Protecting Your Home from Natural Disasters

126 mil­lime­ters. That’s how much rain was seen by the city of Toron­to dur­ing Mon­day’s unex­pect­ed severe thun­der­storm that not only flood­ed streets and dam­aged homes, but also brought the city to a stand­still. This much rain in a sin­gle day has not been seen in the city since Hur­ri­cane Hazel back in 1954. After Monday’s storm and the recent flood­ing in Cal­gary, it’s evi­dent that weath­er sys­tems are now shift­ing, with severe storms and nat­ur­al dis­as­ters becom­ing more com­mon. If they’re becom­ing more com­mon, we should take steps now to pro­tect our homes and busi­ness­es from the dev­as­tat­ing effects. Here are some tips on how to pro­tect your home or busi­ness from the dev­as­tat­ing effects of these severe weath­er sys­tems.

Fires

Fires are dead­ly and can move fast, engulf­ing a house in mere min­utes. House fires can occur for a vari­ety of rea­sons, from faulty elec­tri­cal to a crack in the gas pipe. What can you do to pro­tect your home?

1. Have fire extin­guish­ers present in rooms that have the high­est chance of catch­ing fire. Only use them for small, con­trol­lable fires and make sure to check the gauge every month.
2. Make sure smoke detec­tors are present in every room on every floor of the house. Test to make sure they work and that every­one knows what it sounds like. Also, remem­ber to replace your smoke detec­tors every 10 years.
3. Pre­pare and prac­tice a home escape plan. Every­one should know how to exit the house, in case of a fire. Pre­pare a back­up plan as well, just in case the orig­i­nal escape route does not work.
4. Remove pot­ted flow­ers, shrubs and dead plants close from the house. If these catch on fire, they can help ignite a struc­tur­al house fire.

Floods

Over the last 10 years, the aver­age cost of water dam­age claims have risen from $71.92 in 2002 to $15,500 in 2012, an increase of 117%. With this increase, water has become the new fire. Here’s how to pro­tect your home from the costs of water dam­age

1. When fin­ish­ing a base­ment, make sure to first seal the exte­ri­or walls to pre­vent water from seep­ing into the rooms.
2. Divert snow and water away from the house, mak­ing sure that it slopes away from the house to pre­vent water from seep­ing in
3. Clear out gut­ters and make sure win­dows are free of debris. You want to make sure that water caught in these is able to flow out smooth­ly and not into your house.
4. If your house has a drain pipe, use it. These are locat­ed in the base­ment and are very use­ful to help drain water that pours in and pre­vent water lev­els from ris­ing.

Hur­ri­canes

Hur­ri­canes not only pack immense amounts of rain but also bring with it wind speeds strong enough to tear down a house. Here’s how you can lim­it the dam­age.

1. Board up win­dows and doors. Don’t take a chance of your win­dows pos­si­bly break­ing, and dam­ag­ing the inside of your home.
2. Make sure to pre­pare sup­plies for 72 hours, just in case of pow­er out­ages.
3. Store away out­door fur­ni­ture. This pre­vents it from get­ting lost in the storm or caus­ing more dam­age to the exte­ri­or.
4. Clear clogged rain gut­ters to pre­vent flood­ing of your home or busi­ness.
5. Dou­ble check to make sure your roof is stur­dy, secure and free of leaks. You don’t want it col­laps­ing or fly­ing off dur­ing a hur­ri­cane.