Flooding is something that you can’t always be prepared for. A pipe could burst when you’re out of town or a huge storm could cause your basement or lower level to become flooded with dirty, polluted water. In some situations, however, you may be forewarned about potential flooding, giving you enough time to take precautions that can protect your home. There are steps you can take to protect the items in your home, including your furniture, from flood damage in Orange County.

If you find yourself facing an impending storm or are concerned that flooding may occur in your home, the best thing you can do is to create an emergency plan for your home. While we often create emergency plans for our family and ourselves, it’s easy to forget that you should be taking steps to safeguard your home as well. Putting together an emergency plan for your home can help save you time, money and mess down the road.

The first thing to remember when it comes to protecting your home from flood damage is that when it comes down to it, furniture can always be replaced. If you are facing a potentially life-threatening situation, it’s always important to get yourself and your family to safety and leave your “stuff” behind. If you do have some time to protect your goods, however, then you are in luck. If you have a multi-story home, move items to an upstairs room or put tables, couches and chairs up on cinderblocks if you have a one-story home. In many cases, simply raising the furniture up a little bit can dramatically reduce furniture damage in a flood.

When it comes down to it, we can’t always predict what direction a flood will take or how bad the devastation will be in the end, but we can be prepared by taking steps to protect our furniture and our homes. Remember that you should always take the time to secure yourself and your family in a safe area first in an emergency, and that you can do a lot of good by raising items up off of the floor. By having an emergency plan in place, you’ll be best prepared for anything that happens.