The floodwater has receded. You are standing in your home, looking at the damage, and trying to figure out where to start. This is the moment when good decisions and bad decisions look almost identical from the outside. Both feel like action. Only one of them leads to a complete recovery. This checklist walks you through the right sequence, from the first five minutes to the first call you make, so that the work you do in the next 24 hours supports your flood damage repair rather than complicating it.

Before You Re-Enter the Property

Safety comes before anything else. A flooded home is not the same building it was before the water arrived. Do not enter until you have worked through these points.

  • Confirm the power is off. Floodwater and live electrical circuits are a fatal combination. If you cannot confirm that power has been cut at the breaker, do not enter the building until a licensed electrician or your utility provider has confirmed it is safe. In Memphis, contact Memphis Light, Gas and Water if you are uncertain about the status of your service.
  • Check for structural compromise from the outside. Look at the foundation, the walls, and the roofline before stepping inside. Visible cracking, bowing walls, or a shifted foundation indicates structural movement that makes the building unsafe for entry without a professional assessment first.
  • Wear protective equipment before you go in. Floodwater in Memphis is almost always contaminated. The city sits in the Mississippi River flood plain, and water that has moved through streets, drainage systems, or overland carries bacteria, sewage, and chemical contaminants. At minimum, wear rubber boots, waterproof gloves, and an N95 mask before entering any flooded space.
  • Ventilate before you linger. Open windows and doors from the exterior before spending extended time inside. Floodwater displaces oxygen in enclosed spaces and produces gases from decomposing organic material that accumulate in basements and low-lying rooms.

Only once these four points are confirmed is it safe to move to the next phase.

Document Everything Before You Touch Anything

This step saves or costs you thousands of dollars depending on whether you do it. Do it before any cleanup begins.

Walk every affected room with your phone. Photograph and video the following:

  • Standing water levels, including any waterline marks on walls that show the high-water point
  • Every affected surface, all four walls, the ceiling, and the floor in each flooded room
  • Damaged personal property in place, before it is moved or removed
  • Building material damage including buckled flooring, saturated drywall, damaged cabinetry, and any visible structural elements affected by the flood
  • All entry and exit points where water entered the structure, including foundation cracks, doorways, window wells, and any breached barriers

Your insurance adjuster will base their assessment on the damage present at the time of their inspection. A property that has been partially cleaned before documentation was completed gives the adjuster less to work with. That gap between actual damage and documented damage is where flood damage repair claims get reduced or disputed. Spend 20 minutes on documentation before you spend a single minute on cleanup.

Homeowner documenting flood damage with phone for insurance claim before flood damage repair in Memphis, TN

Immediate Actions in the First Two Hours

Once documentation is complete, the clock on flood damage repair is running. Memphis’s climate adds urgency to every step. Average summer relative humidity in the city sits above 70 percent, and mold can begin establishing in saturated building materials within 24 to 48 hours of a flood event. The actions below do not replace professional water damage restoration. They are the stabilization steps that limit additional damage while you wait for a certified crew to arrive.

Work through this list in order:

  • Remove standing water if safe to do so. A wet-dry vacuum or submersible pump removes surface water from hard floors. Do not use standard household vacuums. Do not attempt to extract water from carpeted areas without professional equipment, as inadequate extraction leaves saturation in the pad and subfloor that worsens over time.
  • Move salvageable contents to a dry area. Upholstered furniture, rugs, electronics, documents, and clothing should be moved out of the flooded zone. Items left sitting in residual moisture sustain additional damage with every passing hour.
  • Do not run your HVAC system. Forced air circulation through a flood-affected space spreads contaminated moisture to unaffected areas. Turn the system off and leave it off until a professional has assessed whether the ductwork was exposed to floodwater.
  • Open interior doors to improve airflow between rooms. Cross-ventilation helps surface moisture begin to move. This is not a substitute for professional drying equipment. It is a holding measure that slightly slows the deterioration timeline.
  • Call a certified flood damage repair company. This call belongs in the first two hours, not after you have spent two days trying to manage the drying process yourself. Every hour of delay between a flood event and professional water mitigation in Memphis’s climate is an hour that mold risk is accumulating in your walls, floors, and structural framing.

What to Tell the Flood Damage Repair Company When They Arrive

The restoration crew will conduct their own assessment. You can help that process move faster and more completely by having the following information ready when they arrive.

Be prepared to share:

  • When the flooding began and approximately how long water was present before it receded
  • The likely source of the flooding, whether overland surface water, storm drain backup, river flooding, or internal plumbing failure
  • Whether the floodwater had any visible contamination such as sewage odor, discoloration, or debris consistent with drain backup
  • Whether any previous flooding has occurred in the property and, if so, where
  • The location of your main water shutoff, electrical panel, and any crawl space or basement access points

The source and contamination category of the floodwater directly affects the restoration protocol. Water that entered from outside the structure through overland flooding or storm drain backup is classified as Category 3 contaminated water, which requires containment procedures, antimicrobial treatment, and in many cases controlled demolition of porous materials that absorbed the contaminated water. Knowing the source helps the crew arrive prepared for the right scope of work from the first visit.

professional flood damage repair crew wearing high-visibility gear working in a flooded Memphis home

What Happens After the Immediate Response

Professional flood damage repair does not end when the drying equipment is removed. The mitigation phase, which covers extraction, drying, antimicrobial treatment, and moisture clearance, is the foundation for the reconstruction phase that follows.

Reconstruction after flooding involves replacing the building materials that were removed or destroyed during mitigation. In a significant flood event, that typically includes flooring, lower sections of drywall, insulation, and in some cases cabinetry and millwork that absorbed contaminated water beyond the point where surface cleaning is sufficient.

Throughout both phases, your documentation record, your insurance communications, and your restoration company’s moisture logs and testing reports form a continuous chain of evidence that supports your claim and protects you legally. For landlords and property managers in Memphis, that chain of documentation also supports habitability compliance and protects against tenant disputes about the condition of the property after restoration is declared complete.

The final step before reoccupation is clearance testing. Air quality verification and post-remediation inspection confirm that the property is safe for occupancy and that the flood damage repair has achieved the standard required for a clean restoration outcome.

The Checklist Is the Plan. The Plan Protects the Recovery.

Memphis flood events do not follow a convenient schedule. They happen in the middle of the night, during work hours, and in the middle of busy seasons for everyone involved. The property owners who come through them with manageable costs and complete recoveries are almost always the ones who had a clear picture of the right sequence before the water arrived. Now you have that picture.

When the Flood Is Behind You and the Repair Needs to Begin

The team at Landmark Construction & Emergency Services is ready to help. Contact us today to dispatch a certified flood damage repair crew to your Memphis, TN property and begin the recovery process with every step in the right order from the very first hour.