Just when everything seems calm and normal, disaster can strike at a moment’s notice without any warning. What makes most disasters so devastating is that we are never truly ready to deal with them until it is too late. With disasters striking homes all across the nation and in the Philadelphia area every day, there are now trained groups of specialists who are ready to help when the time comes for Philadelphia disaster restoration.
It is important that you are ready to deal with disaster when it strikes so that you can move on and be better prepared for the future. While you can never really be fully prepared for a surprise disaster, understanding what causes disasters and how you can try preventing them could keep you from needing to deal with them in the future. In the event you come across an unforeseen disaster, we also want to make sure you are ready to take the right action to get back on your feet again.
How Disaster Strikes
Whether you are living in the South Philadelphia area or you are closer to Villanova, disaster can strike anyone at any time. The most common disasters that homeowners face are not issues that simply come out of nowhere, but issues that have been building up over time as a result of not ensuring a property is being kept in its best shape possible.
You can have random events like storm damage come out of nowhere to ruin your home, but if you had taken the time to ensure your basement was leak-proof then the damage would have been lessened. There are also the very common issues of water and fire damage that can happen in an instant with lasting issues that you could be dealing with for weeks and months after the incident. Before disaster catches you off guard and unprepared, let’s see what any homeowner can do to try and prevent serious damage from occurring from surprise disasters.
Can you Prepare for Disaster?
Despite what disasters may look like after they strike, there is actually a decent amount you can do to try and prevent them from even happening in the first place. While a tornado or lightning strike is not something you can really be prepared for, ensuring your home is ready to deal with impending issues is what will save you time and money in the long run.
For example, let’s say a storm is coming that looks like it could be bringing some serious rain. If your home has been properly treated by a professional to keep water out with flood-proofing, you will not have to be worried that your house could flood and cause a wide array of damage.
Alternatively, a house that has neglected to get regular leak inspections could see their entire basement getting flooded that will lead to thousands of dollars in water damage in Philadelphia and could even cause issues with things like mold that will be haunting you for years to come.
While it may seem like disasters are completely out of your control, there is some level of responsibility nearly any homeowner can take to make sure that they at least have some level of preparedness for the worst. No matter what disaster you are dealing with or anticipate, let’s see the best way to go about recovering from a surprise disaster.
How to Recover from Surprise Disasters
Assess the Issues
When disaster strikes first, you want to immediately try and assess the damage. Whether you experienced a fire or flooding, make sure you inspect the damage in the safest manner possible. Understanding what happened to the best of your ability will allow you to contact the right people immediately to get the issue resolved. You can look for things like water entering the home in certain areas to try and see what went wrong to looking at where issues like burning are most substantial to see where the fire could have started from.
Call the Experts
While you can look at a disaster and try to guess what happened and how to carry on, calling the experts should realistically be done within minutes of the issue occurring. Despite many people saying that you should call insurance first, calling the experts who specialize in damage repair first will prevent the issue from getting worse and spreading. You want to get out a team who can figure out what happened and put a bandage on the problem for now before deciding how to del with the situation further. Calling the experts before the insurance team makes sure the issue is resolved fast and you’re not just stuck with a flooding basement and meaningless quote.
Reach Out to Insurance
With the experts taking care of the problem, now you can start to deal with insurance. Depending what happened and what coverage you have, your insurance may be able to cover a good amount of the issue or not much at all. When trying to maximize the amount you get from insurance, taking the necessary precautions before the disaster that we mentioned earlier will help your case as it shows that you were actively trying to keep these disasters at bay.
Continue to Monitor the Situation
Even after the initial cleanup is taken care of by the restoration crew, the job is not necessarily finished. You need to make sure you are taking the right steps to keep the situation under control so you don’t have future issues to deal with. It is issues like mold remediation in Philadelphia that occur after the disaster strikes that you can still be feeling the negative effects of years later.
Key Takeaways
Disasters are something that can strike in an instant and cause headaches for months after. In the Philadelphia area, you are luckily in good hands with restoration teams eager to help out when disaster strikes. Through preemptive action and following the right steps, you can be ready for anything.
