The wind has dropped and the rain has moved on, and the instinct after a tropical system is to get outside and start picking up. Some of that can wait, and some things that look fine really shouldn’t. The damage that costs the most after a Midlands storm is often the damage nobody sees the first day: water in a crawl space, a limb that bent an outdoor unit, a generator that ran for four days without its oil checked. This checklist is arranged by time, so the urgent items come first and the ones that can wait until the week is calmer come last.
In the first hour: safety before anything else
- Look up before you look down, since downed lines in the yard, on the roof, or tangled in a fallen tree are the utility’s job, and a line on the ground should be treated as live.
- If you smell gas anywhere, leave the house with the door open behind you and call the gas utility from outside.
- If water reached the panel, an outlet, or an appliance, do not walk through it until the power to that area is off, and if you cannot reach the panel without wading, wait for a licensed electrician.
- If a portable generator has been running, confirm it is still well away from every window and door before anyone goes back inside.
- Walk the outside of the house and note what came down, so you know what to photograph before cleanup.
On the first day, the systems the storm reached
Once the house is safe, the systems that took the storm’s weight deserve a look, in the order below.
- The crawl space comes first, because inland flooding comes from rain through saturated clay rather than from a river, and homes nowhere near water find inches of it under the floor. Take a flashlight down and look for standing water, wet insulation, and the water line on the piers, and if the sump pump did not run, our sump pump team should see it before the next rain.
- The outdoor unit is next, since wind-borne limbs and debris bend fins, dent cabinets, and pull the disconnect loose, all of which is repairable, and a unit that stood in floodwater needs its electrical components inspected before it runs. Photograph any damage and the water line on the cabinet before touching anything.
- The water heater follows, because a tank in a crawl space or garage that flooded needs its gas valve, burner, or electrical components inspected before it is relit or powered, and moisture at its base after the storm is worth noting even if the tank did not flood.
- The drains deserve a look, since saturated ground and overwhelmed sewers push wastewater back through the lowest drains, and a shower or floor drain that backed up during the storm should be looked at with a camera inspection for a line that shifted or cracked.
- The roof and ceilings round out the day, so look at the roof from the ground for lifted shingles and at the ceilings for staining, since roof water shows in the attic insulation and on the ductwork first.
If the power is still out on the first day
Many Midlands homes spent three or four days without power after Helene, and a long outage has its own list. Keep the refrigerator and freezer closed, and know that a refrigerator holds a safe temperature for about four hours and a full freezer for about two days, after which the contents are a loss. Keep the thermostat where it was rather than turning the system off. If a standby generator is carrying the house, glance at the controller for faults and at the ground under the enclosure for oil, since a unit running for days is doing a year’s work in a week, and if a portable generator is running, refuel it only after it has cooled and keep it far from the house.
In the first week, what waits and what should not
When the power is back and the yard is cleared, a few items remain. A standby generator that ran for more than a day or two needs service before the next storm rather than at its next yearly visit, because it has used up most of a year’s oil life and battery cycles. Ductwork that took water in the crawl space will push mold into the house every time the system runs, and it needs cleaning or, if the insulation is soaked, replacement. A cooling system that ran through a restoration flicker may have a weakened capacitor or a damaged control board that will not fail until the next heat wave, and a tune-up in the weeks after a storm catches that. And the first day’s photographs should go to the insurer with the claim while the water lines and debris are on record.
When the power comes back
Restoration has its own checklist, separate from storm damage. Our post on what to check when the power returns covers the heating and cooling restart, the water heater, the sump pump, the generator, and the refrigerator, and it is the companion to this one.
Sorting the calls
After a storm, everyone in the Midlands needs service at once, so it helps to know what is urgent. Water in the house, a gas smell, a sewer backup, a generator that will not restart, and a cooling system that will not start in an August heat wave are reasons to call the same day. A bent fin, a dented cabinet, and a filter full of storm dust can wait for a scheduled visit. 2nd Wind Heating & Air Conditioning has served Columbia since 1985 and worked through Hugo, the 2015 floods, and Helene; reach us through the website chat at any hour or schedule online, and members of the Cloud 10 Membership receive priority scheduling in the week after a storm.