How Can I Limit or Prevent Potential Flood Damage at My Long Beach House?

9/12/2020 (Permalink)

Remember, if you ever need assistance preparing for or cleaning up after a flood, your neighbors at SERVPRO are here to help.

You Can Lessen or Prevent Flood Damage Simply by Making it More Difficult for Floodwaters to Enter Your Long Beach Home and Ensuring that It Has an Effective Drainage System.

Long Beach has long served as a weekend getaway destination for those working in nearby New York City.  As such, several city residents have purchased beach houses on the barrier island for their weekend leisure activities.  The seaside community is super convenient, as it is only a few miles from JFK Airport and the NYC limits, and offers residents seemingly endless fun in the sun during the warmer months.  With that said, it can also be quite an inconvenient location when the big annual storms hit.  Throughout the year, hurricanes and Nor’easters routinely pound this community and others on Long Island’s South Shore.  As a result, the narrow barrier islands, battered by strong winds and their related storm surges, often become inundated by floodwaters.

How Can I Make My Home More Resistant to Stormwaters?
SERVPRO, a local service that remediates flood damage in Long Beach, offers some advice for safeguarding your home from flooding stormwaters.  The following are some of their suggestions for making your home more resistant to these bringers of disaster:

    •    Inspect your home’s foundation before storms strike and repair any cracks or other damage found to make it more difficult for floodwaters to enter your residence
    •    Examine your roof and fix any damage you discover, repairing holes and replacing missing tiles, to prevent rainwater from leaking into your home
    •    Make sure that your gutters and drainage systems are in good working order so that stormwaters are drained away from your structure
    •    Safeguard your home from windblown water by boarding up all windows, doors, and other openings

While it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to prevent all storm-related waters from finding their way into your residence, the actions listed above should substantially lessen your overall flood damage.

What Can I Do Around My House to Make it Less Susceptible to Flood Damage?
After you have fortified your house against storm damage, there are some things you can do in your yard to further enhance its security from the effects of natural disasters.  SERVPRO professionals advise doing these things to make your yard safer during storms:

    •    Strategically sandbag the perimeter of your yard to divert floodwaters away from it and your home
    •    Remove dead trees and cut any tree limbs that may fall on or otherwise damage your house
    •    Bring lawn furniture and any other objects that may become flying projectiles in a storm inside
    •    Pick up and properly discard any lawn debris

These simple steps should further protect your home from exterior damage that may allow stormwaters to penetrate your residence.

Why is Your Neighborhood SERVPRO a Good Service to Call to Plan For or Remediate Flood Damage?
There are several reasons why SERVPRO is an excellent option when you need to plan for or deal with floodwater damage.  These reasons, which concern everything from our firm reputation to our innovative methods and high-tech equipment, include:

    •    We are widely recognized flood damage remediation experts that are certified by the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC)
    •    Company technicians have specific credentialing in applied structural drying, water damage restoration, and applied microbial remediation
    •    Our firm has gained extensive experience from successfully dealing with such destruction as that caused by Superstorm Sandy
    •    SERVPRO professionals have access to all the latest and greatest cleaning and restoration tools currently available  
    •    Our company enables you to be better prepared for potential disasters by allowing you to file an Emergency READY Profile (ERP), which provides us with critical information about your property and helps us develop a clear plan of action before disaster strikes
    •    We are locally owned/operated and available at any time, so our technicians can often be onsite within four hours of your call

As these characteristics indicate, we have developed a remediation business that utilizes all the latest advanced training and technology to provide customers with the most effective service possible.

Living or weekending in Long Beach is often a pleasure, but it does come with an additional cost if you own property here.  At almost any time of the year, there is always a potential for strong storms and flooding.  Since our city is on a narrow, low-lying island, it does not take much rainwater or storm surge to inundate local homes.  With all that said, however, there are measures you can take to lower your risks of incurring catastrophic flood damage.  Simply by following some of the simple advice offered here, you can often avert the most serious damage.

Remember, if you ever need assistance preparing for or cleaning up after a flood, your neighbors at SERVPRO are here to help.  Call SERVPRO of Long Beach / Oceanside at (516) 536-1801 whenever you need us.