USE TIPS & TECHNIQUES FOR CLEANING FLOODED ITEMS AND SANITIZING THE HOUSE

got this from fellow n@wie Leo and Sunshine Sangalang posts =D

General cleaning

Before anything else, talk to your insurance agent and ask if your
insurance covers Acts of God like floods and earthquakes. List down the
damage and take photos of the house to help your insurance company assess
the situation. Remove as much mud as you can from the floors and walls,
then use a hose to wash the surfaces. Using an anti-bacterial, all-purpose
house cleaner, disinfect every surface and piece of furniture. It's
important that your house cleaner have anti-bacterial properties because
floodwaters are teeming with pathogens and bacteria.

The kitchen

Soak all dishes, porcelain, plastic dinnerware, and glasses in a gallon of
hot water with 2 tablespoons of chlorine bleach. Leave them out to dry. Do
not towel-dry. Disinfect all metal utensils, pots, and pans by boiling
them in water for 10 minutes. Do not use chlorine bleach because it will
cause the metals to darken. Clean the counters and cupboards with the
anti-bacterial house cleaner before storing the dishes, glasses, and
utensils.

Refrigerators

Sanitize the refrigerator if water has seeped in. Be sure the motor and
freezing unit are in safe working order and insulation is not wet. Wet
insulation means replacement may be necessary.
1. Remove and wash all shelves, crispers and ice trays. Wash thoroughly
with water and detergent. Rinse with a disinfectant solution.
2. Wash the interior of the refrigerator, including the door and door
gasket, with hot water and baking soda. Rinse with a disinfectant
solution.
3. Leave the door open for about 15 minutes to allow free air
circulation.
4. If odor remains, place several pieces of activated charcoal in an open
metal container, or use a commercial refrigerator deodorizer.
5. Wash the outside with a mild detergent and hot water.

Furniture and personal belongings

Let furniture, bedding, clothing, and rugs out to dry as soon as the
floods recede. Keep your windows open to ventilate the room with air from
outside to avoid developing molds and mildew. If molds and mildew are
already there, vacuum the floors, walls, and ceiling to remove them, then
wash with a disinfectant. Mattresses and stuffed toys contaminated by
flood waters have to be thrown away. Upholstered furniture can still be
salvaged and cleaned by a professional. Do not attempt to clean them
yourself because the upholstery soaked up a lot of the bacteria from the
floodwaters. Unless the damage was severe, solid wood furniture can still
be restored. Dry out all photographs, books, and papers carefully.
Appliances will be affected by silt deposits, gritty deposits, and
stained. Have them cleaned, sanitized, and serviced by a professional.
Never plug in uncleaned electronics; you may end up short-circuiting the
electronic components and shocking yourself.

Making your home typhoon-proof

In case you haven't prepared your home for the strong rains and wind, here
are a few tips for making your home typhoon-proof.
Check your roof for rust. If you find any, scrape it off with a steel
brush then finish off with sandpaper to make the surface smooth. Also
inspect your roof for loose nails. If there are any, hammer them down and
seal them with plastic roof cement. Finally, apply an anti-rust primer
before painting your roof with a roof-guard paint.
The most important thing to do is to fix the leaks on your roof. Leaking
roofs can cause ugly stains on your walls and can even flood your basement
and damage the foundation. To prevent this from happening, clean out your
gutters at least once a year. Patch up a leak as soon as you spot one.
Clean your gutter and make sure that they are free from dead leaves or
debris as these could clog up your drain. After cleaning, use a hose to
flush out the gutter and watch out for any leaks. Look for rusty patches
and cover up the small holes with a coat of roof guard paint. If the rust
ate away large holes, replace the entire area with a new one. Seal off
your gutter with an aluminum sealing strip.

The following are few tips and advice you could do in order to prepare
yourself for any flood inevitability.

Expect the expected
It is important that you clearly understand and that you are aware of any
damages that a flood could cause. Some of these inevitabilities include
boulders that are rolling, trees that are ripped right out from the
ground, buildings that are destroyed as well as bridges, sliding debris.

Do not be afraid to ask
It is also vital that you ask around your local zoning and planning office
as to whether the property you are on is below the level of the flood or
above it. Also, it is always good to know if the area you are in has had a
history of being flooded.
This knowledge helps a lot in the preparation of activities and tasks to
do in case if a flood does hit.

Familiarize yourself
In your own community, it is best that you familiarize yourself in any or
all of the warning signals or signs whenever a flood does occur.

Learn, learn, learn
Know what are your community's plan for evacuation. This helps you prepare
yourself as well as your family and friends as on what to do as well as
the step by step drill.

Have an insurance
It helps if you have insurance that is tailored particularly when a flood
occurs. Believe it or not, the insurance usually associated with home
owners will really not be able to reimburse any damages you may have that
are caused by floods.

Keep all vital documents
These documents include any policies for insurance, passports, birth
certificates, etc.
All these papers should - as much as possible - be kept in a box that is
waterproof and one which could be accessed easily.

Move, move, move
If in case your fireplace, furnace, electricity panel or water heater is
in the basement or first floor of your house, you could consider moving it
up the attic.
In that way it will be a lot less probable for these to be damaged by
raging floodwaters.

Plug it all
Plugging all trap sewers you have in your house using check valves
actually prevent any floodwater from going into the drains of your house.
During emergencies, using large stoppers or corks is also a good idea to
plug tubs and sinks.

Check and build
Checking with the local codes of buildings is a good idea as this will let
you know whether it is okay to build walls for floods and to be used as
barriers around your own house in order to prevent any floodwater from
getting in your premises.

Waterproof it all
In order to protect walls of basements, seal them using waterproof
compounds so that floodwaters would be unable to get in through any
cracks.

Have a radio and some supplies
As much as possible, keep a radio that is operated by batteries if in case
the power goes off.
Having supplies such as canned goods is a must as well as first aid kits.
Do not forget a can opener of course.

All in all, preparation is always the best defense against floods.