How to Handle Storm Damage to Your Property

9/26/2017 (Permalink)

How to Handle Storm Damage to Your Property

In the United States, storm damage is among the most costly sources of property loss. Each year, tens of billions of dollars in property damage is caused by river flooding, wind damage, hurricane damage, ice damage and hail damage. While these sources of storm damage are often unavoidable, in most cases, home restoration and storm remediation can be carried out successfully. But this relies on the property owner quickly contacting a professional home restoration and storm remediation company.

Many people envision storm damage as being something closely associated with warmer climates or the Central Plains region of the United States. While it's true that hurricane damage and wind damage is often the main kind of storm damage seem in warmer climates, billions of dollars in storm damage are still caused by such things as ice damage, frozen pipes and ice dams in colder climates. The truth is that storm damage can occur almost anywhere.

Warm weather storms


While there are a few areas of the United States, such as the Northwestern Coast region, that are largely immune from the effects of severe weather, the vast majority of the United States is at least seasonally vulnerable to serious severe weather. Flooding, wind damage, roof damage, flood water and ground water saturation are just some of the things caused by these common weather phenomena.

Recent storms throughout the Southern United States have shown that many cities are highly vulnerable to groundwater reaching saturation levels, causing widespread flooding and even inducing river flooding and floodwaters from locations that would otherwise not have been likely to overflow.

But for as much damage as river flooding and groundwater flooding do, even more damage occurs from wind damage. Roof leaks can cause flood water to enter homes. And roof repairs alone run into the billions of dollars every year. Hurricane damage and hail damage often result in roof leaks and require extensive roof repairs.

Flooding, especially that caused by river flooding and groundwater flooding are often the most expensive kinds of home restoration and storm remediation efforts. However, those caused by wind are much more common. This makes roof leaks and roof damage more expensive in the aggregate. And roof damage or roof leaks are, therefore, a more serious concern to more Americans than hurricane damage or flood water.

Luckily, roof repairs are often some of the easiest performed kinds of storm remediation. While water restoration and removal of flood water can often be carried out quickly and relatively inexpensively, when they are the result of flooding, they are often a more expensive form of storm remediation.

Cold weather storm remediation.


While warm weather storms can be expensive causes of storm restoration efforts, winter storms can play an equally destructive role. Roof damage can also occur due to winter storms. Ground water freezing can mean that normal absorption is impossible. Frozen pipes, ice dams and ice damage are potent sources of winter weather damage. Ice damming can quickly cause massive roof leakage. Hail damage is another serious problem in winter storms, adding to the complexity of storm remediation.

Roof repair often becomes necessary after major ice damming events. Ice dams can often make storm restoration efforts more complicated, resulting in the required use of flood pumps. When ground water freezes, the likelihood that ice damming will result it overwhelming runoff from the roof with the ice dam becomes high, making the home restoration more difficult.

Frozen pipes are also a major concern. Frozen pipes that break will often necessitate the use of heavy-duty flood pumps. While flood pumps work very well in warm conditions, a flood pump may ingest frozen ground water or otherwise break down in colder climes, making the water restoration more difficult.

Hail damage, ice damage and ice damming can all be handled easily by a professional water restoration team but should not be undertaken on a do-it-yourself basis. Whatever the climate, water restoration and storm restoration are best left to storm restoration professionals.
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