land was about 400 feet above and south of the the river but getting across the rising river could get interesting.
All my vehicles were 4WD and from local knowledge I knew where to avoid. One year it got so bad so fast I nearly had to stay on the North side of the river with family and friends, I initially couldn’t get home, but remembered one other back road route.
These people live with this and it is a part of their life.
Living off the grid for 4.5 yrs, and starting on vacant wooded land camping and clearing land. Right off the bat, just plan on eating MRE’s so you donpt have to del with cooking and cleaning dishes. The greatest use of water for me is washing dishes. Hot water and clean rinse water. You can take a shower with a bottle of water. Have some bottle caps poked with about 3 to 5 holes from the inside out and screw them on the bottle and poof you have an instant shower. You want hot water leave a bottle of water in the sun to heat up. Simple hints can save uncertainty and stress. So add a few water bottle caps with holes poked in the cap that matches your water bottle brand.
Also Get a few porta potties, one per person would be great, you take care of your own pooper. save thosands of plastic grocery bags, as he fit perfect on the llid of a 5 gallon bucket and portolet toilet seat that snaps on over the plastic bags on the bucket rim. Layer the bags about 5 deep, as some bags have holes. Dispose I another large plastic garbage can. Then when about full of plastic bags of refuse then dig a hole and burry away from any water well sources.
Those in the city, try to dig your own water well about 30 ft deep and add a Pitcher Handle Pump for manual water, you can still filter it and hey that’s another source of drinking water is grid is down. You can dig a shallow well your self. Plenty of how to Vids on that.
You want protein? Get a plot started with cracked corn out in the yard, you can attract birds squirrels, raccoons, doves and rabbits. Get them coming to your yard or land well in advance and stock up on corn grain in tight lid containers. You could shoot game n the city with a pellet gun if you were hungry. A pellet rifle these days will shoot 1200 fsp or more and can take down bigger game. The beauty of hunting being stealthy.
With floods you better have your knee boots and hip boots ready. Snakes and leeches and all sorts of critters in flood waters, and flooding means septic system are flowing into the flood waters and open cuts can get you tetanus infections and you could die within a week if not treated with at least fish antibiotics. Keep your eye on the expiration dates od prepping meds and pills. Get an up to date tetanus shot. That is one shot you should have updated every 7 years I believe.
2017 here in FL we had hurricane Irma, Had everything tied down for the hurricane, then had to raise everything off the ground because of flooding that came in a week later, so have MRE’s ready and get a good month supply for every one in your group. And they are packed with like 2000+ calories, You will be burning lots of energy just getting prepared for flooding or storms a coming.
TSB~ Test- It’s 1am do you know where your AR15 battle rifle is and extra pouches full of loaded magazines? And head outside within 1 minutes time? You can only defend your home by being on the outside of your home and in the fight. Place a lawn chair in the shadows 75 yards from your house, you can sit and watch, and if any thug is getting close you blast em. Then SSS.
@TSB
At sea level, the theoretical depth limit on using the partial vacuum created by the pitcher pump is about 32 feet. Practically that is not likely to work very well given the imperfection of seals etc.
Plan on about a 25 ft well if you want to use the pitcher pump.
There are inexpensive force pumps (like the Flojak) that can pump from much greater depths (100 ft or more) that are an alternative.
In the East and South there are many places where the surface water resides above the 40 ft level and along about there you run into rock.
If you are dealing with surface water, the force pump allows that difference between about 25 and 40 or 50 ft where you have the possibility of hitting and collecting greater quantities of water.
<bb
TSB,
“Get an up to date tetanus shot. That is one shot you should have updated every 7 years I believe. ”
I get one every ten years as recommended by my doctors.
I own cattle, Mule, donkey and am around Horses, sheep, goats, and pigs.
I have stepped on nails and have had other significant puncture wounds, so I take Tetanus seriously.
Yes sir, Tetanus can kill within a weeks time, like an open wound, then the bacteria sets in and then poof blood poisoning!! You’re dead.
Imaging flooding and you can’t see below the waterline and you step on nails or sharp objects. I usually try to shuffle more in calf deep flood waters, let the tip of my boot hit the object first, instead of fully stepping down on the object. A walking stick would work great in this situation, feeling ahead in the flood waters like a blind man feeling his way down the sidewalk, waving his stick from side to side feeling for the next obstacle.. Without good rubber boots an old pair of tennis shoes. Or a boot with a steal shank and steel tip boots. Walking barefoot is asking to die, out of your own stupidity.
Snakes, leeches, worms, and feces in dem’ floodin waters..
There has been a mutitude of UNPRECEDENTED rainfall nationwide spring/summer 2019.
It hasnt just gone away .
Winter is going to deliver a whammy.
Store your crucial documents on the cloud using Spideroak. Your files will be encrypted and safe from prying eyes. It’s a subscription service recommended by Edward Snowden and even if you think he’s a bad guy you must admit that he knows a thing or two about encryption and security.
No friend of evil FedGov here. That said, FEMA flood zone maps are available online. Look before you buy.
‘They’ make the map, ‘they’ micromanage, yet you are still allowed to build there — to demanding specifications.
A realtor was upset, with me, when I asked this very question.
There is nothing wrong with building in the flood zone, just build your building high above flood water levels. Buy a kayak. Stilt homes are common here in FL at the beaches. There’s a reason houses on the beach are on stilts. You get a better view of all the bikini’s on the beach of course looking down. ha
TSB,
You are a southerner so you will appreciate this
Dauphin island AL.
I may have the spelling wrong,
but a great place to live.
Unlike Hawaii. no earthquakes or Tsunamis.
tsb said, “you get a better view of all the bikini’s on the beach of course looking down.”
Maybe, a subterranean?
I saw stilts in WA and TX, and ridiculously-high foundations were supposed to be built in parts of California.
I still don’t believe that wide swathes of natural destruction and a keen building inspector can logically exist in the same time and place.
Where I live is about 1200 ft. above sea level so I’m not concerned about flooding. If you can avoid flood-prone area, avoid them.
Broken Window Fallacy
h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djA-JYaBvvg
Right now, storm preparedness is being used as an excuse to kidnap the homeless from streambeds, to clear street gutters with the streetsweeper, to badly mangle private trees near powerlines, to mow weeds around reservoirs, and kill trees growing in ravines.
New developments move-in urban people, in excess of the carrying capacity. The drainage ditch, running alongside of my street, is smelling of taco seasonings. In the intersection nearest to City Hall, the drainage ditch is full to the very top, possibly impacting the street, before any question of storm systems flooding it.
(This is not even physically possible, assuming a steady, downhill slope.)
Where they have done this, all kinds of wildflowers grew, between somewhat sturdier landscape plants. Poison was sprayed on everything, so that damaged landscaping plants remain, courtesy of foreign labor — all uphill from me.
You have created economic expansion, by ruining things.
On this alluvial fan, rain rushes downhill, past most of the houses. Sinkholes on the bad side of town, near the railroad tracks and interstate and industrial parks. On the furthest edges of town, dissolved bedrock in the water. Makework could go on forever, or until too much work is made, all at the same time.
I suggest having a food vacuum packer for things that you’ll have difficulty taking.
The best preparation is to not live in flood prone areas, or areas that are lower than the surrounding land and will flood with sufficient rain.
Real estate agents won’t tell prospective purchasers about potential flooding, so you need to ask around the neighborhood.
There was a home up the road from us back when I was in school that was for sale. A prospective purchaser looked at that house and then came to look at our house. We told them that the whole front yard of the house they had just left would flood every time it rained. They said the real estate agent never mentioned that. He also didn’t inform them that the supposedly “stick-built” home was actually a bricked-up double wide trailer.