Living in a coastal community is great! The scenery is beautiful. There’s plenty of recreational activities. The seafood is superb.
Yet, there is one major drawback to owning a home or business in a coastal area: flooding.
Fear of flooding is a major concern for residents and business owners along New Jersey’s Gold Coast and the Manhattan waterfront. Any time there’s a severe thunderstorm warning, snowstorm or freezing conditions, property owners in these areas grow concerned.
While the concerns around flooding often focus on property damage, there are many other dangers associated with this issue.
If your property is flooded, it’s important for you to take swift action to remove the water and dry your property thoroughly. If not, you could run the risk of encountering these additional dangers of household floods.
Floods Cause Mold Growth
This may be the most common concern when it comes to flood damaged properties. After flood waters have receded from your property, you need to thoroughly dry out the water-damaged areas as soon as possible. If not, all the dampness that’s trapped in the various surfaces will breed mold. Once mold begins to grow in a water-damaged property, it can quickly spread to unaffected areas. As it spreads and grows, it can not only cause additional damage to your property, it can cause a variety of respiratory illnesses and health issues with you and other members of your household or business environment.
Floods Attract Insects, Vermin and Parasites
It should come as no surprise that lingering flood waters will cause further damage to your property. What may be more surprising is that those lingering waters also attract various insects, vermin, pests and parasites.
When a nearby water system like a river, lake, stream or creek floods your property, it elevates the probability of snakes, rats and other vermin slithering and swimming in your flooded areas.
If that wasn’t alarming enough, lingering floodwaters are breeding grounds for insects, especially during the hot summer months. Mosquitos, crickets, flies and other insects and bugs love stagnant water. The longer the water remains, the greater the risk of insect infestation. That’s why it’s imperative to pump out the floodwater and dry out your home or office as quickly as possible after a flood.
Flood Waters Spread Hazardous Chemicals and Materials
Ever spot a rainbow pattern on the surface of floodwater? Or see blotches of something dark colored floating on the surface of those same waters? If so, don’t go near those areas as they are contaminated by hazardous chemicals and materials.
Flood waters are incredibly strong, so they often damage, disconnect and dislodge various tanks and containers that carry fuel, oil and other dangerous chemicals and materials. Those chemicals then leak out and mix with the floodwaters.
Exposure to these contaminated waters can irritate skin and eyes and/or cause illness. But those are not the only concerns. Since many of these chemicals are highly flammable, they may cause fires if they encounter exposed wires (another damaging effect of floodwaters.
The faster you pump out your property, the sooner you’ll reduce the risk of injury or accident caused by chemically polluted flood waters.
Floods Increase Risk of Exposure to Illness and Infection
As we previously stated, flood waters are filled with bugs, vermin and insects that can cause lots of serious illness to your household. Yet, those are not the only illness-causing agents floating in the flood waters.
Unfortunately, floodwaters often contain waste and raw sewage, too. Exposure to unclean and unsanitary flood waters may lead to illness. And if a cut or open wound is exposed to these dirty waters, it could result in a serious, even life-threatening infection.
As you can see, floods are not only damaging to property. They also leave residents vulnerable to all kinds of additional dangers.
To avoid the risks associated with these flood-related dangers, you should contact a professional flood damage and restoration specialist immediately.
With almost 20 years of experience in the water damage restoration and mitigation industry, the team at FloodCo USA is available 24/7 to remove flood waters from your property. Plus, they’ll thoroughly dry out the affected areas to help reduce mold growth – all without ripping and removing your floors and walls.
For more information about FloodCo USA’s flood damage services, contact us today!
