Hurricane Season Plumbing Checklist for South Florida Homes

1. Find and test the main shut-off. Confirm it closes fully with a tap running, and clear anything growing over it.
2. Test every angle stop under sinks and behind toilets. These are what let you isolate one fixture without shutting the house.
3. Clear the exterior cleanout and make sure you can find it. If it is buried under mulch or a paver, uncover it now.
4. Have any drain line that has backed up in the last year camera-scoped. A line that is already marginal is the one that fails when heavy rain raises the water table.
5. Check the water heater pan drains. Pour a jug of water in and watch. If it sits there, the line is blocked.
6. Check the age and condition of supply connectors to washing machines, dishwashers and toilets. Braided lines are consumables.
7. Photograph the property, including the plumbing areas, and keep it with your policy documents.

• Fill bathtubs and containers with water for washing and flushing. Municipal supply and pressure can be affected by outages, and a filled tub is the simplest reserve there is.
• Run the dishwasher and laundry before the weather arrives, not during it. If the sewer system comes under pressure regionally, you want to be adding as little to it as possible.
• Turn off the irrigation system. It is doing nothing useful and it complicates leak detection afterwards.
• If you are leaving the property, close the main shut-off. This is the single most effective thing an evacuating homeowner can do, and it costs nothing.
• Switch the water heater off at the breaker or the gas control if you are leaving. It protects the unit from an unstable supply on restoration.
• Secure anything outside that could strike exposed plumbing — hose bibs, backflow assemblies and pool equipment are all vulnerable to debris.

Heavy rain raises an already shallow water table across coastal Broward and Miami-Dade. Groundwater infiltrates older sewer laterals through the same cracks and open joints that let roots in, and across a whole neighborhood that adds up to a system running much closer to capacity than usual.

The consequence is that a drain which was merely slow in dry weather can back up in a storm, and a lateral with a known fault is far more likely to surface a problem then. This is why the pre-season camera survey on a line with a history is worth doing — the failure is predictable.

In low-lying areas and on properties where fixtures sit below the level of the street, the risk of backflow into the building rises with the system pressure. If that describes your property, ask a licensed plumber about the appropriate protection for your situation while there is time to install it properly.

1. Restore water slowly. Open the main gradually and let air work out of the system through open taps rather than slamming pressure back into it.
2. Run every fixture and check under every sink for weeping connections. Pressure transients find weak fittings.
3. Do not switch an electric water heater back on until you have confirmed the tank is full. Energising a dry element destroys it.
4. Check the water heater and its pan for water, and check any drain pan lines that could have been disturbed.
5. Follow any boil-water notice issued by your utility exactly, for as long as it stands.
6. Watch the meter over the following days. A leak that started during the storm often shows first as a bill rather than a puddle.
7. Photograph and document any damage before cleaning up, and keep every invoice.

• Do not use a portable generator indoors or in a garage under any circumstances.
• Do not stand in standing water to reach an electrical panel or a water heater.
• Do not pour storm debris or sediment into a floor drain or a toilet.
• Do not ignore a sewer smell that appears after a storm. It usually means the system moved, and it is worth investigating while it is still a smell.