I know you've all been watching the news and seen all the devastation in Houston and southern Texas. I have to say, it is just unbelievable that this could be so widespread and such a monster storm that affected so many.
I'm pretty speechless about it, it's all being said and shown in the media. I know people who have feet of water in their homes, and some are still in danger of flooding.
We are fine, our street in The Woodlands, a very northern suburb of Houston, did not have flooding. The water was designed to go to the parks and it did. Here is a pic of the park/pond area behind our neighborhood that I took on Sunday afternoon, way over it's banks, but not flowing into our neighborhood. We are very thankful and realize how lucky we are.
The water is down some now and we have not really been in any danger. My mother-in-law is two miles away in a nearby neighborhood and we kept in touch with her and had her over to spend the night, luckily her house was fine too.
My son and his wife are in a townhouse just south of downtown Houston, I feared most for them as they have had high water on their street before, however, they had no water in their home. They are surrounded by flooded freeways though, and have to sit tight for awhile and wait for the water to recede before they venture out.
Jitka, my employee, also had good luck with no flooding, but we stayed home to keep off the roads and not risk getting stuck anywhere. They keep telling everyone to stay put unless you are called to evacuate, so that's what we've done.
I've seen an enormous outpouring of love and sympathy from many and want you to know, Texas is grateful.
I just want to share a few things I've seen on the internet that seem to be useful information in the path forward, places to donate, etc. We will be getting back up to speed soon!
This has been a much-shared article from Texas Monthly that has a variety of charities for giving.
This fund, Houston Flood Relief Fund, organized by our fave Houston Texan's football player, JJ Watt, is raising money for flood victims.
A local Houston designer, Chase Dowell, has started a fund to help 5 low income families get their homes back in order after the flood.
Here's another Houston designer, Veronica Solomon, who will be sponsoring a family for new furnishings and decor after all the waters go down.
This bit of info seems super practical and helpful to me. One of my clients posted it on Facebook and I copied and pasted here to share.
For my friends that have water in your home and are wondering "now what" - this is a brain dump based on my experiences in 2009, 2015 and 2016 - hope it helps
What do do when your house floods based on my experience in 2009, 2015 and 2016.
1. Ensure physical safety - everything else can be replaced - you can’t
2. You are in a marathon now, not a sprint - everything will take much, much longer than you want it to. You will be dealing with the federal government (national flood) and they move at their own pace
3. Take pictures - lots of pictures. Establish how high the water was inside and outside of your house. You need to prove how deep the water was as part of your flood claim. Use a yardstick or ruler on the outside of your house to establish the high water mark.
4. File your claim immediately - get in line for adjustors, etc
5. Flood insurance will not reimburse you for loss of use, so any hotel or lodging expenses will be out of pocket
6. Save all receipts - all of them
7. Order a POD or storage container as they will sell out fast
8. As soon as the water recedes, start mitigating the damage. Shopvac out what water you can, remove the wet carpets, remove the baseboards and start removing wet sheetrock. Cut a line about 2 feet up the wall. The straighter you cut, the easier the rebuild will be. Bag debris/insulation etc and take it outside. Save a square of ruined carpet and ruined carpet pad for the insurance to verify replacement value - if you have multiple carpets, save multiple samples. - Your goal is to get anything wet out of your house so it can begin to dry. Don’t worry about removing glue down hardwoods, let the contractor handle that during the rebuild
9. Take pictures of any damage you see, wet sheetrock, wet carpet, wet furniture, anything you want to claim - document. For contents, document individual items - each shirt, book, etc needs to be enumerated and documented for the claim - if you say 20 books on your claim, you need a photograph where 20 books can be individually accounted for - be exact and over detailed
10. We are expecting more rain so don’t put flood debris where it can float away, block a drain and cause more trouble
11. Be very careful about hiring “the experts” companies will bring in fans, etc and eat up a lot of your claim check by “drying” your house - once the walls are open, the studs will dry in time. Every dime you spend renting expensive blowers is money you can’t use towards granite countertops or tile upgrades when you rebuild. Fans, your air conditioner a dehumidifier from Home Depot will do the job. You can spray the studs with bleach as they dry out. We saved $10K each claim by doing the work ourselves in our three floods.
12. Be careful hiring contractors - ask for multiple references, ensure they use sub-contractors they know - they will be busy and be prepared to wait
13. Plastic storage tubs work better than cardboard boxes for storage of your undamaged stuff
14. Be nice to the adjustor - he or she will be valuing your loss and establishing the rebuild - every dollar counts, so be a pleasant memory for the adjustor, rather than “that” person
15. No matter who your insurance company is, all flood claims go through the federal government, all money comes through FEMA, so the time between the adjustor visiting your house and you getting money takes weeks/months - be patient - it is challenging and horrible waiting, but you are dealing with the government and all the other claims that are in flight as well.
16. Your first estimate will likely be less than you expect, so work with your contractor to file a supplement for things that were missed. Be wary of working with 3rd party arbitrators as they will take a %age of your total claim, not just any extra they get you in the supplement.
17. Accept help when offered and be specific - if someone asks “what can I do?” tell them something specific - I need candles, contractor bags, sandwiches - be grateful of those that reach out and be honest with what you need.
18. You will get through this, it is a struggle, but you will get through it. Lean on your faith, your friends and family.
I am not in the business at all, this is personal experiences and should not be taken as legal, medical or any professional advice (in other words, no liabilities, guarantees or warranties are being issued with this note.
Good luck to Houston, south Texas and the recovery! I'll be back to regular design posting on Saturday with a new project to share. :-)
Update:
I just want to add one more thing here. I'm seeing lots of negativity and posts from people that live outside of Houston and Texas that are saying perhaps the city should have been evacuated and that officials didn't perform their jobs well in regard to preparedness.
Do you understand how impossible it would have been to evacuate over 2 million people in a matter of days? People would have been stuck on freeways and on roads..... I can't imagine what that would have been like.
No one knows the path that a hurricane will take and the damage that it will do. Please, you can't fault them here.
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