09/29/2024
PSA to everyone impacted by Hurricane Helene and the subsequent flooding. YOU MUST treat your home and property as if it were a crime scene! DO NOT move or even touch anything until you fully document the condition of your property with photos.
1. Take photos of all four sides of your home, highlight specific damage with closeup photos.
2. Take photos of the height of the water line in each room with a tape measurer (if possible).
3. Take photos of all destroyed contents such as furniture, appliances, electronics, and other personal belongings of value while still INSIDE the home.
4. When you remove the contents, spread them out and take photos outside, make a list of them and their approximate value.
5. Take photos of all exterior buildings just like your home, all 4 sides, closeups of specific damage and water line levels. Contents in these buildings should be catalogued the same as home contents.
6. If you had automobiles, farm machinery, outdoor recreational vehicles, mowers, etc that were damaged, take photos of them from all sides AND your license plates, VIN, or serial numbers for each.
7. Anything else of value, please do the same and take photos, document what it is and assign a value if you know what it may be worth.
8. Even if there is nothing left of your property, please take photos of where everything used to be and document what you lost with approximate values.
9. Immediately contact your insurance company and get them out there asap. Ask them to put it in writing that you may begin cleanup.
10. Next, go online and look on Google Earth, social media or any other place that may have before photos of your property and contents. Save all of those in a special file.
I know this is a lot to do while you are in trauma and many just want to get started on cleaning up, but if you do not do this now, you will have to continue to relive this trauma for months or even years by having to prove everything to your insurance company or organizations coming to help.
Videos are great as well, however, their files are large and are difficult to share. This is why I recommend photos.
Finally, I wanted to say that everyone that has been impacted, we as a nation mourn for your losses and will be there to help you recover. It will be a long, difficult process, but there are still many good people in this world, and you are about to see that first hand.
Disclaimer: This is just my personal advice from experience. This is not legal advice, and should not be taken as such. I cannot accept responsibility for any outcomes determined by insurance or other third party companies.