Take a look at the news any day of the week and you’ll see stories of people affected by disasters: from entire communities dealing with the aftermath of tornadoes and large-scale flooding to families rebuilding after house fires and ruptured pipes caused by freezing weather. They all face the daunting prospect of starting over.
No matter what the cause, each of these people will deal not only with physical loss but with emotional trauma and financial impacts. Even the most prepared among us may someday deal with a catastrophe at the community or personal level that can’t be stopped, and we’ll have to decide whether to rebuild in place or start over elsewhere.
What’s non-negotiable is starting over, and what’s priceless is the mental preparation to do so, along with some resources for how to make that happen.
In the case of a disaster, the first step is, of course, to get yourself and your loved ones to safety. If you are able to do so safely, bring other items of value.
The second step is seemingly backward: prepare in advance. (That’s why you’re reading this blog, right?) Know the most likely natural disasters for your region and prepare accordingly. Those of us in earthquake country are able to mitigate danger and damage somewhat by practicing the “Stop, Cover, and Hold” drill and by taking steps to properly secure tall furniture, pictures, and breakable objects. For those in flood- and fire-prone areas, staging bug-out bags, sentimental items, and vital documents for evacuation or above high water levels will be very helpful.
Once the shaking stops or the water level drops, and it’s safe to enter your home, you can begin the process of salvaging and disposal without trying to find those necessities.
(For advice on replacing lost or destroyed essential documents, go read this article.)
A key step in preparing your household for starting over is to create an inventory well before it is needed. Schedule some time to walk your home and property, room by room and building by building, and document the items you own. You can document your inventory in a simple notebook, grab a set of special printable home inventory forms from us, pick up a booklet from your insurance agent, or use an app that allows you to note information with photo inserts of rooms and valuables.
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No matter what format you use, be sure to include the following in your documentation:
Additionally, some people choose to create a special section in their inventory document that notes only high-value items and sentimental items. This allows for more detailed descriptions of expensive belongings such as jewelry and firearms, which may also need separate insurance riders.
During this inventory process, be sure to make side notes of sentimental items that need better storage (such as archival boxes for photos) or things that are a “must go” in a planned evacuation; stage these items with your other supplies when the river starts to rise or fire season is imminent. You can tackle that to-do list as you are able – moving photos to acid-free storage boxes or scanning them for backups can even make for a fun family night or weekend.
When doing your inventory, be methodical about it. Start at one point in your house and work in one direction, documenting everything in front of you before moving to the next item. If you’re a tech-savvy bookworm with a large library, you can download apps to your device that will let you take a picture of your books’ barcodes and they will inventory for you, based on each book’s ISBN.
This inventory is a document that you will keep in a safe place, along with other vital documents such as identification documents (Social Security cards, passports, Concealed Carry licenses, etc.), legal paperwork (wills, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, divorce decrees, parenting plans, etc.), and medical documents (vaccination records, copies of health records, treatment plans, etc.)
You may prefer to keep these papers off-site in a bank safe deposit box, company safe, or friend’s safe if you know natural disasters are prevalent in your area, but weigh this against the risk of similar problems at the off-site location.
An option for home storage is a fireproof safe stored in the safest location on your property – be sure that portable safes are well-hidden from burglars but known and accessible to family members who might have to evacuate. Ensure that large safes, such as gun safes, are bolted down to prevent the possibility of home invasions where criminals have already cased the location – they may know to bring a pallet jack for the safe.
If you made use of digital devices to do your inventory, don’t forget redundancy: print copies are always a good thing, even if you have it in triplicate via thumb drives, a disk, and your phone. Drives can be erased, disks broken, papers burned, and phones lost and stolen, so the more backups you have, the better.
All this work might sound like a hassle, but having gone through the process of trying to help inventory my family’s belongings after a house fire, I promise you it’s worth it to have your documentation done before it’s needed. If you absolutely cannot make the time to do an inventory yourself, there are certified inventory professionals you can pay to do the job for you. The downside for preparedness types is having someone aware of what you have stored up; the upside is that, should you need to file a claim, the inventory professional is an objective person who can testify to the value of your items.
Since you now have an inventory of your possessions, along with the necessities for emergency evacuations, let’s move on to the salvage and disposal work after the disaster strikes. This may be as simple as flooding in one room from a broken pipe or a window that leaked during a typhoon; it may be as large as the destruction of several rooms or most of the house due to an apartment fire or tornado.
Let’s look at some common scenarios and how to handle them.
Smoke Damage From a Fire:
Water Damage from Flooding or Fire:
Some items can be salvaged after water damage, while others cannot.
Don’t bother trying to save:
Mold and mildew are clearly a huge threat when water is involved with any soft possessions. Dealing with flood-damaged textiles and sodden papers requires patience, protection, disinfectant, and a lot of air.
Go here to read about health and safety hazards after a flood.
For more in-depth information on salvaging and cleaning textiles, read the NDSU article Flood-damaged Textiles: What to Salvage and How to Clean by Ann Braaten
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration has an excellent article called Emergency Salvage of Flood Damaged Family Papers, which addresses salvaging books, documents, and photographs.
For information on replacing important documents, read this article.
Local libraries and museums may also have a conservationist who can advise you on safely salvaging books and other media. For extensive private collections, the American Institute for Conservation maintains a referral list of people you can consult with to save high-value, historic, and sentimental documents.
As you can see, the physical damage done by disasters can be overcome to a certain extent. It may take a lot of detergent and elbow grease, but in many cases, it can be done. In some cases, we may have to declare a total loss, but if we are as prepared as possible with appropriate records and resources, we can be better able to respond as necessary if the time ever comes.
After a natural disaster, it is vital to recognize that even as we pick up the pieces of what’s left around us, we will be battling our way through stress, trauma, and grief. The physical damage after an earthquake may turn out to be minor, but the loss of control and feeling of fear as we watched the floor move in waves under our feet are major.
In other instances, we may lose everything we value: family and friends, beloved pets, or irreplaceable symbols of our family’s heritage and travels. On the personal level, we don’t need to go through a fire to feel we’ve lost everything; a job loss or severe illness can be devastating as well.
Whether we ourselves are dealing with bereavement or are attempting to support others in our community, it is important to know and understand the five stages of grief. Knowing these stages and how to access resources to deal with them appropriately can help us cope as we move through the steps of rebuilding. Using such resources also helps us understand how others may be coping; just remember that we each have our own unique strengths, challenges, past experiences, stressors, and coping mechanisms, which will influence how we react during and after disasters. A group of people can go through an event at the same time, even in the very same location, and still both perceive and react to it differently.
The five stages of grief are:
None of us will go through the five stages of grief at the same speed, at the same time, or in the exact same way. Some may go through them in different orders, spend more time in one stage than others, or even circle back through parts of the grief cycle more than once.
Being resilient is important to coping in times of change, and the five characteristics of resiliency are being positive, focused, flexible, proactive, and organized. Having a good support system, a plan, and a will and willingness to survive are incredible tools during and after a crisis, both within your own life and when reaching out to help others through crises.
Very often, stress can take both a physical and a mental toll on survivors. It is vital that we know how to care for ourselves physically, spiritually, and mentally as we rebuild after a disaster. For more information about coping with grief and trauma-induced stress, look up the following articles:
Anyone recovering from a disaster should also be open to contacting a person in a counseling role or an ecclesiastical leader with training in counseling and post-crisis support as necessary. Oftentimes it can help us just to make initial contact and know that someone is there for us if we decide we need them, even if we never sit down for an official meeting or counseling session. Such individuals may also be able to put disaster survivors in touch with organizations that can provide financial and tangible resources, in addition to helping with mental health and morale issues.
Have you ever experienced a major disaster and had to start over? Or do you know anyone who has? Do you have any tips on salvage and cleanup to share? Any suggestions to help people emotionally? Would you share your story in the comments?
Let’s discuss this.
About the author: Melonie Kennedy has dealt with the aftermath of a house fire, a divorce, and flooding from a typhoon. She knows not to ask What next? any more! Visit her online at http://www.MelonieK.com.
Source: The Organic Prepper
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