Tips on Living in a Flood Zone

Flooding is an act of nature which has no regards to the destruction of your home or personal items. Flooding is caused by heavy rainfalls taking place in a short period of time. Here in Florida, flooding occurs in large part during our seasonal thunderstorms accompanying hurricanes and tropical storms. It can occur along the coastline as well as inland too. Typically, you will experience major flooding when the 100 year storm occurs. The 100 year storm is a rain event that has a 1 per cent probability of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. During a 100 year storm event approximately 10.6 inches of rain will fall in a 24 hour period. This amount varies throughout the Country.

One way to know if your house is sitting in a flood prone area is to check with your local Public Works Department. They can look up on a FEMA flood plain map to see if you are in danger of potential flooding. There could be areas in your neighborhood that are located in the flood plain and your lot may not, or vice versa.

Some Tips on What You Can Do Before the Storm

If your home is well constructed and the local authorities have not called for an evacuation, just stay home and make emergency preparations.

If you are told to evacuate, follow all the instructions that the authorities give you. They can tell you what shelter you should go to.

Make a personal evacuation plan which should also provide for your pets, your supplies like food, medicine, radio, batteries, bottle water, etc.

Make sure you have your identification on hand and important papers including insurance information.

If you do have to go to a shelter, turn your electricity and water off.

Some Tips for During and After the Storm

If you are in a public shelter, remain there until you are informed by those in charge that it is safe to return home. Too many times, people think it is safe to go home and they are injured due to unsafe buildings, downed power lines, contaminated water, and other dangerous situations.

When you do go home, carefully check for structure damage. However, do this prior to entering the building.

Turn on the electricity one breaker at a time and watch for smoke or sparks. Report any problems to your electric company as well as any sewer or water mains to your utility company.

Many people are surprised that they are in a flood plain when they go to the lender and make an application for a mortgage. It is also a good idea to check before you write a contract on a home if that property lies in a flood area. If you are in a flood plain area your lender will require flood insurance which can be costly. So you can save yourself a lot of valuable time and the cost of a mortgage application if you verify this ahead of time.

Source: Orange County, Florida Stormwater Management Division