Remove “all” loose stuff from the yard; hoses, garbage cans, piles of woods, gates on split rails fences, flower pots, lawn furniture, paint, pesticides, gas cans etc etc etc. Laundry baskets work well for the small stuff. If you think a flood will clean out your lot, think again. Anything not tied down may float. You will be the new owner of all your upstream neighbor's debris who didn’t prepare for the flood by having their chemicals removed and floatable debris tied down or removed.

If you have any amount of land where you live, you should consider investing in a small Kabota with a front end bucket (as opposed to just a lawn tractor with mower deck). When we realized what we were getting bilked for in our first flood to have a contractor bring in a front end loader to scrape all the mud off the road/drive and remove heavy debris, we quickly determined buying one made sense from both a cost standpoint and the ability to get the cleanup started immediately, without waiting for a crew with equipment. Three floods later the various investments in equipment (particularly the small Kabota with the front end loader and the power washer) have more than paid for themselves in contractor cost savings.

During the Flood:
If this is your first, you’ll probably end up blowing some hours during the crest in getting as close as you can to your property to see the carnage unfold. But if you’ve already seen one, you’ve seen them all. Forget checking it out and get busy preparing for the first hours after you can get back in.

Call a trash dumpster supplier and order a container for a few days after the flood waters are projected to recede.

Go to grocery store and get:
* 8 gallons of bleach (if you have a well)
* 4 cases of bottled water (16 gallons)
* granola bars
* jerky
* Gatoraide
* candy
* anti-bacterial soap
* 3 gallons laundry detergent
* paper plates & cups
* ice
* other none perishable foods to consume in mass during the cleanup.
Don’t worry about gaining weight, you can eat like a squealing pig and you’ll still sweat off many pounds during the clean up. It’s the most effective weight loss program on the planet.

Go to hardware store and get:
* Olympic Mildecide (one of the only ones that not only kills mold but prevents from growing).
* Several rolls of heavy plastic and duct tape to cover your electrical panel when you power wash and milicide.
* Power washer (if you don’t already own one)
* Ample lengths of hoses and nozzels
* Several dozen rubber gloves and an assortment of work gloves.
* Paper towels
* Face mask with breathing filters
* Rubber boots
* Floor squeegees
* Large fans.
* Dehumidifiers
* Wet/Dry Vacuum
* Spray canister or backpack sprayer for applying mildicide
* Dawn dishwashing detergent for greasy cleanup from the many upstream folks who fail to secure their oil tanks and gas cans every flood.
* Flat edge shovels & rakes

Other to get:
* Gasoline for power washer
* Diesel for your lawn tractor (if have/need one)
* Large sheets of cheap plywood to place on walkway areas and in front of dumpster

* Stone ¾ clean – several dump truck loads if you have a non paved drive like we do. This is really important for locations with stone/gravel/dirt drives and/or stone in front of your garage. The amounts of mud left behind by the floods are enormous. The first thing one needs to do is remove all the mud from the entrance areas and drive. If one has a stone drive, its crucial to scrape out all the mud and the top layer of your existing stone and then put down fresh stone before starting to clean anything. Otherwise, you’ll just be tracking the mud right back into any areas you’ve cleaned. You’ll also want to lay fresh stone on any paths leading to areas where you walk your dog, so he/she is not walking on the colliform laden mud courtesy of upstream sewage treatment plants that overflowed into the river.

* Should your building by chance have an elevator - remember to leave the car up and the car door open (if you fail to leave the door open, the car will go down automatically when the power cuts out and ruin the car).

Post Flood (immediately after water has receded) in order :
* Get you electrician on site and have all your submerged panels, breakers, outlets & meter checked and replaced where needed. You’re dead in the water without power for the cleanup. We maintain a generator, which insures we'll have power to start the basic cleanup regardless of the mains power situation.
* Get all the tools, machinery and cleanup supplies gathered.
* Scrape your drive and entry walks of mud (if gravel, take off the 1st few inches of existing gravel and replace with ¾ clean stone).
* Get everything out of flooded floors and squeegee the muck out and hose down.
* Tear out all affected drywall and insulation (hopefully you have your dumpster on site at this point).
* Using sheet plastic & tape - cover and seal all electric panels, outlets, alarm boxes etc.
* Power wash completely all affected walls, floors and studs.
* Midecide all affected walls, studs, floors etc
* Wet vac all puddles and moisture remaining on floors.
* Place large space fans and dehumidifiers in affected rooms to speedup the drying process.

Keep all wood windows and doors that were underwater shut. You’ll want to do this for many weeks until they are completely dry. If you don’t, they may swell beyond the frame size and you’ll never get them shut, never! If you have gas sealed thermopane windows and the seals broke, you'll have to replace them. In this circumstance consider replacing with Pella’s IGP windows. You’ll get a better R value and the internal insulating glass panel (IGP) is removable even when the window is shut.

If on a private well:
Remove well cap. Pour 4 gallons of freshly purchased unscented bleach slowly into the well head pipe. Pour around all sides of the well pipe, but avoid pouring on the exposed sensor wire tops. Once all the bleach is poured in: wash off the first 10 feet of a garden hose and then run the hose down the well head pipe and run water through for maybe 30-60 minutes. This will agitate the bleach you poured in throughout the well cavity. Then go around to each faucet in your home and run both hot & cold water until you can smell the bleach coming out and turn off. When all faucets have been run, let the bleach shocked well sit for 6-12 hours (preferably overnight) and keep all faucets turned off during this period. After this period, turn on all faucets and run full open for at least several hours or until the heavy bleach odor has turned to minor. Do the above full routine a second time. At this point we started using the water for showering. After maybe 7 days, get a water sample kit from health dept or private testing company and have the water tested for colliform bacteria and the more dangerous e-coli subset. Do not drink or cook with unboiled tap water (check your health dept for specifics) until you get clean results back. Also be aware these tests are for colliform bacteria not chemical pollutants.
If your test comes back positive for colliform bacteria or e-coli at this point; try bleeding the pressure tank of your water system, repressurize, bleed again and repressurize. Also, make sure you take the aireator off the faucet you are taking the sample from. Then reshock the well with bleach and go through same routine with faucets etc and retest as per above.

Post Flood (later):
If you have any land/grass area to speak of: rake up and spread grass seed on it when it’s still wet and cover with hay. If it has been walked on alot and allowed to dry up and become compacted (particularily when the mud is greasy), get a soil aerator attachment for your lawn tractor and run the aerator over your lawn area and then seed.