After a flooding incident, the amount of flood damage clean-up, restoring, and salvaging can be stressful. An especially overwhelming task can be the drying of documents, books, or photographs. Documents that went through flood damage are sometimes not even actually touched by flood water, rather they are damaged by humidity in a flood. When it comes to salvaging important documents that put up with flood damage or extreme humidity, careful actions and patience are the keys to a successful save.

Remember that wet paper is in a very fragile state. It is important to handle all wet documents very carefully. You may also want to wear gloves when handling paper with extensive flood damage, as you would wear gloves when handling any other flood-damaged items. Flood water can contain waste and other various forms of bacteria, so you need to protect yourself from potential sickness. You can also carefully rinse your documents or photographs in clean water to remove mud or waste. If you are going to be rinsing multiple documents in a bucket or other container, change the water often to keep it clean. This will remove some of the factors that could continue to damage your documents.

Attempt first to pat dry your documents. Use a clean rag or paper towel for this, but be careful not to rub or smear the surface of the document. Blot gently and thoroughly, and rotate your blotting material so that you only bring your documents in contact with clean materials. You can then try to air dry your documents. Place them in a dry area that has plenty of air circulation. Position fans in the room in order to further circulate the air, but do not point the fans directly at your documents. You can also try drying your documents on materials such as window screens, because the air will be able to circulate through the holes and dry your documents from all angles. The lack of air circulation during the drying step could cause mold, mildew, or further damage.

If you have entire books or manuals that need to be salvaged from flood damage, try placing a sheet of wax paper between each page to prevent the pages from sticking and then drying together. If the air drying of any documents will take longer than a few days, or you cannot get to them right away, you may want to consider freezing the documents in order to prevent mold and mildew from forming.

Loss of important and meaningful family documents to flood damage can be very upsetting after a flood. Knowing how to correctly salvage your documents is the key, and you may want to consider storing your documents in areas that are less likely to be affected during a flood. If possible, always store important documents away from basements or in an environmentally safe box. Important documents would be tax forms, birth and marriage certificates, Social Security cards, or negatives to important and irreplaceable family photos. Careful prevention steps and the right drying techniques should ensure the safety of your important documents.