Street flooded water is knee deep one of my cars got flooded out we were able to move the others to higher ground. Some of my neighbors look extremely stressed out this is gonna be a process Im really being tested right now.
*Step 1: Get a fukking FEMA number. You need this shyt. Don't wait. Get it now. Phone: 800-621-3362 (711 or Video Relay Service Available). Call them, give them all the info you have. You need to do this right fukking now if you have not already. There's no benefit to waiting and it's likely you aint doing shyt other than looking at video feeds anyway, and that doesn't help. Get your damn FEMA number. Write it down, text it to yourself, email it to yourself. Don't lose it.
*Get all the paperwork together you can. Get a folder thing.
Something like this.. Every peice of information you get, put it in that folder and do not lose that shyt. Get photocopies of your Drivers Lisence, Birth Certificate, whatever, and stick it in there. When dealing with FEMA and Insurance and whoever they will want copies of that stuff. Get copies of your vehicle insurance, house insurance, Taxes, every damn thing you have around. I don't recall everything but it felt like half my time during recovery was spent finding paperwork and getting it to various people. You want copies so when they ask for it you have it on hand and can give it to them. Don't risk them running out of paper of the copier being broken. When they give you paperwork, put it in your binder. Take pics with your phone and upload that shyt to wherever you have online storage.
*Document what you lost. I lost my car, and the entire contents of my downstairs (I have a townhouse), and more. When you get back, take pictures of every damn thing if you have insurance. No insurance, this step could still be useful because you can claim the losses on next years taxes. If you don't make enough to pay taxes, you might want this anyway. Aid agencies and the like are more willing to help when you can show what you lost.
*Transportation. If you lost your car, be careful about buying a used ones. You'd not believe the b*stards out there who were trying to sell flooded cars as having not be flooded. Check the floorboards for dampness, check the wheel well in the trunk for dampness. Check all the lights, blinkers, high beams, under the hood, every fukking thing.
*Contact relief programs. Lots of churches and other organizations can help with food, clothes, toiletries, medications and the like. They do not know who you are and can't find you. You go find them. Don't make the mistakes I did. I make good money and I thought I shouldn't burden them with my needs. I should have. Turns out even if you make good money it can put a hell of a financial strain on you. Get your name on lists. Get an SBI loan, get your FEMA money, get your Insurance lined up. Be stingy with it. It goes fast.
*Demolition. (Owners only) When you get back, your shyt will be wrecked. You have to get all of it out. Like, now. Contactors will have no availability. There's hundreds of thousands of people who need their shyt demo'ed out. There are not that many construction workers available. You can try and get one and pay greatly inflated prices fighting over the limited labor pool or you can do it yourself. Get friends to help, and help your fukking friends. You need them, and they need you. No friends available? Help your neighbors, and have them help you. Kill the power before you start. Don't fry yourself. Tools will be hard to come by. The day after the floods here all crowbars, hammers, sledgehammers, ect were cleared out of every home depot and lowes. Duct-tape the shyt out of your fridge and pull it out. It will be a biological hazard quick. If you can, use metal screws to screw that thing closed. Padlock it. I don't care, make it so morons cannot open it. Get it to the side of the road. The trucks will be by soon. They're like giant garbage trucks with another container behind them and cranes. Get it to where they can get to them. It will be hot. It will be hard. Do it anyway. Get carpet out next. You cannot save it. Do not think you can. You cannot. Cut it in smaller peices. If you cut huge sheets the water weight alone will keep you from moving it. Anyway, you don't want to be in contact with that stuff for long. Your sheet rock soaks up water. Demo it out if the sheet has any signs of dampness, and that goes for the insulation as well. You need the place down to the studs. You can leave the outside for now. If you can get the AC working, turn it ice cold. Worry about the power bill later. You need the inside as dry as possible to stop the mold. There's lots of mold remediation spray out there. You'll need some. Lots of companies will do it for 10's of thousands of dollars. You can do it yourself unless you just have a mansion and that kinda cash to spare.
*You will not be back in your place soon. When it hit people told me I'd be out for 3 months, to let the studs dry. I thought that was preposterous. No way in hell I'd be out that long. Demo it out, throw up some new sheetrock and paint it, I'd be fine in no time. It took like 9 months. You can tell the progress everyone is having by what you can't get. Can't get sheetrock and insulation? That's because 300k people are all trying to do their sheetrock and insulation at that moment. They attack the delivery trucks like feeding piranha.
*Assume your contractors are trying to rip you off. I cannot tell you know many people I personally know who wrote a deposit check to contractors who cashed it out then fukking disappeared. Do not trust them. Get copies of their licenses, research their history, make sure they are who they say they are and that they are not a fly-by-night operation. The cops/feds are still out looking for the b*stards who scammed flood victims. Don't be a victim.
*Consider the future. I ended up adding a few outlets to various areas, and changing where my cable came into my house. Also built out the area under the stairs and a few other improvements. Your shyt's all demoed out anyway, may as well make some improvements if you can.
