After the initial shock sets in from a flood or some other type of disaster, next comes questions like: what do I do now? How do I repair and clean this up? How do I know who to call? How will I pay for it? Karen Stiles from TODAY’S TMJ4’s Call 4 Action office has some tips on dealing with the aftermath of flooding. The first thing you need to do after a flood is to think about how you can assess the damage as safely and efficiently as possible. Contacting your insurer, taking pictures and inventory of what you have and doing whatever you can to secure your contents as best as possible from further damage is important. Sometimes, you might find that you need help beyond what you or your insurer can provide, and you may need to hire a professional cleaner or contractor. First, take a look at what needs to be done, and then spend some time developing a list of who needs to be called in. If you don’t know who to call, start by looking in the yellow pages or contacting a professional home improvement organization like NARI, who can provide you with a few names of businesses that agree to abide by professional and ethical standards established by their organization. Before you hire someone to do the job, contact more than one business, check out their reputation and get more than one opinion of what needs to be done and at what price. It can be tempting to hire the first person to offer their services, but watch out. This can create a lot of problems later if you don’t thoroughly check things out. To avoid having a problem later, make sure to get a detailed, written contract that lists all of the work to be done, completion date and cost. Also, make sure to get a street address, office number and, if possible, cell phone number for the contractor. Think twice before hiring a contractor that tries to push you into hiring them on the spot, discourages you from contacting a competitor, wants to be paid for the entire job up front or requests that you pay him in cash. The big question after a flood is how to pay for the work to be done if you do not have insurance for flood damage. This can present some real challenges. A lot of people assume insurance or FEMA will pay for these damages, but, unfortunately, even if you have coverage or are eligible for funds, it can take a long time to gain access to these funds and it’s very likely that not everything is going to be covered and you are going to have to come up with money to pay for these repairs and clean up out of pocket. However, you might be able to get some help via low interest loans from your local city’s housing rehabilitation assistance programs, or contacting your credit card company or local lender to see if they are willing to negotiate a lower interest rate or extended payments on a loan. Sometimes, you can get help from a local church or service organization, but keep in mind, many of these organizations are already tapped out by so many other requests for help at this time. With that said, this could be a really great opportunity for neighbors and others to join together and try to help each other out.