From an e-mail I received:

"I am a New Orleans resident. Following hurricane Katrine, the levee near my home broke. My home (built in 1987)is a two-story, wood frame, vinyl siding. The flood water stood in my home at a depth of about six feet for about ten days. It covered all of the switches and outlets on the first
floor, and the circuit breaker box.

I'm sure that the switches and outlets will have to be replaced, as well as the circuit breaker box. Will the wiring be OK?"

Any thoughts?

I referred him to a previous post which had the link to NEMA's paper.

Rick Miell

Sprayed by rain is one thing, but under water is another. By now the paper within the cable (AC or NM) is saturated and the deterioration has already begun. My opinion ... it needs to go away.

The mold problem demands that everything comes off. Expect to strip down to the framing and dry it out. With wet weather comming, that may be quite a wait. (Tenting, heated blown air?)

All affected electrical is virtually guaranteed to be ruined. Consider jacking the struture up on stilts. This is widely done in Florida. I expect that the government/insurers are going to insist on it in many areas.

More than likely the house is a total loss. It is cheaper to just scrape it down and start over. New construction is so much cheaper per foot than massive repairs.

As they say, when you are ordered out of an area for possible flooding, don't forget to leave a cake in the oven.

A buddy of mine went back down to clear out his apt., and brought his EC brother-in-law. Said anytime he mentioned what he did for a living people would beg to get him to come by and work. From what I hear, Hotels and Commercial are paying top-dollar, as well as some of the higher-end neighborhoods. The lower end are just getting bull-dozed....

I would tell him you need to know what type of wiring it is. I imagine thwn in some sort of conduit might be okay. although the conduit may need replacing. I guess PVC with thwn... hhmmm the more I think about it, pretty unlikely it's any good.

Would the water be wholly or partly sea-water? If so, it will never dry properly as the salts will deliquesce moisture from the atmosphere. I fear most timber structures will be scrap, in that case.

Alan

Along the line Alan suggested, many areas had chemicals & sewage in the water - it wasn't even so "simple" as sea water.

It's a mess, that's for sure.

i looked at the nema papers and it seems all the wire under the flood waters would need to be replaced. along with plugs and switches,panels and breakers.