ORLANDO, Fla. – With hurricane season and the rainy season upon us, there are important preparations to keep in mind that can help prevent flooding and mitigate damage at your home or property.
Bridgett talked to an expert about making sure your property is ready. T.J. Caplinger from United Water Restoration said it only takes a few inches of flood water to be costly.
The average flood damage loss is $25,000.
Caplinger said you should be cleaning outside drains like gutters, sealing windows and making sure you have flood bags ready to help mitigate the threat if water comes into your property. If sandbags are too hard for you to handle, he says there are a lot of flood bag alternatives on the market.
“There are some innovative products right now you can get them from Amazon, Lowes, Home Depot. Those are flood bags, some of those you can fill with your own water, so there are different lengths of them you can put them in front of your front door, your garage, where some of the water is likely. There are some other ones out there as well that are super lightweight that expand automatically with contact with water,” he said.
He said you should beware of not only rushing water on the ground, but the flooding threat above you.
“Go check the roof for missing shingles, damaged shingles, source of water from above, also clean your gutters now. If those get backed up, that’s a source of water that’s going to back up onto your roof that can be another source of ingress into the house.”
Caplinger said knowing as much as you can about the flood zones and having the correct coverage and documentation of your property and belongings is also helpful in expediting claims in the event of a flood loss.
Watch the full interview above for more details.
Learn more about flood prevention and preparedness from United Restoration Group, click here. And for more information from FEMA, click here.
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