Summary:
Your home can quickly be transformed into a dangerous place if flooding is imminent. Ten steps you can take to avoid serious injury or death from electrocution before, during, and after flooding.

Details or Sample:
Everybody knows electricity and water don’t mix. Electricity consistently follows a single rule: It seeks the shortest path to ground—literally, the ground. Water is consistently a very effective conductor of electricity. Unfortunately, too many times a human body—which can be up to 60 percent water—provides an electric current the shortest path “to ground.” If an external part of that body is wet, the danger increases: A jolt that may otherwise only injure a person can be fatal in the presence of wet hair or skin—even sweaty hands.

Rapidly melting snow and heavy rains can put even landlocked homes in danger of flooding. Follow these important steps to avoid serious injury and even death from electrical mishaps in your home before, during, and after flooding.

Before flooding:
• If flooding is predicted and your basement is dry, promptly turn off circuit breakers or unscrew fuses.

• Unplug everything on the lower level (and also on the main level if flooding could potentially reach that high).

• Move as many portable electrical appliances to a higher level as you can, e.g., clocks, lamps, TVs, ...

During flooding:
• At the start of flooding, if your electricity has not been shut off and the basement floor is already wet, do not stand on the wet floor to shut off the power. Take off your damp shoes and, wearing dry socks, stand on a dry non-metal surface, such as a board, to shut off your power. It is a myth that rubber-soled shoes or rubber gloves can protect you from an electrical shock.

• If your electricity has not been shut off and the water level is already rising, do not enter the basement or other flooded space: When the water level reaches electric outlets, junction boxes, and switches, it will become energized. You don’t have to be anywhere near one of these electrical sources to be electrocuted. If the water is rising, call your electric utility to shut off your power at the pole...

Following flooding:
• Before you attempt to restore your power at your circuit breaker or fuse box, look for any electrical appliances that may have gotten wet and unplug them. Keep them unplugged and don’t use them until you have them checked out by a qualified electrician.

• Do not attempt to restore your power and, instead, promptly contact a qualified electrician if it appears your walls and wiring have incurred water damage.

• It is not safe to reset your circuit breakers and fuses until the water in your basement has receded. Proceed only if you can stand on a completely dry floor or on a dry board with dry shoes or socks. If there is a possibility that the fuse box or circuit breaker box has gotten wet, don’t touch it and contact a qualified electrician.

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