Water Damage - Are we next in line?

Following the tragic events in New Orleans due to the havoc and water damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, Sacramento has been singled out as the next city in America's that is most likely to be hit by floods. California state reports have recently shown that an untimely combination of bad weather and ever-weakening flood control structures will most probably put Sacramento under 20 feet of water - a grim scenario that residents of Sacramento will not want to see come to pass.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for California's levees in February 2006. He executed Executive Order S-01-06 directing agencies to identify, evaluate and repair critical systems. As a result, some critical erosion sites were repaired in 2006, but the underlying structural problem for the Sacramento region and the state remains.

Realizing the possibility of large scale flooding, state and local officials have joined forces to improve Folsom Dam and reinforced already badly weakened levees along the American and Sacramento Rivers. Just last year construction began on Folsom Dam Joint Federal Project, with the main feature being a gated auxiliary spillway designed to allow Folsom Dam to safely pass a 200-year flood of 450,000 cubic feet per second peak flow. New State laws were enacted last year to implement better flood management policies and practices, including land use, environmental enhancement, and new flood control facilities. These activities will no-doubt cost taxpayers billions of dollars but officials admit that safety is the key issue.

The site http://www.safca.org/floodRisk/riverConditions.asp provides up to date flood threats and information about current conditions along the Sacramento County reaches of the American and Sacramento Rivers.

Aside from strengthening the dams and levees that would help prepare the city for an onset of violent storms, some individuals have undergone drills and lessons on what to do during a flood and similar situations that could cause severe water damage to homes, businesses and properties.

Natural disasters are not the only cause for concern among the people of Sacramento when it comes to water damage or flooding in their homes and places of work. Even domestic malfunction of fixtures and pipe works can cause considerable damage to a structure thus requiring the need for effective and reliable water removal techniques and practices.

When you have a frozen and broken water pipe, your house can look as if it has been through a natural disaster. Water will pour out of a burst water pipe like a fire hydrant, turning your basement into a lake within minutes. The damage from this will be tremendous if you are away from your home. Frozen and broken water pipes rank number two behind hurricanes for the number of homes damaged and insurance claims in the USA.

Although some activities can be performed by the homeowners themselves such as turning off the water mains when there a broken pipe, most of the water damage restoration work should be performed by a qualified restoration company like PuroClean Home Rescue to avoid complications and further damage. A professional restoration company will use sophisticated water detection equipment and moisture meters to determine the initial scope of loss and then continually monitor the drying process over the next few days.