Disaster Recovery News

Image from the Fairhaven Recreation Center

The #1 New Years resolution among Americans this year was to lose weight. With this, gym owners prepared and anticipate a rise in gym members during the month of January. However, a gym in Fairhaven found themselves losing out on business as they rang in the New Year with water flooding their fitness center.

The Fairhaven Recreation Center had a pipe burst, causing water damage in the area where exercise machines and other fitness items were located. SouthCoastToday.com interviewed recreational director Warren Rensehausen, who stated: “It couldn’t have happened at a worse time.” January is one of the busiest times of the year for the recreation center and the Wellness Room was closed for repairs until all the water damage was remediated. According the Fairhaven Recreation Center’s Facebook page, the Wellness Room just opened back up this week.

The cause of the broken pipe is unknown. The clean-up from the waters included cutting into plaster to replace insulation, drying out fitness equipment, and waiting until everything was dry. Luckily the water damage was found early so the damage was minimal.

Business continuity is essential, especially during times when business owners know they’ll be busy. Business should have a plan to prepare for unexpected events like burst pipes or natural disasters.

Learn about how having a plan can help keep clients and save money on restoration costs.

Photo taken after Hurrican Katrina by the U.S. Army

When Hurricane Katrina caused extensive flooding in the state of Louisiana in 2005, the waters were an equal-opportunity offender. As a result, the St. Bernard Parish Courthouse also received extensive flood water damage as 3 feet of water just sat in the building.

In an attempt to keep business operating, courthouse staff found other parts of the building to work in as they picked through important wet documents in an attempt to salvage them. Business continuity led the courthouse staff to another worksite after extensive mold damage was discovered in the 70-year-old building’s walls and air ducts, and the chronically leaky roof did not make matters any better.

Big Mistakes

One dire mistake was made after Hurricane Katrina: no restoration specialists were called in to remediate the mold damage as soon as it was discovered. After only the floors and walls were merely wiped down (which probably helped spread the mold instead of kill it), the mold was never looked at until now.

A second mistake is that employees were allowed to work in the building before assessing health and safety risks, which means they were exposed to molds. Then employees were allowed back into the building to continue operations. Because of the lack of mold remediation, toxic spores were found. Nola.com reports that mold was found virtually everywhere in the building, but employees are not expected to have “any major health problem”.

The entire courthouse staff is going to have to be relocated until the mold remediation process is complete. Read more about this story.

Cleaning Mold

After there is water damage to any building, the building and its contents need to be dried ASAP. If not, mold will take over. If the drying process is not done correctly, mold will take over. One of the best things a business can do is call in a remediation specialist to help with this process; doing this will help ensure one is back in business quickly.

More on mold remediation.

Image from South Meadow School website

South Meadow School in Peterborough, New Hampshire recently welcomed a new school-year, but had to work harder than usual to re-open its doors. A couple days before school started, the school suffered major flood damage that came with hard rains that were too much for the school’s drainage system.

Flood waters went as high as 6-inches on the school building, soaking carpets, school equipment, classrooms, and drywall. When the news of the flood reached the facilities director, he immediately followed the guidelines of the school’s emergency disaster plan and gathered the maintenance crew to begin the clean-up process before calling-in professionals to assist.

The quick thinking and fast actions of all involved saved the school from thousands of dollars of future expenses. The actions taken saved the school from further damage from the flood waters and prevented damaging mold-growth.

The staff members at the school follow a business continuity plan and set-up make-shift offices in different locations of the school and even utilized the high school’s building during the flood recovery process. The attitude of the school staff remained positive as they saw the flood damage as a means to do some much-needed reorganizing.

More on this story.

Learn how your business can develop its own disaster recovery plan.

As storms move east along Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, people from Mississippi are bracing themselves for the severe weather that is predicted to arrive on Wednesday evening. The turbulence is expected to last through Friday and can bring hail, strong winds, and possibly even tornadoes. This is warning is getting special attention after tornadoes just devastated parts of Nebraska.

Every person, business, and household should be prepared for the worst when it comes to damaging storms. Learn how to develop an emergency plan and disaster kit.

The recovery process after disaster can be long and tedious. Let a disaster recovery specialist assist you with your business and home to help you get back on your feet as soon as possible. More on disaster recovery services.

It’s Flood Safety Week. According the FEMA and NOAA, floods account for 90% of the natural disasters in the United States. Floods can be caused by snow melt, hurricanes and tropical storms, flash floods, severe storms, and levee failures. Not only are floods the most prevalent of the natural disasters, but are also the most costly and deadly of the disasters.

FEMA and NOAA have paired up and created FloodSmart.gov, a site that educates one about the risks involved with floods, the costs of floods financially and personally, and what one can do to protect against flood risks. It is estimated that 25% of flood claims are from areas that are not in areas considered to be “high-risk”.

FloodSmart.gov outlines how one can begin to recover from a flood.

Read helpful tips:

• Check out tips about recovering from a flood.
• Learn flood insurance basics.
• Business owners can also find tips on how to make the flood recovery process more efficient to ensure business continuity.