When To Deploy Demountable Flood Barriers During A Storm

Copyright (c) 2012 Floodsense

Of all of the misfortunes that can befall a household, nature is certainly capable of dishing out some of the most devastating. Sometimes, a disaster that's looming on the horizon is easy to see coming, and preparations can be easily made to help mitigate some of the effects. In other situations, such as with flash floods, the threat can come without warning, and gradual climate changes in many areas are causing historically predictable flood areas to shift, creating new dangers for both motorists and home owners. Knowing when it's the right time to deploy demountable flood barriers can make the difference between weathering the storm, or suffering serious property damage.

Of course, it naturally follows that the best time to put up flood water defenses is before the rain even starts. The accuracy and reliability of Doppler systems that many news broadcasters employ has improved dramatically in recent years, and have made it possible to know when and where a severe storm is going to hit up to a day in advance.

It's unfortunate that these systems aren't perfect yet, and the information they provide isn't always infallible. Still, homeowners that knowingly live in low-lying areas relative to their surrounding topology would be wise to take a severe weather warning message as their cue to begin putting countermeasures in place, particularly if they live near a coastline that's especially prone to storm surge.

The problem that comes if the members of a community wait too long to put demountable flood barriers into place is that the amount of time it takes to secure them can vary, and are sure to take longer than normal if the weather has already begun to turn sour. After all, hard rain and increasingly unsure footing will almost always add an additional level of difficulty to any manual labor, especially when time is of the essence.

Traditional flood mitigation tactics, such as building barriers out of sandbags, must be layered together piece by piece. Even with multiple people working together, they're likely to take the longest to deploy. While this old-fashioned tactic does work, and can be removed fairly easily once the storm has passed, the time it takes to create a formidable wall in this way can certainly cause a lot of stress if water levels are rising rapidly.

Other methods, such as water-inflatable tube barriers, can possibly be laid into position more quickly, and by fewer people. On the other hand, they're likely to come at a higher cost, and unlike sandbags, serve no other real purpose except for defense against flooding. As a homeowner, it's important to weigh the risks associated with living in a certain area against the cost of protecting against those risks, and make sound financial decisions accordingly.

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