recoveryThis post is about recovery from a natural disaster such as a hurricane.  In the past couple of months, the United States, the Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico & Cuba, have seen multiple hurricanes that have devastated their residents. The loss has been overwhelming.

The American Red Cross continues to provide disaster relief in those affected areas.  Red Cross societies from around the world are also joining the disaster relief effort.  They are providing basic needs for those that have been displaced from their homes.

After the danger has passed, the recovery begins.  The media keeps us informed of the status of the hurricanes, and the affected areas.  The priorities change as the status of the weather changes.  When the areas are safe for the residents to return, that’s when the damage can be assessed.  The main priority is the damage to homes, particularly the infrastructure. Residents need to know it’s safe to actually be able to live in their homes again.

Flooding is a huge issue after a hurricane. Water damage to a structure can compromise stability.  Mold is another issue that can be a consequence of water damage.  These issues need to be addressed as a top priority before the residents can safely move back into their homes.  FEMA is a government agency that supports recovery efforts after a major disaster.

The contents of a home will be compromised in some way, from a natural disaster such as flooding.  Clothes, furniture and tools for daily living can be replaced due to little emotional attachment.  Memories such as photos, not so much.  We all have emotional attachment to our belongings in some way.  Photos may be top on our list of things with the most emotional attachment.

These days most of us have phones with cameras in them.  The technology has progressed so much that we don’t need a separate camera to capture memories.  Digital photos can be saved on a computer, flash drive, or up in the cloud. Those of us that have been around for a while, have boxes or photo albums, or both with physical memories from long ago. Those are the memories that we may need to recover from flood damage.

Photo recovery technology has progressed as well.  It used to be that if water came into contact with a photo, it was ruined.  Now, that isn’t the case depending on the extent of the damage.  This is not my area of organizing expertise, but there are experts in the field of photo organizing that can help.  A dear friend of mine suggested I share a website with my readers that deals with photo recovery.  Here is a link to SaveYourPhotos.org that provides information during the recovery process.  There are resources to teach you how to save your damaged photos, as well as other resources to help with photo recovery in the respective hurricane impacted areas.

When someone has lost so much during a natural disaster, there is some level of comfort in the recovery of precious memories.  Hopefully this information helps during recovery after a natural disaster.