She needs to ask locally and with her insurance. I haven't flooded. With Harvey, people were told to take lots of photos and document everything. And then to go ahead and remove the sheet rock and start cleanup. The wet stuff will get moldy in a very short time. It's better to minimize whatever negative effects she can.

Anyone's personal experience doesn't trump what your sister's insurance company procedures are. They aren't all necessarily the same.

She should call her insurance agent before doing anything. They may want a field rep to see it as is and take photos before anything is done

They flooded in Harvey too, but they didn't have insurance that time. They do have insurance for flooding now! Yeah, I was thinking about the mold issue so they probably would want to remove that wet stuff as quickly as possible. I'm not sure if it's even possible to get hold of the insurance company right now, it's the weekend and probably mass chaos! Such a terrible thing to have to go through! They have only had their house back together for a year now...totally remodeled. Now they are flooded once again. Living in an area that was never supposed to flood! UGH!

Honestly, I'm really asking this on my own because I wanted to warn her not to do something without first making sure it was OK. Just me being a worry wart sister...HAHA!

Your concern is warranted, it sounds like they're going off in the wrong direction.

Try to call their insurance agency, they may be available off hours in an emergency.

Try to call the parent company, and at least email them, insisting on the importance of immediate service.

If they do insist on going ahead, take a lot of pictures, first.

ole joyful

UPDATE: Thanks everyone, I managed to find out though her daughter that they were able to contact the insurance company and were advised to just take lots and lots of picture!

Yes Elmer, I would have hated that they go ahead and start cleaning and stuff only to find out that they aren't supposed to touch anything until an agent can come out. I suppose that with thousands of people flooded, they have to make exceptions because they could never go to all the flooded houses.

They need to take pictures and try to salvage documents. Then, get that Sheetrock and insulation out! Get a dehumidifier and fans.

Pictures of the water line in the house is extremely important! They need proof of how high the water got in the house. You must get the drywall and carpet out immediately before mold starts. Anything that is ruined have lots of pictures. What our insurance man had us do was create a new account on Dropbox and put all the pictures in it then give him access to the account so he can get to the pictures. They should be making a list of everything that is going on the curb. Furniture, beds, mattress, etc. Be sure to get pictures of serial numbers on any appliances or electronics! That was a must have for ours. Just tons of pictures inside and out. I am so sorry they are going through this.

A good ending. Sometimes even the best intentions can be the wrong thing to do. Insurance companies can be so inflexible sometimes that it's always best to talk to them when there's an insurance matter to deal with.

An adjuster will come to view the house but it may be a while because they are overwhelmed. Same as Harvey. That's why you need to get the carpet and drywall out. If you waited to long you would have a major mold problem which is a big problem and costly to remediate. The adjusters pretty much know how much water each specific area had. They have been through this many years.

I'm sorry your sister (and everyone else affected) is having to deal with this again!

Good ending but for future reference I would like to suggest that the camera/phone should be adjusted to show the date the pictures were taken. While dates can be added later it is much harder to do. This is one of the things I learned when I was helping after Katrina hit. Sadly some of the ones that took pictures without the date stamp were denied their claims when they went ahead and started fixing things before an adjuster viewed the damage. IF you can include a hard feature in the picture such as a door frame or through an outside window it can also help. Some people do try to scam and those hard features can help prove your claim.

As some of you who have gone through this type of disaster probably already know insurance companies are swamped and it may be several weeks before an adjuster can view the damage.

I will go to my grave and never understand why people prefer to "crowd source" instead of calling their insurance company, their doctor etc. Are they afraid of talking to "strangers/authority"? I'm a big believer in making sure what I hear is from "the horse's mouth".

anglophilia, I was only asking so that I could put a bug in my sister's ears about starting or not starting to do the clean up. SHE did not ask me for my advice, I was just concerned when I saw her stating that they were going to start the clean up as soon as they could get into the house. I had heard some horror stories in the past about people starting repairs and then the insurance not wanting to pay. I simply wanted some confirmation so I could warn her if need be. In the mean time, she had already talked to her agent and was told to take pictures and document everything they are doing and go ahead and get the wet stuff out asap!