How You and Your Town Can Prevent Flood Damage at Your Business

11/13/2020 (Permalink)

Sea walls can prevent flood damage

Ways That You And Your Municipality Can Protect Your Business From Floodwater

When you own a business in Overland Park, KS, you need to take various proactive flood prevention measures. Fortunately, you can share this responsibility with the city in which you operate. Here are some crucial ways that you and your municipality can protect your business from floodwater and minimize damage and disruption.

Install Structural Barriers
Most city or town municipalities situated near water have infrastructures in place to prevent flood damage, such as:

• Dams
  
• Levees
  
• Sea Walls
  
• Water Barriers
  
  

Of course, when storm conditions are severe, these measures may not be enough to prevent large quantities of water from flooding your business. You can supplement these measures with moveable water barriers, absorbant sandbags, moveable dams, water shields and water gates.

Plant Vegetation
Trees and other forms of vegetation are an excellent natural flood prevention method with proven results. As roots grow into the ground, they create open spaces within the soil that become a natural water drainage system. Trees also capture rainwater on their leaves and branches where it evaporates before it enters the ground. Many municipalities plant trees to support their flood control efforts. You can also increase the number of plantings on your building's surrounding landscape to reduce the risk of flooding.

Address Sanitation
Flood water carries unsafe bacteria, microorganisms, industrial waste and other contaminants. When water enters your building, it can quickly overtake everything in its path. Further damage may be due to mold formation from stagnant water. A flood restoration company can perform flood cleaning to extract contaminated water and restore your business's sanitary conditions. If mold has formed, powerful air filtration methods can remove spores from the air to restore a safe environment. Municipalities that provide separate rainwater and sewer pipes can reduce the incidence of sewage-filled floodwater in your building.
A flood can significantly impact your business in Overland Park, KS, but taking proactive flood prevention steps can support your local municipality's efforts to decrease the flood risk.