House Flooded? Your Step-by-Step Safety Guide

Should you go back in yet?

Not until authorities say so. Ready.gov is direct about this: return only when officials say it is safe. Treat the checklist below as a gate. If you cannot answer yes to all of it, wait outside.

• Local officials have cleared your area.
• No downed power lines sit near the house or yard.
• You smell no gas.
• The walls, porch and roof look straight and sound.
• Water around the home has gone down.
• Someone knows you are going in, and you have a flashlight.

The reason for all this caution is simple. A flooded house can look calm and still carry shock, gas or a failing floor. Your belongings can wait a day.

Step by step, from the curb to the front door

Work through these in order once the gate above is clear. Stop at any step that feels wrong and call the utility, the fire department or an electrician.

1. Look at the outside first: foundation, porch posts, roofline and the meter.
2. Check for wildlife before stepping in. Ready.gov warns that snakes and other animals may have moved indoors.
3. Put on rubber boots, rubber gloves and goggles, the gear CDC names when sewage may be involved.
4. Enter with a flashlight, not a candle or lighter.
5. Leave wet electrical equipment alone. Never touch it while standing in water.
6. Turn off power at the main only if you can reach it dry. CDC says to call an electrician if you would have to step into standing water to get there.
7. Shut off the gas and water if they are still on and you know how.
8. Photograph every room, waterline and damaged item before anything moves.
9. Keep children and pets out. Ready.gov says children should not take part in cleanup.

House flooded? What to do about gas, power and tap water

No single person clears a flooded house. Officials open the area, and then each system gets its answer from its own trade. Work down this table, built from CDC's reentry guidance and Ready.gov, before you treat the home as livable.

Go back in daylight. Keep any gasoline pump or generator at least 20 feet from doors, windows and vents, the distance CDC gives. Ready.gov also says people with asthma, other lung conditions or weakened immune systems should stay out of buildings with visible mold or indoor water leaks.

Why is flood water treated as Category 3?

Flood water counts as Category 3 because you cannot know what it carried. It crosses yards, roads, septic systems and storage sheds on the way in, and Ready.gov warns that it can be contaminated. The same goes for storm surge and river overflow.

The category changes the job. Clean water from a supply line may dry in place. Category 3 water usually means porous materials come out, because they cannot be cleaned to a safe level. CDC says to remove and discard drywall and insulation contaminated with sewage or floodwater, along with carpet, mattresses and upholstered furniture you cannot clean and dry quickly.

Geography matters here too. Vilano Beach sits between the Atlantic and the river, so water can come from either direction, and silt and salt can arrive with it. Salt does not leave with the water. It stays in the materials, and it is one more reason to look hard at anything porous that went under.

What we check first on a flooded house

We start by finding how high the water stood and how far it wicked. That line sets the scope, and it is usually higher inside the wall than the stain on the paint suggests.

Our first pass runs in this order:

• Waterline height, room by room, with photos before demolition.
• Moisture meter and thermal imaging readings above the visible line.
• Water category, so nobody treats contaminated water as clean.
• Floor assembly, since wet subfloor and slab edges hold water long after the room looks clear.
• A written scope before heavy work, so you see what stays and what goes.

From there the flood cut comes in: a horizontal cut through drywall above the wet line, so the section that took on water leaves the house. Containment and HEPA air scrubbers run during demolition, then air movers and LGR dehumidifiers take over. Our flood and storm damage page covers those stages in more detail.

Back after an evacuation: what changes?

A house that sat closed for days is a different job from one you caught in the first hours. CDC says to assume there is mold if a flooded home stayed closed for several days, to enter briefly, and to air it out for at least 30 minutes before staying longer.

Getting there can be the first obstacle on a low island. Hurricane Matthew left sand overwash on roads at Vilano Beach, per the National Hurricane Center, and Nicole's surge in 2022 partly collapsed A1A's northbound lane, per the National Weather Service. A quick trip to look can put you in the way of road crews, so wait for the clearance.

Air it first, then close it up

People get stuck here, because the advice seems to conflict. CDC's airing step is about the air you breathe when you walk in. Drying is about the water held in the materials, and on this coast the outside air rarely has room to take it. So air the house when you arrive, then expect it to be shut once LGR dehumidifiers are running.

Should you start pulling things out yourself?

Not until the table above is finished and the photos are done. After that it is a trade-off. Carpet you drag out today stops feeding moisture into the room, but it is heavy, it is Category 3 and it can leave a trail through rooms that stayed clean. We would rather you spend that time on the record and leave demolition to a crew running containment.

What can wait, and what cannot

Wait on the things you want to do, and move fast on the things you must. Sorting family keepsakes, repainting and picking new flooring can wait. Calling for help, recording the damage and getting wet material out of the house cannot.

If rain came in through wind damage instead of rising water, the first steps are similar but the scope is often different, and our storm damage restoration page explains how.

When the water is down, make the call

Once the house is cleared, call. It goes straight to the owner, and with an emergency you can call any time. For a home that has taken on water right now, our emergency water damage page sets out what happens first.

We will look at the damage, explain what we found and write up a free estimate. Then you decide. If you are still standing at the curb and not sure the house is safe, stay there, call the utility or the fire department first, and call us after.