The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) has prepared a number of guides, brochures, reports and other resources to assist contractors and homeowners with flood-damaged homes and buildings. Following are links to some of these resources:
- Rehabbing Flooded Homes: A Guide for Builders and Contractors – This resource discusses methods for determining how badly a building has been damaged and how to repair it are relatively similar no matter where you are working.
- Creating a Healthy Home: A Field Guide for Cleanup of Flooded Homes– This guide is meant for do-it-yourselfers and contractors who need to clean up mold in flooded homes before starting to rebuild or renovate. This booklet tells how to clean up after flooding, but does not describe how to rebuild.
- The Rehab Guide– This nine-volume guidebooks covers distinct elements of housing rehabilitation. It focuses on state-of-the-art building technologies, materials, components, and techniques.
- Moisture-Resistant Homes– This report describes best practices for designing, building, and maintaining houses to effectively manage moisture penetration. It addresses many common moisture-related problems that are well known to builders, homeowners, and insurers.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a webpage for Preventing and Treating Illnesses and Injuries After a Hurricane or Flood. This page contains fact sheets and videos on various topics including the following:
- Cleanup Safely After a Disaster
- Mold After a Disaster
- Mold Prevention Strategies and Possible Health Effects in the Aftermath of Hurricanes and Major Floods
- Re-entering Your Flooded Home
The federal Department of Energy ( DOE) Building Technologies Program is partnering with State Energy Offices (SEOs) to encourage regional exchange of information and best practices. The DOE website Disaster Recovery and Building Reconstruction provides numerous links for builders, home owners and local officials. The FEMA Hurricane Sandy website offers a wide variety of resources, including a Frequently Asked Questions Webpage- The SBA provides low interest disaster loans to homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes and private, nonprofit organizations to repair or replace real estate, personal property, machinery & equipment, inventory and business assets that have been damaged or destroyed in a declared disaster. Information is available at the SBA Disaster Loans webpage.