My Personal Storm Damage Experience

The night was cold and stormy. I slept through all of it in blissful serenity and awoke the next morning to begin my daily ritual of getting ready for work.

I headed straight to the bathroom, neglecting to illuminate the path I knew by heart. As I busied myself with necessary matters of hygiene, I suddenly noticed the normal hum of the refrigerator was joined by a soft plopping noise that I could not identify. It seemed random at first but upon further observance, the plopping was rhythmic and methodical.

I listened for a moment and the source suddenly dawned on me. I hurried out of bathroom and turned on the lights to investigate and confirmed my suspicions based on a large puddle of water on the laminate flooring. I looked up at the ceiling and saw large water stains and the drywall seams were getting longer by the second.

Yes, I had a water damage! I initially thought that my roof was leaking. It was still a little early to wake my landlord so I waited till 7:00 to call him and have him come from next door and tarp the roof because the rain was expected to continue well into the day.

When he arrived, he went up into the attic and discovered that a branch had punched a hole through the roof and it had been raining all night long and pouring into the attic right above my living room. He tarped the roof as I left for work and process of mitigation and restoration began.

That was couple of weeks ago. I felt that I was already pretty sympathetic when it came to misfortunes of our clients, but I gained a new appreciation for them from this experience. My damage was not extensive but that was because I knew exactly what to do and my landlord is a builder so he repaired the damage in record time. I empathize with all of the homeowners who have no idea what will happen when they have a fire, water or storm damage.

When faced with disaster, remember to try to be as calm as possible. It will help you make better decisions. Also, every beginning has to have an end so although the process may seem to take forever, things will eventually be restored.

Chloe L. Hudson - Senior Contents Technician