Storms can happen anytime, whether they be brought on by wind, fire, precipitation, or a combination of them all. When a storm strikes your home or business, what you do in the first 48 hours makes all the difference. Your first calls should be to your insurance provider and a trusted restoration company such as S&S Restoration. Their responses should be quick, but it’s likely they’re receiving a high volume of calls and could take up to 24 hours to get back to you and arrive at the scene. Once you have verified the safety and well-being of everyone inside and around the building, you can move forward with preliminary assessments to provide the most accurate information to your insurance and storm restoration companies.
Suit Up for Safety
Natural disasters can leave quite a mess in their wake, often leaving hazards of all types littering the space in and around your building. Before you enter the property, it’s critical that you suit up with the correct safety gear. Ideally you should be equipped with:
- Hard hats
- Closed toed shoes
- N95 masks – or a respirator
- Work gloves
- Hazmat suits
These safety personal protective equipment (PPE) items will ensure you do not harm yourself while examining the scene. Hard hats protect your head from falling objects such as unstable ceilings and roofing materials, and closed toed shoes prevent harming yourself on exposed nails, metal, wood, and etc. Work gloves protect your hands from splinters, cuts, and more while allowing you to sift through the wreckage safely. Hazmat suits and N95 masks are important to protect your entire body and your respiratory system from potential mold, gas, or other exposure. You won’t know what utilities or elements have been disturbed or displaced until you assess, so it’s best to prepare for the worst.
Conduct an Initial Visual Assessment
You know your home or commercial building best, so you’ll know what’s been damaged or missing down to the little details. If your building is safe to enter, you may do so. However, we suggest consulting with the local fire and police departments before entering any storm damaged building – there could be damaged electrical utilities or water that could be incredibly dangerous to be near. If you have been given the go-ahead, enter with caution. We suggest taking as many pictures as possible while you are doing an initial walk-through. These pictures will be helpful for both insurance and storm restoration companies, informing them when they’re determining who to send out and what equipment to bring. Although it may be tempting to begin the clean-up process right then and there, you should really wait for a professional crew to come in for the best results and to minimize additional damage. Taking small items such as family heirlooms, photographs, medications, documents, and other personal sentimental items is okay, but larger items such as appliances and furniture should stay put. When you leave, be sure to secure the property as best as you can – in serious storm damage situations this is not possible, so do what you are able to.
Call the Professionals
It’s in your best interest to call your storm restoration company as soon as possible. The sooner they’re able to get out to your property the better the restoration process will be, and the lower the chance of further damage to your home or business. Preparing for home or business restoration is quite simple, and providers like S&S Restoration handle your property from start to finish. From assessment to clean-up, water extraction, utility management, and repairs – the S&S Restoration team is prepared to bring you calm in a time of chaos.
About S&S Restoration
S&S Restoration is a Temecula, California restoration company that specializes in both residential and commercial buildings affected by fire, flooding, mold, and storms. We proudly serve the Inland Empire, San Diego, High Desert, and San Bernardino County areas. Give us a call at (800) 608-8447 or visit our website at ssrestorationinc.com, we’re available 24/7 for emergency response to guarantee the best outcomes.
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