What Should You Do If Your Basement Floods?
While there are a number of precautions home and building owners can take to minimize the possibility of basement floods, sometimes extraordinary circumstances may still cause just such an event to occur. An actual flood situation, an excessive snow melt, extremely heavy rains, or even a burst water pipe can overwhelm certain mechanisms designed to fend off smaller causes of flooding, leaving you with a flooded basement. If such a thing happens to you, you should be aware that you are in a potentially dangerous situation, and you should act accordingly to maximize the safety of anyone in the home or building. Here are a few of the things you should keep in mind if you encounter a flooded basement.
Safety Considerations
The first thing you should do is keep the safety of occupants first and foremost in your mind. Depending on the type of flooding that has occurred, there can be any number of factors to consider. If the flood is a result of a sewage back up into your home, then bacterial, viral and other infections pose a health hazard to everyone, and no contact with the water should be risked.
Even if the water isn’t contaminated, most basements will typically house the fuse box and other electrical devices, all of which are now being exposed to water, so great care must be taken to ensure that the water itself is not carrying a live electrical current. If it’s not, it’s still best to shut off the power in the home to prevent any possible electrical short circuits occurring within the rest of the building.
Finally, heating units should be shut down, although in the case of natural gas furnaces and other appliances, this may mean calling your local utilities company and informing them of the situation so they can send an experienced technician to directly cut the gas off from your home. If you already smell gas within your home, you should leave immediately and contact your utilities company when you are safe.
The Aftermath
At this stage, depending on the severity of the flooding, you will likely require a professional crew to assist in the recovery of your basement. You will probably also want to consult with experts to see what kind of flood prevention measures you can take to avoid the situation in the future, or re-assess your existing flood prevention mechanisms to see how you can further augment your home against this damaging phenomena.
If you’d like to know more about flood prevention and management, AAAction Waterproofing is more than happy to give you the information you need. Get in touch with us for a consultation today.