After a Flood: The Supplies That Matter, in the Order They Matter

In order: safe drinking water and a way to make more; dry clothes, socks and blankets; a light and a charged phone; food that needs no cooking; their prescriptions and a first aid kit; then, once the water drops, the cleanup gear: respirators, gloves, boots, shovels, bleach, contractor bags and fuel for the generator. Shelters run short of new socks and underwear, diapers, wipes and feminine supplies before anything else.

Cash to a local organization does the most, because they buy exactly what is short that day. For goods: bottled water, new socks and underwear in packages, diapers and wipes, feminine supplies, cleaning supplies (bleach, contractor bags, mops, buckets, sponges), N95 masks and work gloves, non-perishable food that needs no cooking, and phone chargers. What not to send: used clothing, which drowns every disaster in sorting labor, perishable food, and anything that needs a working kitchen.

Bottled water first. After that, the cleanest source you can reach that is not floodwater: a tap under a boil notice, a neighbor's well that stayed above the flood, a rain barrel, a stream upstream of the damage. Boil it one minute (three above 6,500 feet) or add 8 drops of plain bleach per gallon and wait 30 minutes. A filter alone is not enough after a flood because of the sewage load and the viruses, so filter then boil or chlorinate. Floodwater itself carries fuel, sewage and chemicals that no boiling or filter removes.

An N95 or better respirator, because mold spores and dried sewage dust are the real hazard; goggles; nitrile gloves under leather work gloves; rubber boots; a tetanus shot within the last ten years. Then shovels, a pry bar and a utility knife to pull wet drywall and carpet, contractor bags, bleach or a mold cleaner, buckets and a stiff brush, fans, and a generator to run them. Everything porous that stayed wet more than 48 hours comes out: carpet, pad, drywall to a foot above the water line, insulation, mattresses.

Text before you call; texts get through on a jammed network when calls do not. Keep the phone charged from a power bank or the vehicle. For talking to family and neighbors with no network at all, GMRS radios: a few miles across open ground, more with a repeater, one license covers the family for ten years with no test. A hand-crank or battery AM/FM and weather radio brings the official word in. The communication guide has the radios and the plan.

Yes, for germs. Calcium hypochlorite stored as a dry powder makes a stock chlorine solution that treats thousands of gallons, which is why a one-pound bag is in my water kit instead of a jug of bleach that loses strength in a year. Follow the calcium hypochlorite formula on this site for the measurements. It kills bacteria and viruses; it does not remove fuel, chemicals or sewage solids, so the source still has to be the cleanest water you can find, never the flood itself.

Only when there is no other way, and never by choice. Six inches of moving water knocks an adult down and two feet floats a truck. Standing water hides open manholes, downed power lines that can electrify the whole street, sharp debris, and a load of sewage and chemicals that infect every scratch. If you must, waterproof boots, a walking stick to probe, gloves, and wash every part of you that touched it with soap as soon as you are out.

After the water is gone from the structure, the power has been confirmed off at the meter by the utility or an electrician, and you have checked from outside for shifted foundation, sagging roof, gas smell and downed lines. Go in daylight with a flashlight, not a flame; open windows; N95, gloves and boots on. Photograph everything before you touch it for insurance. Then start pulling wet material, because mold starts in 24 to 48 hours and does not stop until the wet stuff is out.