Resilience and Recovery After a Tornado

9/4/2021 (Permalink)

When storms strike, SERVPRO of Carrollton is here to help in your recovery process. Call us if you experience any damage.

The devastating EF-4 tornado that ripped through our area in March is still fresh in the minds of everyone in Troup County, and its effects can be seen everywhere you look.

It will be a long time before things fully return to normal, especially for the residents who lost their homes and business owners whose buildings were destroyed and damaged heavily.

But the community has banded together in beautiful ways, and people have been glad to give time and resources to help one another in times of crisis and need. Even outside help, like the 10-week, half-million dollar cleanup investment by Home Depot Foundation, has made an impact in the recovery in Newnan, Lagrange and surrounding areas.

Rebuilding for the Future

There are ways we can rebuild and use federal disaster funding to create a city that is more prepared for these kinds of events in the future and more resilient when they occur. There are many applications and sides to this kind of sweeping process.

Some of them are political and governmental, but some are practical and educational. Let’s look at a very broad overview of some ways we can rebuild with the future in mind.

Realism and Education

How many times have we heard a meteorologist predict a storm and blown it off as an afterthought? Anyone who was impacted by March’s tornado will certainly carry a fresh perspective on the importance of paying attention and heeding local warnings, but we would all do well to stop assuming we will be exempted from potential harm in storms.

Did you know that, though the federal government gives disaster assistance, it only funds about 20% of the recovery for what you lose in a flood, versus approximately 85% recovery from flood insurance? Yet a huge number of people choose not to carry flood insurance, in some cases because their insurance companies are not accurately reflecting their flood plain status due to outdated resources.

And did you know that modern, storm-resilient construction only costs about 10% more than traditional construction? But many builders require you to opt in if you want it done, rather than offering it as a base option, because they want to hand you a lower bid.

Thinking resilience-first can save you a lot of money and hassle in the future, and even increase the value of your home should you sell it in the future.

Part of building a storm-resilient city requires that we take our own safety seriously and educate ourselves on risks and prevention methods. We can’t prevent storms, but we can inch ourselves forward toward communities that are safer, more prepared and more durable when they come.

When storms strike, SERVPRO is here to help in your recovery process, and we have a restoration-first methodology that means you get to keep more of what you value. Click or call today to find out how we can serve you.