SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – The Bay Area is dealing with significant damage from the torrential rains this past weekend. With another atmospheric river on the horizon, here's how to protect your home.
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Many property owners are scrambling to keep water out of their homes, especially with the forecasted storms this week. Whether or not you own the property you live in, it's important to act quickly if you notice water getting into the house.
"The interior of your house is what causes most people's problems because you've got many surfaces where mold can grow," Tommy Anderberg, a water intrusion and drainage specialist, told KCBS Radio.
Anderberg is getting lots of calls this week. "Basically I'm seeing neighbor problems where buildings are right next to their neighbor, the downhill neighbors complaining because of the water uphill," he said.
Other calls have to do with drainage problems. "They've remodeled their houses, next thing you know they didn't address drainage and now we've got a drainage problem that wasn't happening before," Anderberg said.
Ideally, homeowners should try to keep the water directed away from the house and its foundation. However, it might be tough to guard against flood water in San Francisco ahead of Wednesday's rain, as the city is running low on sandbags.
Rachel Gordon, SF Public Works spokesperson, told KCBS Radio they handed out 4,000 bags yesterday alone. What was once a limit of 10 bags per household, will now only be five due to the demand.
"We are replenishing the supply as we speak, we hope to have more in by mid-morning and then more in in the next coming days," she said.
Contra Costa Public Works Dept. is waiting to get word of more sand before letting people fill up. In San Francisco, if you don't need bags, please don't come get them, officials ask. Lines will be long once the supply of sand arrives. Every county in the Bay Area is running low.
"Generally, if your property hasn't flooded in previous large storms, it's not going to flood this time, but people are nervous because of the heavy rains we saw on New Year's Eve and then the forecast for big rains coming in," Gordon said.
Above the ground, people face a different problem amid torrential rains. "People have window problems, water intrusions, wind-driven rain," Anderberg said. "Remember that mold takes three days to start growing so you want to really dry things out if you have restoration companies' numbers handy."
Anderberg said that when it comes to rain water, go with the flow. "People need to know that there's future things they can do, design, architect and engineers, and then homeowners, they've just got to be really ready to protect themselves as best they can," he advised.
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