Last week, we had the misfortune of getting a combination of rain and melting snow, which caused a really unpleasant flood situation in our house.  Fortunately, it only reached the outer rooms, which are unfinished concrete and do not have any special furnishings.  Still, cleaning up an inch of water from two rooms is no fun chore.

When cleaning up a flooded area, the most important thing to do is stem the flow to other areas.  Use sandbags, rolled up towels, or anything you can find to keep the water contained.  As long as it does not progress, removing what is there is easy.  You must also make sure the water is no longer coming in, or your efforts will be in vain.

Once the water is no longer flowing, cleanup can begin.  The quickest way I have found is to use a push broom to sweep it back outside, but if that option isn’t available, a hand broom and dustpan will quickly and efficiently get the water.

Have a bucket nearby, and sweep the water into the dustpan.  It works better to be fast rather than thorough, so just take a swipe and then dump the dustpan into the bucket.  If one person is filling a dustpan while another uses a larger broom to sweep the water closer, cleanup will go fairly quickly.

After the majority of the water is bucketed away, use a fan to keep air circulating and dry out what remains while you dry up what you can with towels.

If you have a wet/dry vacuum and the ability to run it during your flood, it will make short work of standing water on both flat and carpeted floors.