AFTER THE DISASTER

This footage of our backyard during the flooding is the last we have before the cameras cut out….the storm waters would continue to rise to more than double this height…..

WHAT TO DO AFTER THE DISASTER

“I’ve grown up in Florida with hurricane parties….as did my parents and grandparents. We never evacuated or worried, but I am so glad we evacuated this time. That’s the thing, you don’t realize how fast things can change until it happens to you, and then you don’t know what comes next until you’ve experienced it. We were shocked by how much information and misinformation, red tape and bureaucracies, and disaster profiteering we encountered.” ~Leslie

The Immediate Aftermath

There is no real handbook for what to do when your home experiences a disaster. We’re creating this page to share what we learned so that others might not have to learn the hard way.

We live on a barrier island so we had to wait several days for the roads to be cleared (5 feet of sand on the main road!) and the bridges to be reopened in order to access our home after the storm. When we arrived we were shocked by what we saw. The top picture is the house right across the street from us (not their boat!) and the collage is what we found in our own home–the bedrooms a jumble, living room furniture piled in the front hall, desk in the bathroom….just like everything had been thrown in a washer and tossed around!

We knew we had our work cut out for us, but we had no idea how much or how long it would take. Hopefully, this page will help you avoid delays, mistakes, and confusion that we experienced.

Disclaimer: This page is purely based on our own experiences and opinions. Please do your own research before making any decisions, as we are not experts, just fellow homeowners who have gone through this.

Step 1: Start Your Insurance Claim

The insurance company will be very backed up in a disaster situation. Get your claim in que as soon as you know you have a loss. We started as soon as we saw the water rising over our flood barriers on our ring cameras and were glad we did!

Gather your insurance information. Even before a storm, make sure you have the right agent and insurance contact information. We had multiple calls and websites to sort through to file a flood claim with our insurance (although each company will be different).
Document all of your communications with your insurance. Take screenshots of online forms and notes (with dates and names) for all phone conversations. Save all email communications and voicemails.
Consider working with a Public Adjuster. A public adjuster is an independent, licensed insurance claim adjuster. There are pros and cons to working with a public adjuster.
- The biggest con is that they will charge 10% of any funds they win for you–that can add up with a major loss (money you could use for rebuilding)!
- The biggest pro is that they will represent you so that you don’t have to deal directly with the insurance company.
- The public adjuster may also be faster in coming to do their analysis of your losses, enabling you to proceed with mitigation faster.
- They will also advise you as to what you can claim and what mitigation you can do without impacting a pending claim.
- You can also hire a public adjuster after your insurance company has made an offer that you feel is unfairly low. In that case, they will only charge you 10% of the additional funds they negotiate for you. You should always hire a public adjuster if your insurance company gives you a lowball offer, since you won’t pay their fee for the portion the insurance company already offered you.
Don’t be afraid to follow up, but be prepared to be patient. It took weeks for our insurance agent to finally come to inspect our property. When you’re in the middle of a disaster, that feels like years!

Note: Flood insurance is separate from wind and other homeowner’s insurance (such as fire). You will need to file claims with your flood insurance company and your homeowner’s insurance company (if you have damage other than from flood waters). Flood insurance is capped at $250,000 (plus personal property, if included in your policy), no matter what policy or company you have. Homeowner’s insurance will have different limits and does not have a cap like flood does.

Step 2: Document EVERYTHING

The first thing to do when you get back on the property is to document everything in your home. No detail is too tiny. Don’t forget each of the following items:

Measure the high watermark outside and inside each room. Conduct the measurements in multiple places around the outside of your house and within each room. You’ll be surprised at how different it can be in different areas. Use a tape measure and take a picture of each measurement showing the full tape, floor to watermark.
Do a video walkthrough showing every room of the house. This will help ensure that you don’t miss anything. It’s also crazy to watch again later (you can see ours in this clip….sped up since the original was almost 20 minutes!).
Make sure to take detailed photos of all high value items. Be sure to take photos of manufacturers’ labels, serial and model numbers, and any other relevant information for all appliances, tools, electronics, clothing, furniture, etc. This will help you document your personal property losses for FEMA, insurance, and tax purposes.

Step 3: Clean Up

You will need to get all of the water damaged goods out of the house as soon as possible. The mold will grow amazingly quickly–we had rainbow-colored mold within days!

Turn off all electric breakers before doing anything else. The risk of electrocution and fire is high when wires and sockets have been damaged by flood water (especially with salt water). Do not use any sockets that have been under water. We used our microwave outlet to run the shopvac to get the water out, since it was the only one high enough in our house.
Should you hire a remediation company?
- Hiring a service can be costly. They will tell you it’s “free” because they’ll bill your insurance, but that money will come out of your claim and might be money you’ll need for living and rebuilding. The expenses add up fast.
- We cleaned our house out ourselves. That might not be an option for some people (water logged furniture is HEAVY!), so definitely shop around and see if there are local people willing to chip in for more reasonable prices. Side note, drywall is surprisingly fun and easy to remove!
- There are also charities that may be able to provide volunteers, but we found that they did not have enough capacity.
Accept help! We had two lovely friends who offered to drive all the way across the state to help clean out Leslie’s mom’s house. Our first inclination was to tell them not to go to the trouble, but we were so glad we did accept their help. It’s a lot of work and accepting help is part of what bonds us as humans. Thank you, Kim & Allison, we couldn’t have done it without you!
When in doubt, throw it out. FEMA reimburses towns for post-storm debris removal, but that will not last forever. We had items in the backyard that we just didn’t want to deal with and furniture that we thought we could save, but in the end we realized the furniture wasn’t worth it (that flood water is full of sewage!) and we did need to dispose of everything on the property. Unfortunately, it was too late for the town pickup, which complicates disposal.
Consider filtration masks during clean up. So, that beautiful, rainbow colored mold we mentioned….yeah, that gave Leslie a cough that lasted months. 20/20 hindsight, some PPE would have been a good idea!
Make sure your insurance company has all of the information they need before you start pulling out cabinets and drywall. You will need to get the cabinets and drywall out and the house aired and dried (called mold mitigation) while the town is picking up debris and before the mold spreads. BUT the insurance company will need to assess the damage with the walls and cabinets still in place. Make sure you communicate with your insurance adjuster and stress the need to mitigate with them before you start. Don’t start your mitigation until they say you can. This is why your pictures are so important, as the adjuster might not get to your house before you need to mitigate. If you’re working with a Public Adjuster, they can help with this as well.

AFTER THE DISASTER

WHAT TO DO AFTER THE DISASTER

The Immediate Aftermath

Step 1: Start Your Insurance Claim

Step 2: Document EVERYTHING

Step 3: Clean Up

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