I recently ran across a white paper by Littlefuse titled “Recommenations for Re-Energizing Flood-Damaged Electrical Equipment.” While the paper is aimed more at re-commissioning commercial equipment, some of the advice is applicable to amateur radio equipment that may have been submerged due to a basement flooding:
- Make sure the power is actually off and inspect the area for standing water. Flood cleanup usually begins when locations are still wet. Because water conducts electricity, using an appliance such as a wet vacuum or power saw at the clean up location may be hazardous. To protect yourself, use a portable ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI).
- Identify electrical equipment that was or may have been submerged. It is hazardous to simply allow equipment to dry and then re-energize it. Some equipment can never be reused, and must be replaced.
- Inspect electrical equipment that was not submerged. Even if electrical equipment was not submerged, it should be inspected by a qualified person to determine whether moisture has entered the enclosures.
- Replace small components of wiring infrastructure, including receptacles, switches, light fixtures, and dimmers.
- Replace circuit protection devices and power distribution devices, including fuses, disconnect switches, GFCIs, surge protection devices, and olded case circuit breakers.
- Replace wire, cable or flexible cord. Wire or cable listed for dry locations (such as NM-B) must be replaced. Wire or cable that is suitable for wet locations may be refurbished and reused, provided the ends of the wire or cable have not been exposed to water and the wire is not damaged.
I hope that this never happens to you, but if it does, this is good advice on how to recover.
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