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How to Prepare Your Home for Floods

From Popular Mechanics. Winter's coming, and with it snow, which will melt at some point...causing floods. Then we have summer and fall hurricane season!

"Sump pumps are the best defense against minor flooding and chronically wet basements, but if a river is rising nearby or a coastal storm surge is imminent, the best advice is to move your valuables to a high floor, then evacuate. And if there are flash-flood warnings, be quick about it. These floods move fast and tend to carry mud, trees and other dangerous debris with them. If you’re in a flood zone—check your address with the FEMA Map Service Center to find out—plan an escape route ahead of time. And never drive through moving water; it can be a deathtrap. Almost 50 percent of flood fatalities are car-related. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by the term “100-year flood,” either. That doesn’t indicate that a flood will occur only once a century. What it really means is that every single year there’s a one-in-100 chance of that level of flooding. If you live in a flood zone, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that you’ve got a one-in-two chance of experiencing a flood in your lifetime."

Article contains a wonderful graphic about sump pumps.

Posted by Cute at 7:19 PM

Labels: financial (non-tax), social issues