How to Stay Safe after Storm Damage Affects Your Home

6/30/2021 (Permalink)

A home recently damaged by storm activity.

When a storm damages your home, it is always a difficult experience to endure. A lot of storms are sudden and occur without much warning, which makes it difficult to get a handle on the situation. In order to be able to handle these storm situations more effectively, you and your family should have an emergency plan in place. 

Homeowners can take certain steps in order to be prepared for storm situations and stay safe during and after a storm. Some of these steps include taking measures to minimize the damage to your home, which can make the cleanup and restoration process faster and easier.

Staying Safe After a Storm

The biggest priority after a storm has damaged your home is ensuring you and your family’s safety. There can be structural damage to a home that could lead to a collapsing roof, fallen electrical wiring that could be live, and extreme flooding. Leaving your home could sometimes be the right thing to do to ensure your safety, but sometimes staying in your home could be more safe.

After the initial damage and making sure your family is taken care of, you can take steps to help your neighbors and immediate community and prevent further storm damage. By calling a storm damage restoration company, you can start the cleanup and restoration process. Having storm damage restoration professionals out as soon as possible after storm damage can help make the restoration process easier and faster with them starting to remove excess water and protect damaged areas of your roof and home.

Listen to the Radio for Any Advisories

Ensuring the storm has passed completely after experiencing storm damage to your home is the first step in keeping safe during these emergency situations. Staying in a designated “safe spot” in your home to ride out the storm is another way to ensure you and your family’s safety. The power will most likely be off as it can go out during a storm, which means cell phones may or may not be working to check the news or weather reports. If this is the case, listening to the radio is going to be the best option to hear any advisories or status updates.

Leave Your Home If It Has Sustained Structural Damage

After receiving word that the storm has passed and it is safe to venture out of your “safe spot”, you can begin to assess any damage that may have occurred. If your home has suffered structural damage, this is the time that you should leave until a damage restoration company can come to restore the damaged property.

While heading to a new location, avoid going near any power lines, electrical wires or water. It is also best to avoid driving if possible.

Practice Caution When Working on Roofs

The first thing after making sure you and your family are safe after storm damage occurs is to call a storm damage restoration company. We can begin the cleanup and restoration process quickly and in a safe and effective manner. However, if you decide to board up and tarp your roof in order to prevent further damage to your home, it is essential to use extra caution. If you decide to start this process on your own, do be careful while climbing ladders and try to not step on any areas of the roof that seem weak and damaged. Also avoid tasks that require professional attention, as in replacing large, severely damaged parts of the roof yourself.

Cover Leaking Roofs to Prevent Further Water Damage

Tarping or boarding up your roof and parts of your home that were damaged by the storm is a good way to prevent further water damage inside of your home. This can become unsafe, so call a damage restoration company in order to get a “board-up” completed.

If you are sure there will not be further damage to your home, you can start initial efforts of removing water from your home. If there is standing water inside your home, you can begin to remove the water with buckets, towels, and other household items. Any wet rugs and carpet that have been damaged beyond repair can also be removed at this time in order to prevent more extensive damage to your flooring.

Consult with the Storm Damage Experts

If your home has suffered storm damage and you need a fast response from a professional and reliable home restoration company, then contact our team at SERVPRO of Highland Village. 

We help homeowners in the area who have suffered fire damage and water damage to restore their homes in a fast and effective manner. We are happy to answer any questions you have during our initial phone call, and we take pride in making the cleanup and restoration process as easy and convenient as possible for homeowners after storm damage occurs.