W25 - "Natural Disaster Handling" SOP

This week my home suffered a “water disaster.” An aged kitchen valve broke while no one was home on a weekday, and water poured down from the sixth floor like a small waterfall, attracting many onlookers. It was my first time handling a “natural disaster” at home. The response process has general applicability, so I summarized an SOP for future reference.

1. Align information. After confirming the incident, immediately add relevant people to a group chat to share updates in real time so everyone can contribute. Include, but don’t limit to: family members, neighborhood office, community committee, landlord, and agent.

2. The first countermeasure is to stop further harm as much as possible. For example, turn off the building’s main water valve.

3. Prevent secondary hazards, such as cutting power and gas. This step is easily overlooked; when rushing to deal with water damage, the worst outcome may not be drowning but electrocution.

4. Reduce financial loss. Once the immediate damage is contained, focus on limiting economic loss. Begin recording the scene on video from the start to collect evidence for liability and compensation discussions. Pay special attention to damage caused to adjacent neighbors — determine whether it was due to personal water use or natural aging of the property.

5. Attend to the scene. Indeed, only at step five do you handle the site itself — and it’s the least technical step.

6. Repair all similar vulnerabilities. After dealing with the scene, in addition to fixing the valve that caused the incident, inspect and repair all aged valves in the home.

7. Handle follow-up and compensation matters. This can be the most painful step. I looked at my downstairs neighbor’s home and it was worse damaged because our unit overflowed while theirs was directly rained on. If the cause is your responsibility, be prepared to cover excess water bills, repair costs, and compensation.

If there’s a TODO from this COE, it’s the lack of monitoring — observability is poor. Many residences may have fire alarms but no water alarms. In this situation, the only way to detect water and trigger a human alert is when it overflows out the door. If a house is of poorer quality that can be a perverse advantage, since the water can escape through gaps or a mouse hole. So, when water incidents occur, home outcomes generally fall into two categories: minor damage or complete flooding. Like Schrödinger’s cat, you only know when you open the door. Fortunately, our place is of lower quality, so we were in the former category.