A year and a half a go, my house flooded. I live in a two-story, and the laundry machine for whatever reason was installed on the second floor. In any case, the installation of the machine was fine. However, a simple 10 cent piece, the bracket to keep the drain hose in place, was not attached correctly when the machine was originally delivered. Some seven or eight years later, the drain hose managed to climb its way out of the drain pipe, and an entire laundry load of water spilled all over the floor. I was lucky enough to see it coming through the bottom floor ceiling because, due to COVID, I was working from home at the time. Suddenly, as I'm eating my lunch, I'm hearing this crackling sound, I go to the nearby room, and there's a waterfall dripping out of a bubble in my ceiling onto my family room couch.

While the above doesn't compare at all to losing an entire house to a wildfire or a flood or an earthquake, the entire damage recovery process was an eye-opener and something everyone should be prepared to deal with and no one has any kind of an idea what is required.

The first problem is the immediate event and damage. Obviously, if you can, the goal is to stop the damage from continuing and spreading. You do everything you can with tools you have to stop the progress and protect your property. However, the first barrier you run into is doing too much, believe or not. Most people who have property, whether rental or owned, have insurance, and they don't want damage fixed before an assessor comes out and tracks everything. Unfortunately, that could take weeks, and in the meantime you're stuck with damage that, if wet or burned, starts smelling and contaminating everything around it. And water in particular is bad as moisture oftentimes brings mold.

Of course, none of the above conversation happens at all without filing a claim. So, in the midst of stuffing rags, mopping water, and stopping it from spreading, you need to be on the phone filing a claim for your home damage.

The next phase you go into is the damage assessment response. This is where the insurance company involved tells you, based on their assessment, how much they are going to cover. Your job by this point is to have already pulled all your papers together, know what your policy covers, and assert your rights per your policy with your claim filed.

Once the insurance provider confirms the coverage and amount, then they send out a mitigation team. Typically they send out their contractor, or one you choose within their limits. The mitigation team does its work, and you've already received an estimate from your insurance provider what will be covered. If there is a deductible, you will pay it up front cash to the first service charge, typically the mitigator, and the insurance pays the rest. By this point, you're hoping things go pretty fast, and mitigation teams give you that impression because they work very fast.

By this point, the damage is stopped, the mess is cleaned up, but you have a gutted home. Now comes the long slog of the reconstruction. Depending on the damage, you will deal with a primary contractor who farms everything out to subcontractors. Despite all the promises of a smooth operation, you will deal with haphazard work scheduling, surprise workers showing up to do a work they were not expected, and then waiting weeks for other work to happen.

If you're lucky, a damage scale like mine will take about six months to be finished, and that's working extremely fast. Mine involved restoration of three room interiors, two hallways, and the entire downstairs flooring. The total bill for that 10 cent mistake was almost $25,000. And that was a small disaster compared to what other folks deal with in bigger events.

The point of all this is, take some time to read your home insurance or renter's insurance, and keep a copy handy. You never know when you're going to deal with a disaster and it practically always shows up 99.999% by surprise. If you don't have insurance, you will have to face all the damage repair and mitigation yourself. It's not surprising that people walk away from their homes in those instances, just taking the salvage money for the property and that's it.

Photo Source: Marc Averette, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood#/media/File:Flood102405.JPG

In our modern life, we take safety for granted. The reality is, we live in a very fragile environment that can change in a moment. If you anticipate reasonable risks, you have a better chance of responding to it quickly and recovering. If not, then don't be surprised when you become another statistic.