Stay Alert during Summer Thunderstorms

6/23/2020 (Permalink)

In the past week, mother nature has given us some really nice summer days with the weather getting up to 90 degrees. 

With that said, scattered summer thunderstorms can blow by even in the summer. If we know anything about New England, it's that the weather can be very unpredictable.Rainfall, even in the summer, can be intense and overwhelming. 

Office Building Floods

An office building in Burlington, Mass. experienced an unexpected flood as a result of torrential rains recently.

The building owner said he watched the water quickly rise several inches above the ground level door jamb and start pouring into the building. The water flowed behind the walls and soaked an office carpet.

Drainage Issues

Water has not flowed in through this door in past storms, so the building owner suspects that a clogged underground drainpipe leading to a catch basin backed up.

He plans to repair the drainage to prevent future floods, but this goes to show flooding can happen anywhere, even on lots with preventive systems in place.

Importance of Drying

The owner thought he contained the problem by mopping up behind the flood, but several days later his tenant complained of a musty smell in the office.

Drying out porous materials like carpet and drywall is key to preventing microbial growth, so we are sending a crew to apply a botanical anti-microbial solution and set up fans and a dehumidifier to completely dry the area.

Emergency Ready Plan

In addition, we suggested downloading our free Emergency Ready Plan (ERPs) to create and store a plan digitally which will help expedite a disaster response if something should go wrong in the future.

Call us, the Professional leaders in fire and water restoration. 

When thunderstorms strike in our area, SERVPRO of Lexington-Bedford and of Waltham/Weston/Watertown/Wayland is available around the clock to respond to your flood emergency. We always offer 24/7 Emergency Service and always have team members on-call ready to help.