50 tips for weathering the storm
1. Stay indoors if at all possible. Leave your home only if you believe staying there would put you in danger.
2. If you’re not sure if your drinking water is safe, vigorously boil water for at least one minute before drinking it or cooking with it.
3. Try to stay off the roadways.
4. Be careful and alert on roadways if you do drive. Nearly 400 roads and more than 150 bridges had been closed by Monday morning because of flooding conditions. The S.C. Highway Patrol reported 148 collisions over Sunday night.
5. Check the S.C. Department of Tranportation’s online listing of road and bridge closings.
6. That page is located at http://info.scdot.org/Storm/StormDropOff/StormClosingsMap.pdf.
7. Don’t drive through standing or flowing water.
8. Don’t drive around barricades placed at or near flooded streets.
9. Keep in mind that 1 foot of water can cause a car to float off the roadway, according to the S.C. Emergency Management Division.
10. If floodwaters rise around your car, get out and move to higher ground.
11. Avoid walking through moving water. Six inches of water can knock you off your feet, according to the Emergency Management Division.
12. If you must walk through water, try to walk where the water is not moving. Use a stick for stability and to check the firmness of the ground in front of you.
13. Don’t play in or raft or boat through floodwaters.
14. Move to higher ground if there is any possibility of flash flooding. Do not wait to be told to move.
15. Report emergency situations by dialing 911 or calling the SCDOT Customer Service Center at 1-855-467-2368.
16. Call the S.C. Emergency Management Division’s 24-hour public hot line with questions. The hot line has answered more than 1,700 calls with questions about the flooding.
17. The number for the hot line is 1-866-246-0133.
18. Be aware of which emergency shelters are open in the Midlands. The Red Cross, Lexington County and Richland County are updating that information on social media.
19. If you have power, charge your phone and other devices.
20. If you have power, load up your fridge with bottled water.
21. If you lose power, contact your utility to report the outage.
22. Turn off electricity at the main breaker fuse box and unplug appliances if floodwaters approach your home.
23. Before re-entering a flood-damaged home or building, make sure the power is off.
24. Don’t try to reset the circuit breakers until all water has receded.
25. Don’t go into a basement or other room if water covers the electrical outlets or cords are submerged.
26. Leave if you see sparks or hear buzzing, cracking, snapping or popping noises near electrical outlets or cords.
29. Call 911 if you see a downed power line. Do not approach it.
The S.C. Department of Insurance has offered several steps (30-40) to take once you have a loss:
30. Document your entire loss with photographs, videos and more.
31. Mitigate the damages. You will need to takenecessary steps to prevent further damage and loss. Make temporary repairs using whatever you have, including plywood or tarps, to protect the structure.
32. Contact your insurance agent or company and report all claims as soon as possible.
33. Keep a log of your personal property loss, and gather all receipts for those items that have been damaged or destroyed. Photographs and videos of the materials will also help in filing the claim.
34. According to a release from the S.C. Department of Insurance, the standard homeowner’s insurance policy does not include coverage for flood damage.
35. Water seepage is excluded under most homeowner’s insurance policies.
36. Generally, your homeowner’s insurance policy will provide up to $500 coverage for tree removal. This limit applies to all of the downed trees per loss and is not paid on a per tree basis.
37. If a tree falls on your home or other structure covered under the terms of your homeowner’s policy, your insurance policy should cover the cost of removing the tree from the damaged structure. This would be paid under the dwelling portion of your policy.
38. Cars covered with comprehensive coverage will be covered for storm-related damage. Cars covered under liability coverage would not be covered for storm-related damage.
39. You can contact the S.C. Department of Insurance Office of Consumer Services by calling 1-800-768-3467 or emailing consumers@doi.sc.gov.
40. Additional insurance information is available at www.doi.sc.gov.
41. Bottled water is being delivered to Russell House and Bates West on the University of South Carolina’s Columbia campus. Students will be able to pick up water from there.
42. Portable restrooms have been delivered to resident halls, the Greek Village and Russell House on USC’s downtown campus.
43. You can donate bottled water and packaged supplies for first responders at the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office. The dropoff point is at 420 Hampton Ave, N.E., Aiken, SC, at the main lobby.
44. You can also call 803-642-1790 to arrange pickup of donations.
45. If you have power and aren’t flooded, hunker down with Netflix, which this past weekend released more than a dozen movies and TV series for streaming. A few possible choices:
46. “Batman Begins” (2005)
47. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005)
48. “Million Dollar Baby” (2004)
49. Season six of “The Vampire Diaries.”
50. Monitor local media such as MyrtleBeachOnline.com and other trusted websites for updated conditions and advsories.
Sources: South Carolina Emergency Management Division, The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, the S.C. Department of Insurance and the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office.
This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 11:46 AM with the headline "50 tips for weathering the storm."