Milwaukee Flash Flood - how to recover

[Marcus Auerbach]

Milwaukee got hit with 8 inches of rain in 2 hours, in some areas 12" and up to 18". Cars were washed down the streets, the sewer system got totally overloaded pushing sewage through floor drains into basements. Widespread power outages lead to failing sump pumps and rapidly flooding basements. 3 days later we still see power on and off, causing basements to flood already pumped basements again. Spectrum has still not restored internet in all areas. We have a large number of effected properties and do what we can, one of them destroyed by a large falling tree. The damage from sewage is 10x worse than just clear water.

Here is what we are doing right now - please let me know what other tips you have:

1.) Pumping water out is obviously first
2.) removing furniture
3.) pulling up carpets and pad, dispose.  
4.) On newer properties, we use indoor outdoor carpet without pad, which cleans up well and looks like we can keep
5. Many HVAC systems are damaged and need new control boards
6.) water heaters need to be restarted, the newer onces require disassembly and blowing dry, damaged electronics... need hot water to clean sewage
7.) we spray enzyme clearner to prevent/limit bacterial growth
8.) at least 2 dehumidifiers, will probably rent commercial units
9.) just bought a thermal camera to identify wet drywall, remove if needed
10.) just ordered a few more commercial ozone generators from maxblaster - the ones we have are too slow

Carpet cleaners refuse to take orders right now, apparently, they get called to basements that need water extraction first.
Home Depot came through today with a delivery of blower fans and dehumidifiers - we always keep some around, also puddle sucker pumps, but not enough for anything of this scale.

For anyone who has dealt with this and have some helpful tips, please let us know!
Probably going to organize an event with the RPAWI to educate fellow landlords

If you have not seen the damage,  news video

[Steve K.]

We had a big flood in 2013 and afterwards the flood maps got redrawn which hurt a lot of property owners that weren't previously in the flood zone. Just sharing because if this is a possibility for any of your properties I would consider selling. Being in the designated flood zone is terrible for resale value, limits what you can do with the property in terms if adding to the building envelope, getting building permits, insurance availability and cost, etc.