Quote Originally Posted by griffin View Post
At least if the water doesn't reach the floor of the second storey, the people can still live in their house as soon as the water recedes, and only have to clean/remove/replace/repair just the first floor. Otherwise it's a bigger cleanup, and longer until they can move back home.
Apparently it won't be that easy. The buildings foundations, walls, frames, etc may have been weakened due to the water, and safety checks have to be conducted on most houses to make sure they won't collapse. Electricians will also have to check to make sure there's no chance of electrocution, as the water would have gotten into the walls, wires, powerpoints. It's gonna be a long process by the sounds of it.