In 2024, the United States faced 27 climate disasters which caused more than 560 deaths. Surviving a climate disaster is hard — it causes more damage than one can substantiate. It destroys properties, disrupts living order, and creates hazardous elements which directly harms physical and mental well-being. Traumatized people often turn towards professionals for different types of restoration services to manage the aftermath and reclaim safety. Let’s explore which type of service is required if a natural or man-made disaster befalls anyone.
1. Water Damage Restoration Services
9 out of 10 climate disasters during the past decade were water-related, causing massive infrastructure losses. Over the past century, more than 1.7 trillion USD economic damages were reported worldwide, highlighting the importance of post-disaster recovery. Apart from natural catastrophes, water-damage can also occur due to bursting pipes, leaky roofs, and sewer backup.
The effects of water damage are aplenty. It can compromise electrical systems, structural integrity of the houses and buildings, and minor ones can promote mold growth.
What Does Water-Damage Restoration Service Include?
Professional water damage restoration service includes remediation work performed by experts with hands-on experience and ample understanding of water damage. An expert extracts water, dries out the place, dehumidifies the affected area, and ensures mold growth is halted to restore your place to normalcy. If required, an expert can also perform extensive repairs and seek help from electricians to ensure there are no electrical problems at your place.
2. Smoke And Fire Damage Restoration Services
Unlike water-related disasters, the fatalities rate of fire-related disasters is much higher. In 2023, fire-damage caused more than 3,670 deaths and more than 13,000 injuries.
Needless to say, fire damage can have destructive effects on your home and business. It causes intense structural damage, smoke and soot damage, and water-damage due to fire-fighting efforts along with the loss of personal belongings.
Wildfire Damage Restoration
Just 6 months ago, Los Angeles suffered a horrific wildfire, causing economic losses of more than $150 billion. Wildfire damage restoration is greater and more complex than normal fire since the magnitude of disaster is greater. The first step is to ensure the affected place is habitable by performing smoke and soot damage restoration, including advanced air filtration and purification techniques to remove lingering smell of burned wood.
Another key aspect of wildfire restoration includes landscaping recovery as it damages vegetation and forces soil erosion. Content restoration services ensure the land is rehabitable, reverse the damaged vegetation, and ensure soil erosion is prevented.
How Does Fire Restoration Work?
Professional fire restoration is a necessity to restore the property to pre-fire condition. An expert conducts an extensive damage assessment, involving the extent of fire, smoke, and water damage to craft a restoration plan.
Once the property is secured properly after tarping roofs, boarding up the doors and windows, removing the debris to prevent further damage, experts deal with the areas affected with water damage and ensure the place is mold free. Additional services include smoke and soot removal, deodorization, structural repairs, and possible reconstruction of the extensively damaged areas.
3. Storm Damage Restoration
Storms and hurricanes wreck havoc in the affected area. A recent hurricane caused immense destruction stretching over 500 miles, around 130 deaths, and made the area almost unrecognizable. Storm damage is not only fatal, but causes huge economic losses as well. With proper post-storm damage restoration, people are able to stand back on their feet.
What Does A Storm Restoration Representative Do?
The focus of professional storm damage restoration services is usually to repair and rebuild after storms, hurricanes, or floods.
| Key Aspects | Measures |
| Damage Assessments | Checking the visible and hidden damages to identify roof damage, window and door issues, wall damage, and foundation issues |
| Emergency services | Providing immediate assistance including tarping roofs, water extraction, and boarding up windows to prevent further damage |
| Debris Removal | Clearing debris, fallen trees, branches over your house |
| Restoration and Reconstruction | Drying out affected areas (drying process can take up to 3-5 business days), preventing mold growth (mold can begin growing within 24-48 hours) to ensure the restoration process begins. |
4. Mold Remediation Services
Mold is not a disaster and it is not as destructive as a climate catastrophe. After the 2022 Hurricane Ida, mold growth was reported after a natural disaster, indicating that mold and mildew is an indirect impact of flooding. Since more than 75,000 people are hospitalized in the US every year with fungal infection, it is clear that mold and mildew can be fatal if overlooked.
Mold can grow anywhere and everywhere. From under the sink to beneath the drywall, molds are vicious when it comes to finding a habitat. Mold remediation experts perform a thorough inspection of the affected place, employ mold removal techniques, and fully secure the area.
A professional doesn’t just provide decontamination of biohazard areas, they also assist in restoring any damaged area, insulation, and flooring and ensure your place is free from mold.
5. Earthquake Damage
Although the frequency of earthquakes have reduced in the US over the past few decades, as the last major one was in 1994. Minor earthquakes up to 3.9 magnitude are a regular occurrence. Earthquakes cause extensive structural damage to the already weakened structures. It may aggravate the aging process of a building and result in collapsed walls, cracked foundations, and broken utilities, such as electrical systems, water and gas pipelines.
Professional restoration service includes the same disaster management protocols to ensure the affected place does not have scattered debris or collapsed structure.
6. Content Restoration
People spend more than $20 billion every year to repair homes following minor storms or major disasters. Restoring content is synonymous with keeping up the hopes high post-disaster and indicates resilience. Content restoration services ensure a cost-effective manner of replacing the damaged items, prevent further damage, and salvage the precious and irreplaceable items, including items with sentimental or historical value. These items could be heirlooms, family photos, and even important documents.
Other than documents, content restoration experts can also salvage items, such as:
- Electronics: by cleaning and repairing computers and TVs, and restoring lost data from hard drives and other devices
- Furniture and upholstery: by cleaning and repairing various furniture pieces such as bed, tables, and chairs
- Textiles and clothing: involves cleaning and deodorizing the clothes
- Artworks and collectibles: by drying, cleaning, and preserving the collectibles (often involves freeze-drying
An expert evaluates the damage and enlist the items before proceeding to packing and transporting the items to a secure facility. Then, an expert usually cleans the items using specialized methods to restore as much original content as possible and fix the damaged item to ensure it matches the pre-loss condition. Lastly, the odors are removed using ozone treatment to give it some final restoring touch.
Need Help Get Your Life Back on Track? Call Americon For Emergency Assistance:
Americon Restoration offers 24/7 emergency disaster restoration services across Ohio and Eastern Pennsylvania. We have separate crews for different types of restoration services from biohazard removal and contents cleaning to water and fire damage restoration, building reconstruction, and roofing repair to name a few. This ensures you get a team with expertise working on your properties instead of amateurs doing a slapdash job. Call 1-833-437-3487 to get started right away!
Frequently Asked Questions:
Disaster restoration companies clean, repair, and rebuild properties damaged by fire, water, mold, or storms. They remove debris, extract water, dry structures, and sanitize affected areas. They also coordinate repairs and ensure properties are restored to pre-loss conditions.
Restoration companies get paid through insurance claims or direct billing. If insurance covers the damage, the insurer pays the company directly or reimburses the property owner. In non-covered situations, the property owner pays the full amount out-of-pocket.
Restoration companies work with insurance by documenting damage, providing estimates, and coordinating with adjusters. They submit reports and invoices to insurers and follow the insurer’s guidelines to ensure claim approval and payment.
The main difference between mitigation and restoration is timing and purpose. Mitigation prevents further damage by stopping water or securing structures. Restoration repairs the existing damage and returns the property to its original state.
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