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Water Damage? What to Do

If you discover a build-up of water on the floor, find standing water in your home or experience severe, sudden
and accidental water damage, take steps to begin ventilating and drying out your home immediately. Here are
some precautions to start with until help arrives:

  • Shut off the water source, if possible.
  • Protect your property from further damage with temporary, reasonable and necessary repairs, like plywood or plastic covers over roof or wall openings. Move household items to an undamaged area of your home or cover them with plastic.
  • Mop, blot up or wet vac as much water as possible.
  • Don’t leave books, magazines or other colored items on wet carpeting.
  • Remove oriental or other colored throw rugs from wet wall-to-wall carpeting. Remove the pad from under saturated carpets.
  • Place wood blocks or aluminum foil between furniture legs and wet carpeting. Wipe excess water from wood furniture.
  • Open drawers and cabinets to aid in faster drying.
  • Open windows to speed drying. Turn on the air conditioner or fans for maximum drying in hot weather.
  • Make small holes in sagging ceilings to drain trapped water, using a pan or bucket below to catch the water. Never turn on a ceiling fixture if the ceiling is wet!
  • Replace any wet insulation with new, dry insulation.
  • Treat minor mold growths quickly with a solution of one cup chlorine bleach to one gallon of water.
  • Leave this solution on the mold for approximately 15 minutes to kill the mold spores. Wipe away the debris with a disposable cloth and discard it. Thoroughly dry the area where you applied the bleach and water.
  • Make sure flooring and carpets are dry before starting any repairs or making replacements.
  • Hire a professional to clean and re-lay your carpet after the carpet pad has been replaced.
  • If you discover mold in the areas you are cleaning, consider calling in a professional cleaning firm.
  • There is speculation that some mold may lead to health problems.

Creating a Fire Safety Plan

Fire happens unexpectedly, and many times in the middle of the night when a family is sleeping. That’s why it’s
important to have an escape plan in place. If a fire breaks out, you’ll need to react from practice, not panic.

Make a rough sketch of your home’s floor plan and follow these tips:

Schedule home fire drills often

  • Practice family fire drills so no one is confused about what to do.
  • Plan at least two different escape routes from each room and designate a meeting place outside your home, such as the mailbox.
  • Assign someone to help young and elderly people. Instruct children they must get outside. Teach them the worst thing they can do is hide in closets or under beds.

Keep fire extinguishers handy

  • Store a multi-purpose fire extinguisher in the kitchen and another one near your furnace to be used to
    quickly douse a fire before it gets out of control.
  • Make sure they’re dry-chemical extinguishers, suitable for class A, B and C fires. Teach all family members how to operate them.
  • Always keep extinguishers recharged and ready to use.

Prepare your windows for fast escape

  • Remove any installation clips from the outside of your windows. Your home should have two exterior doors and a quick-exit window in each bedroom.
  • To exit from a window, slide it up or sideways and remove the screen. Kick the screen out if you need to. If your home has crank-out style jalousie or awning quick-exit windows, remove the interior storm sash by turning the pivot clips. Trip the exit latches at the window sill and slide the window open. Or, open it at the hinges and make your exit. If there’s no trip latch on the window or no time to open it, break it with a chair, lamp or shoe and get out. Watch out for sharp glass.

Take action if a fire strikes

  • If you can douse a fire quickly using your extinguisher, go ahead. Otherwise, don’t try to fight your own fire. Leave immediately and call for help from a neighbor’s home.
  • Crawl to the nearest safe exit because the clearest air is 12 to 24 inches above the floor.

Tips for Securing Your Home Before Vacationing

By using these theft-prevention tips to protect your home and possessions, you and your family will have extra
peace of mind, whether you’re away for a day or on vacation.

Make your home looked “lived in” even when you’re not there

  • Have a trusted neighbor pick up your mail and newspapers.
  • Arrange for someone to mow your lawn or shovel snow.
  • Ask a neighbor to park a car in your driveway while you’re gone.
  • Use timed switches on your lights, TV and stereo. Look for timers that turn on and off randomly.
  • Never advertise your absence by taping a note to your door or announcing it on your answering machine/voice mail.
  • Turn your telephone ringer down or off. This way a burglar is less likely to hear the ringing of unanswered calls and realize no one is home.
  • You can add to the security of your lighting system and cut your electric bill by installing a motion detector on outside lights. This will activate your lights when anyone comes within range of the unit’s motion sensor.

Follow these tips from law enforcement officials

  • Join a Neighborhood Watch group. Most police departments have officers who will help you start a
    program. Neighbors can help watch your home when you’re gone.
  • Keep valuable items in your safe deposit box, such as stocks and bonds, duplicate copies of your will,
    stamp and coin collections and jewelry you don’t frequently wear.
  • Give parking lot attendants and mechanics your ignition key only, not your house key. Don’t carry
    an identification tag on your key ring. This could help a would-be thief easily identify your home
    and vehicle.
  • Consider installing an alarm system for an extra level of protection. You have a variety of choices –
    from do-it-yourself kits that trigger a siren or lights to professionally installed systems connected to a
    police station or monitoring service. Post signs in your windows showing you have a security system.
  • Lock your doors and windows when you leave, whether you’ll be gone a few minutes or a few days.

Flood Safety Tips for Your Home

Flood Safety Awareness Week March 14-18, 2011

To Recognize Flood Safety Awareness Week March 14 – 18, 2011, FloodSmart.gov offers the newsletter below and the many helpful links to promote flood insurance and flood awareness to consumers. There are many resources below that can be included in agency websites or used in blogs or shared via social network sites with sources listed as from FEMA or FloodSmart.gov.
Spring flooding is on its way….here are resources to help to make your clients aware of their flood risks.

With the potential for massive snow melt and rain storms, many communities nationwide face the threat of flooding this spring. It is critical that you remind home and business owners of their personal flood risk and that flood insurance can financially protect them from costly flood damage. Flood Safety Awareness Week, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), was created to highlight the causes and consequences of flooding and educate communities on how to prepare for and protect their homes and businesses from the devastating effects of flooding.

Tips & Tools You Can Use
The National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP) FloodSmart Campaign is working with FEMA and NOAA to encourage home and business owners to take the steps necessary now to guard against the risks of flooding. Please join us in promoting Flood Safety Awareness Week to your customers, community members, colleagues and partners by using the tools and resources listed below.

Ready.gov/floodawareness: Visit Ready’s Flood Safety Awareness Week landing page to download Flood Safety Awareness Week fact sheets and other important preparedness tips you can share and post to your website.

FEMA.gov/widgets: A new Flood Safety Awareness Week embeddable widget is now available. We encourage you to include this on your website to promote the week. The FloodSmart seasonal widget is also available to post and share.

FloodSmart.gov: Visit FloodSmart.gov’s homepage to find important spring preparedness and flood insurance information and outreach tools.

Blog posts and social media promotion. FEMA will be blogging and spreading the word through their social media tools (Facebook and Twitter) next week. We encourage you to join them in using social media content. Draft posts and tweets are available upon request.

Visit the National Flood Insurance Program Web sites at
www.fema.gov/business/nfip, Agents.FloodSmart.gov and FloodSmart.gov.
FEMA 500 C Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20472.