How's this for a timely topic for my daily grateful podcast? Five things to do after a storm to protect your property and your life. For most of the South, Hurricane Debbie has come and thankfully it has gone. It was here way too damn long.
It just sat here and plummeted rain on us like you wouldn't believe. And now there's a lot of damage in my area, tons of damage in my area. None at my house. The only thing it blew down was one of my shutters.
And it was actually a fake shutter, but it blew down, so I've got to put that back up. And I'm kind of glad that it blew down because underneath the fake shutter is a bunch of hornet nests. So I've got to deal with those. But, you know, let's talk about, if we can, first of all, that we're very grateful that we've made it through the storm.
Most of us have made it through the storm. A lot of people around here lost cars because they got flooded. There's people who lost part of their houses. As we go up into Georgia into the South Carolinas where it's still heading, lots of damage.
But it's past us now. And if you live there and you're listening to this, possibly by now, it is past you. So let us chat. And by the way, you know, it was nice and cool for the few days that the storm was here, and now it's stinking hot outside.
Do you know why? Because all that moisture is in the soil and the sun is beating down and that moisture is coming out of the soil and just, oh, it is rough. I'm telling you, it is rough. I have to take a sippy sippy here.
Hang on. And I don't edit, so the sippy sippy stays in. All right, five things to deal with. Safety first.
Make sure that there are no electrical wires down around your house. Protect yourself from anything that could hurt you as a result of the storm. And one of those things is look at the trees. Now, I've gotten rid of all my trees that are around my house, but my next door neighbor has seven or eight trees around her house.
So you need to look at those and make sure nothing's going to fall on you. I mean, that's just vitally important that you do that. Number two, document the damage. Pull out the old cell phone and start taking photos and videos of everything bad that happened as a result of the storm.
My list or my photo, I'm not even taking it, is of the shutter that fell down. You know, I got to really put that thing back on because that's the shutter that my flagpole stand is on. So that's got to be on there really good. But for other people, take photos, make a list, create a very detailed list of the damaged items from the structures.
You know, if a 2x4 flew through your window, document that. I have never seen that happen, by the way. But that's what they always show you when they're doing these scary get ready for the hurricane things on TV. They show you the 2x4s flying through the windows.
I have never seen that. Okay, contact your insurance. Yeah, that's going to be an important thing to do if you need to file a claim. So get that done.
The next thing that you need to work on is getting debris removal. Or as we used to call it when that other storm came through and there was a lot of debris everywhere, my favorite ex-wife and I would drive around town and we'd go, oh, look, debris, debris. Because it was everywhere. Again, my house, I had a lot of debris.
Hauled it out to the street. City eventually came and hauled it away. But yeah, there was a lot of it. Separate the debris.
Sort through it into categories. Vegetation, construction materials, anything like household items. If your dishwasher got sucked out of your house and wound up in the backyard, put that in a separate debris pile. Do temporary repairs to stop any further damage.
Be that throwing a tarp over your roof or anything like that. Use quality materials. Get a good, good tarp. There's a tools store, a discount tools store that sells tarps cheap.
Don't waste your money. Go to one of the big box stores and get a good tarp. The other ones, they fall apart real fast. Document the temporary repairs.
Very important. Okay, and then the fifth thing that we all have to deal with, or I luckily don't, but a lot of people do, including people right around the corner from me, is permanent repairs and restoration. After you've dealt with your insurance company, you need to make sure you're hiring licensed contractors to do the work because your insurance company can just not pay if you're using Billy Bob from around the corner to do the work for you. Check for hidden damage.
Have an inspector look at your house and improve the resilience of your house if you can. If you're going to replace your roof, replace your roof with a really good roof, that type of thing. These steps will ensure that you have a safe and efficient recovery. And that is somewhat important.
So, last show about the storm. Now I've got to go write a newsletter for tomorrow. That's going to be fun. All right, have a terrific day, everybody.
We will see you tomorrow on This, The Daily Grateful.