Storm
Recovery
Center

    Getting your house back to normal can help you and your family get back to normal.

    But remember that damaged homes can pose serious dangers. Take your time. Getting injured or making a bad decision out of haste will make a difficult situation worse.

    If your home looks unsafe, it probably is. Emergency management officials have plans to certify structures for safety after a hurricane, and it is wise to wait for them.

    Assessing damage on your own requires the right gear, including dry, rubber-soled shoes; rubber gloves or work gloves; hammer; screwdriver; pencil, and note paper. Do not inspect anything at night. Wait until daylight, and even then use a good flashlight when you go inside.

Inside

1. Be careful when entering and moving around in a damaged home. Do not smoke or use an open flame. If you smell gas, turn it off at the meter or tank.
2. Watch for loose electrical wires, and ceilings, beams and other objects that could fall. Never touch an electrical appliance or tool while standing in a pool of water. Be careful not to further weaken your home while removing debris.
3. Open all doors and windows to release moisture, odors and dangerous gases. If you cannot get a window open, use your tools to remove the sash. If a door won't open, remove the hinge pins and take off the entire door.
4. If the walls of a wood-frame home are waterlogged, drill or punch "weep holes'' in interior walls to let water out and speed the drying process. Brace walls where necessary with 2-by-4 studs. If the walls don't appear to meet flush with floors and ceilings, inspect the slab below for damage. Remember that the walls of many homes were not in perfect alignment when built. If that condition existed before the hurricane, leave it alone.
5. If you have wood floors that buckled, don't try to straighten them until they've dried. Then, take up the flooring and fasten it back down evenly. It can be a difficult, exacting job, and some flooring may need to be replaced altogether; you may need a professional. If you have ceramic or terrazzo tile on top of concrete flooring, let the floor dry, then reattach any loose tiles with appropriate cement or fastener. This job, too, may be best left to a professional.
6. While you're inside, look skyward to detect holes where water can get in through the roof. Make note of those areas, so you know where to make exterior repairs.

Outside

1. Walk slowly around your home, looking for big problems. In strong hurricane winds, some homes, even if they're miles from devastated areas, could have been blown off foundations.

The Roof

1. From the outside, inspect roof supports, ridge areas, gable ends and eaves. The roof may have stayed intact, but shifted. Such problems require professional repair.
2. If you go into the attic, step only on wooden roof supports. If you step elsewhere, you could fall through the ceiling. In the attic, cracked roof supports can be repaired temporarily by running 8-foot (or longer) 2-by-4's on each side of a broken support, and nailing them to the cracked support.
3. Use extreme caution -- and wear rubber-soled shoes -- if you decide to step onto the roof. Do not walk around; roofs that appear intact could have been weakened during a hurricane.
4. On the roof, look for missing asphalt roof shingles, and missing or broken roof tiles. On flat roofs, look for areas where the gravel surface and underlayment has been torn away.
5. Emergency repairs to leaky roofs can be made in a variety of ways. "Sneaky paper'' comes in rolls and has a self-adhesive side that sticks to the roof. Plastic sheeting, such as Visquene, can also be used to stop leaks. Plastic sheeting should be at least 6 mils thick. Roofing paper can be applied by alternating layers of trowel-grade roof cement and paper. Apply layers from the lowest part of the roof to the top.

Overall

1. Remember, make only temporary repairs necessary to prevent further damage. If you can, photograph the damage before you make stopgap repairs, and keep all receipts. Don't make permanent repairs until your insurance agent inspects the property.

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Last Revised: October 27, 2006 11:27 AM.