subject: Disasters Come Big And Small [print this page] A few years ago, our area of the country had unprecedented rainfall in a very short time period. We had been out of town for a week long conference. When we got home, we unpacked and went to bed. The next day, when I went to put the suitcases in the basement, there was nearly six inches of water lapping at the bottom stair.
Turned out that one of the window wells was in a direct line with an old dry stream bed, and the water had filled it to the top, then continued to seep in for about a week. Cleaning this up was a nightmare. We were renting equipment, salvaging furniture and stored items like our old tax paperwork, files - water damage to so many things. We had to learn a lot. It was several years later that I first saw an advertisement for disaster clean-up, and I wished we had been able to call in a company that could have saved us that heartache and hard work.
Several years later, there was a fire that got started in a closet in that same basement. Smoke was the major damage we faced then, and this time, we did call in experts. It was only after trying to live with the smoke for several weeks that I gave in because I thought it would cost too much. Turns out, it was pretty reasonable. They knew what they were facing so they came prepared to handle it with the cleaners and equipment appropriate to the tasks.
Now there are several such disaster and restoration companies in major cities. One might not think you would have things like water damage in dry areas like Phoenix, but water mains, sewers, old dry stream beds, and children who play with water taps are all part of a desert city as much as a woodland one.
Everyone is going to deal with the day to day minor emergencies like water damage, smoke damage, mold growth and spills. These are all dealt with by these specialists. Sometimes we deal with bigger damages, like earthquakes, tornadoes, major floods, hurricanes. When the disaster covers more than your home, like your entire community, disaster clean up will be dealt with by government agencies as well as private contractors, but you don't need to wait for something area wide to use a local disaster clean up crew. They even do emergency house cleaning.
