What to Save When Your Office Building Gets Flooded with Water

7/31/2022 (Permalink)

Vermilion County Commercial Property that experienced flooding to their first floor.

What to Save When Your Office Building Gets Flooded with Water

Flooding at your office building can be overwhelming and devastating. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of damage that can occur over such a short period of time. It’s necessary to stay focused and do what you can to save important materials. Here are some suggestions of what to prioritize. 

Power Down

Water and electricity can not only destroy valuable computers and data; it can electrocute you as well. If flooding is extensive, be extra careful. If you feel that you can safely reach the circuit board to shut down the power supply to your office, this should probably be your top priority. 

Computers

These days, many businesses have cloud backup for their digital documents to safeguard against events such as flooding or other misfortune such as fire, theft or electrical mishaps. Regardless of your backup capacity, those computers are valuable and can be ruined by exposure to water, so you may want to place them onto tables or shelves to keep them dry, or remove them from the building. 

Paper Documents

Many paper documents are high priority, and of course will be ruined by flooding, so move them to a safe place or remove them from the building. As a matter of protocol, it’s a good idea to routinely back these documents up by scanning them and uploading them to a cloud server, and to store them at least a few feet above the floor if it’s necessary to hold onto physical copies. 

Printers

Your printers may be one of the most expensive items in your office, so move them to safety if possible. Many commercial grade printers also store a copy of everything that’s been copied on them, so they can be a valuable data source after a disaster. Of course, it’s important that the power be off when you do this if you’re standing in water. They can also be extremely heavy, so get help. You don’t want to add a sprained back to your troubles. 

Get Professional Help

A professional water cleanup and restoration company has special tools, experience and methods to save as much of your office building, equipment and materials as possible, so call them as soon as you can. The quicker they can get to your business, the more they can save. 

If your Northeast Florida business has experienced flooding, call SERVPRO of Vermilion County for help. Our highly-trained restoration technicians have the experience and equipment to restore your North Florida business and get everything back to preloss condition. A trusted leader in the industry, we’ve served our community for more than 40 years. Call 217-443-0077