Flooding Tips: Cleaning Up,Water Damage, Dealing With Insurance And More

As much as we would like to prevent it, many of us may have suffered some kind or water damage because of the downpours.

So we've put together some information for anyone whose basement is wet or flooded, and some information if your car was damaged.

First safety: If you will be standing in water, do not go into your basement and touch any electrical switches, panels, circuits or appliances.

If your circuit breakers are located upstairs, you must kill the power to the basement before you go down.

If your circuit breakers are in the basement, you must call an electrician.

Next: getting rid of water.

The first thing is to locate the drains in the floor of your basement.

If the drains are covered with furniture or rugs, uncover them and push the water towards those drains.

If you have an outside stairwell into your basement, there should be a drain at the bottom of those stairs. Make sure it's clear of debris or leaves.

You can also rent a submersible pump to help pump out the water if it's deeper than two inches.

After the water has gone down, the next thing to think about is drying things out.

The first thing is to pull furniture away from the walls and lift up carpet.

Then you have to get the air moving by bringing fans into the basement.

You may also want to rent a dehumidifier to help dry out the soggy mess.

Now, let's turn to cars. Lots of people lost their cars yesterday due to flooding.

And they want to know if they are covered. The answer is yes, they are covered if -- and here's the big if -- if the owners have comprehensive coverage.

There are three types of car insurance: liability, collision and comprehensive.

Comprehensive covers damage to your vehicle from natural disasters such as flooding.

However, you must have bought comprehensive to be covered. You're not if you didn't.

Plus if your car is a total loss, you'll only get what the insurance company thinks your car is worth, which may be less than what you still owe on the car.

So here's the bottom line on insurance.

Basically, if water comes from the sky -- rain, snow, leaky roof -- meaning if it comes from the top down, it's covered. The resulting damage is covered.

However, if the water comes from the ground up -- rain water, pools around your foundation and seeps into your basement -- it's not covered.

That's because insurance companies typically consider this flood water, and flooding is not covered under normal homeowners policies.

And one final note about contracting scams. Floods like the one we just had bring out the scam artists.

So be wary of any contractor who knocks on your door because he's in the neighborhood.

And don't jump into anything. It's bad enough you have damage. Taking a little time to get the job done right can save you lots of money, time and aggravation.

This is the time to contact a professional team like Dryout.

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