The first six hours after the water stalls are loud. People drive to look. People start ripping. People forget the insulin.
You still have a short list that pays you back for months: proof, people, power, and a call to the carrier.
The drywall will be there at hour seven.
Do this now
- Photograph and video the house before anyone guts.
- Find meds, glasses, chargers, IDs, and the pet crate.
- Check on the neighbor who doesn’t move fast. Then tell someone you did.
- Call the insurer and start the claim number. Save that email.
- Don’t drive a flooded underpass to “see how bad it is.” Walk only what is still a sidewalk.
The regrets that keep coming up
Houstonians often report they threw out the sofa before a photo, they didn’t grab the pillbox, they let a random crew start, they argued with an elder instead of moving the walker to high ground, they posted the empty house, they never called the carrier until day four. None of that makes you a fool. It makes you typical. You can still do the next right thing.
What can wait
The perfect contractor. The perfect spreadsheet. The argument about whose ward got more pumps. Social posts. Painting. A drive through a still-wet feeder to show the kids the bayou. That water has snakes and a current you can’t see from a phone clip.
If hour six already passed
Start at the next undone item on the list above. Reconstruct photos. Call the carrier now. Eat. If you’re shaking and you can’t pick a first step, that’s 988 or Disaster Distress at 1-800-985-5990. The house is a project. You’re a person.
Verify live. Status changes hourly. If someone is still trapped, 911. For the claim, you need a number on paper, not a memory of a hold tune.