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Drying out your home after a flood or a hurricane is a time consuming task and while you might think that you can just dry everything as fast as possible and fix all the problems, this is not always the case.  There are a few things that you need to be aware of when you go to dry out your home after one of these events and they are important to restoring your home to the way that it used to be.

Most of the time you cannot prepare for a flood to come upon your home, but you can do your best to prepare yourself for it mentally.  This is done by equipping yourself with the knowledge necessary to dry out and repair the items in your home after the damage has already been done. 

Before re-entering the house, you need to make sure that there is no electricity running to it, since there is probably still some standing water inside.  This brings along with it a serious risk of electrocution that you need to be aware of.  Do not rely on the condition of your neighbor’s electricity to be an indicator of yours.  Switch the power off to the entire house before going back in.

Take a video camera and record all the damage. You can also do this with a digital camera or one that takes traditional film, but a video camera is the most recommended method.  Make sure you record all the belongings in the house that were damaged and their approximate value, if possible.  This will help you out when your insurance claims adjuster comes to assess the damage to your home and decide how much compensation you will receive.    

The entire home needs to be dried out as soon as possible, but do not use artificial heat sources such as space heaters or blowers to accomplish this.  This will promote buckling or cupping of hardwood floors, if you have them, and may do more harm than good.  Open the doors and windows throughout the house.  Odds are good that until your home dries out completely, you will not be sleeping there, unless you have second floor that was not affected by the flood.

Look in the attic and see if your insulation has gotten wet.  If it is fiberglass and has gotten wet, you will need to replace it.  Wet fiberglass insulation is no longer any good.

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We all know mold causes health damage, but one mold in particular called Stachybotrys chartarum can be extremely dangerous.  Stachybotrys is the mold that most people think about when they think of “black mold” and for good reason. 

Stachybotrys (sometimes called simply “stachy”) grows on water damaged wood and paper, but where it does not grow is plastic, the tiles in our kitchens and bathrooms, and concrete.  Wood and water that has gotten wet and allowed to dry that way will become infected with the mold and it will spread to other areas in your house.  It requires almost constant moisture in order to grow and thrive. Wet clothing tossed in the backs of closets and forgotten about is often found to have mold growing upon it.  Stachy mold is usually a greenish-black, wet, and slimy when found and it requires cellulose products like paper, wood, and cotton in order to grow long term.  Although the spores of wet mold do not easily enter the air, if the mold is allowed to dry out, it becomes more of a health hazard.  

While stachy mold is not the only kind or even really the most common kind of mold found growing in these conditions, it is still one of the most dangerous kinds of mold to allow in your home or office because it kills brain cells and has similar symptoms to Alzheimer’s Disease.  If you or anyone in your home are experiencing disorientation, memory loss, and the inability to think logically at times and are not at the age to be at risk for Alzheimer’s, a test for mold should be done to determine if this is the cause.

Common health complications due to exposure to this mold include asthma, pneumonitis, skin rashes, bloody noses, headaches, and other respiratory problems.  Prolonged exposure can cause internal bleeding of the lungs, kidney failure, and liver failure.  Pulmonary emphysema can also be caused by prolonged exposure to this and other black molds.  

This mold is particularly likely to show up in homes or buildings that have been flooded or extensively water damaged and areas where constant leaks are present, such as water pipes and hot water heaters.  Just touching this mold can cause skin rashes and because of the excessive health risks associated with it, it is often recommended that only trained mold removal specialists should be used to remove it from a home or building where it is present. 

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