Hurricane Plumbing Checklist for Southwest Florida Homes

Why plumbing belongs on your hurricane list

Most hurricane checklists cover shutters, gas for the car and canned food. Plumbing gets a line, if that. In Southwest Florida that’s a mistake. Storm surge, a long power outage or a week of boil water notices can hit your pipes, drains and water heater harder than the wind ever hits your roof.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs June 1 through November 30, and the most intense activity usually lands between mid-August and mid-October. That’s the window when Lee, Charlotte and Collier County homes need a plan for water in, water out and everything that heats it.

This guide walks through what we’d want every homeowner and seasonal owner to know: what to do before the storm, if you leave, while it passes and in the weeks after. It’s general guidance, not a substitute for instructions from your county, your utility or the health department.

Before the storm: plumbing checklist

Do this early in the season, not the day the cone shifts toward you.

Know your shutoffs

• Find your main water shutoff and make sure it actually turns. Old gate valves often seize and snap when they finally get used.
• If you’re on a well, find the breaker for the well pump and label it.
• Find the gas shutoff for a gas water heater or tankless unit and keep the right wrench nearby.
• Find your sewer cleanout outside the house so you can point it out quickly if drains back up.

Fix small problems now

• Repair dripping fixtures and running toilets. Small leaks are easy to miss once the house is shut up for days.
• If drains are already slow, get them cleared. A partially blocked line has less room to handle a surge in demand or a backup. Our drain cleaning page covers what that involves.
• If your water heater is old, leaking at the base or showing rust, it won’t get better sitting in a hot, closed house.

Store water the right way

• Fill clean containers with drinking water ahead of time.
• Fill a bathtub for flushing toilets if water service goes down. You can flush a toilet by pouring a bucket into the bowl.
• Keep bottled water on hand for well homes. When the power goes out, a well pump stops with it.

Take before photos

Walk the house with your phone and photograph the water heater, the area under sinks, the laundry hookups, the garage and any exposed piping outside. Grab the water heater label with the model and serial number. If you ever file a claim, clear before photos make the conversation with an adjuster much easier.

If you evacuate

Leaving is the right call when officials tell you to go. Before you lock the door, spend ten minutes on the plumbing.

• Shut off the main water valve. If a supply line breaks while you’re gone, a closed main limits the damage to what’s already in the pipes instead of an open feed running for days.
• Turn off the water heater. For an electric tank, switch off its breaker. For gas, set the control to off or pilot per the manufacturer’s label. An electric element can burn out if the tank loses water while power is still on.
• Shut off the well pump breaker if you have a well.
• Turn off the ice maker and the supply to the washing machine if they have their own valves.
• Close the toilet lids and put a plug in tub and shower drains on the lowest floor. It won’t stop a serious backup, but it can slow minor ones.
• Follow utility and county instructions on gas and electric shutoffs. If they tell you to turn off gas at the meter, do it, and plan on having the gas company or a qualified pro relight appliances later.

If your home is on a barrier island or in a low area of Fort Myers Beach or Cape Coral, assume you may not be able to get back in for a while. Set the house up so nothing depends on you returning quickly.

During the storm

If you’re riding it out at home, the plumbing goals are simple: conserve water, don’t overload the drains and stay away from floodwater.

• Use stored water for drinking and cooking if the utility issues a notice or pressure drops.
• Cut back on showers, laundry and dishwashing. Many sewer systems depend on lift stations that need power to move wastewater. When those stations are down, the less water your house sends down the drain, the better.
• If a floor drain, shower or toilet on the lowest level starts gurgling or backing up, stop using water in the house. Every flush adds to what’s coming back up.
• Do not run a portable generator inside the home, garage or a shed. Keep it outside, at least 20 feet from the house, and have working carbon monoxide alarms inside.
• Don’t wade into floodwater to reach a valve or the water heater. Floodwater can be electrified and carries sewage.

After the storm: city water, wells, septic and sewer

What you do first depends on how your home gets water and where the wastewater goes. Check in with local news and your utility before you assume the tap is safe.

Homes on city water

Pay attention to boil water notices. After Hurricane Ian made landfall near Cayo Costa on September 28, 2022, Lee County Utilities put its entire service area under a precautionary boil water notice the same day. That covered more than 97,000 water connections, and the last pieces weren’t lifted until October 13. The City of Fort Myers lifted its citywide notice on October 14.

During a notice, bring clear water to a rolling boil for one minute before drinking it or cooking with it. Boiling kills germs, but it doesn’t remove chemicals, so follow local instructions if they say to use bottled water instead.

Once the notice lifts, flush your lines. Run cold water at each faucet for several minutes, and follow your utility’s instructions for ice makers, refrigerator filters and water softeners. If pressure stays low after the neighbors are back to normal, you may have a broken line between the meter and the house. Our water line repair page explains what to look for.

Homes on a private well

• If floodwater covered the wellhead, don’t turn on the pump. Have the wiring checked first by an electrician or a well or pump contractor.
• Don’t drink, cook with or wash with the water until it’s been disinfected and tested.
• The Florida Department of Health recommends disinfecting a flooded well with regular unscented bleach, letting it sit in the system for at least eight hours, and then flushing until the bleach smell is gone.
• Before disinfecting, the health department says to turn off the pump, drain the water heater and remove filters and cartridges, then replace them afterward.
• Disinfection doesn’t prove the water is safe. Only a test by a certified lab does. Federal guidance suggests testing for bacteria 7 to 10 days after disinfecting, and flooded wells can stay at risk for months.
• If you’re running a generator to power the well, the pump has to be wired through a transfer switch or a proper interlock. Backfeeding a generator through an outlet is dangerous for you and for line workers.

Homes on septic

Do not have a flooded septic tank pumped while the ground is still saturated. Pumping it out can cause the tank to try to float out of the ground and can damage the inlet and outlet pipes.

• Use as little water as possible until the soil over the drain field has dried and the water level there is below the water level around the house.
• Keep vehicles and equipment off the drain field.
• Watch for slow drains, a tank that won’t accept water, settling around the tank or sewage odors. Those are signs to have the system professionally inspected.
• If you’re flushing a disinfected well, start at the outside faucets so less water goes into a stressed septic system.

Our Lehigh Acres wells, septic and sewer guide covers well and septic upkeep in more detail.

Homes on public sewer

Storm surge and heavy rain can overwhelm a sewer system and push wastewater back toward the lowest drains connected to it. If you had a backup, keep everyone away from the sewage, don’t run water, and get the line inspected before the house goes back to normal use. A camera inspection can show whether the backup was just the storm or a crushed or separated pipe. Our sewer line repair page covers that next step.

A note on backwater valves

A backwater valve is a check valve in the building drain that lets wastewater leave but closes when sewage tries to flow back in. The plumbing code generally requires one when fixtures sit on a floor below the manhole cover of the next upstream manhole in the public sewer. Fixtures above that level are not supposed to drain through the valve. A backwater valve only works if it’s accessible and gets cleaned and checked, so ask your plumber if your layout calls for one before the next season.

Water heater after flooding

Gas water heaters

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has warned that gas control valves on water heaters and other gas appliances that have been under water must be replaced. Silt and corrosion can damage the internal parts, and a damaged valve can leak gas. The agency’s position is that these valves can’t be salvaged, even if the heater seems to light and run normally.

Electric water heaters

Electric units have thermostats, heating elements, wiring and insulation that floodwater soaks into. Electrical safety guidance on flood-exposed equipment tells homeowners to be prepared to replace water heaters rather than recondition them, because sediment and contaminants are hard to remove and can create a fire risk. Don’t turn the breaker back on until the unit and the circuit have been checked.

Tankless units

A tankless heater has a circuit board, sensors and, on gas models, a gas valve. Treat a flooded one the same way: off, unplugged and inspected before anyone tries to fire it. Our tankless water heater page explains how these units are set up.

Even if the heater stayed dry, a home that lost water pressure or had sediment in the lines can send debris into the tank. Flushing it once service is restored is a good idea.

Saltwater and signs of hidden damage weeks later

Ian’s storm surge reached 10 to 15 feet from Sanibel through Bonita Beach, and 6 to 9 feet from Naples to Marco Island and inland to downtown Fort Myers. That was salt water, and salt keeps working after the water drains.

After Hurricane Sandy in 2012, engineers kept finding corrosion damage a year later in equipment that looked fine right after the flood, including household appliances and wiring. The lesson for Southwest Florida homes is the same one officials gave then: don’t assume that everything above the high water mark is fine, and don’t assume something works because it turned on once.

Watch for these in the weeks and months after a storm:

• Green or white crusty buildup on copper fittings, valves or water heater connections.
• Rust-colored or cloudy hot water that wasn’t there before.
• A water bill or meter reading that’s higher than normal with no change in use. That can point to a hidden leak. Our leak detection page explains how we find them without tearing into walls blind.
• Soft drywall, stains or musty smells near plumbing walls, even after the house has dried out.
• Toilets or drains that gurgle, run slow or back up more often than before.
• Sewer odors outside, or soggy spots in the yard along the path of the sewer or water line.
• Low pressure at one fixture or across the whole house.

Seasonal homes

A lot of homes in our area sit empty for part of hurricane season. That changes the math. A small leak that a full-time resident would catch in an hour can run for weeks.

• Shut off the main and the water heater before you head north for the summer, not just when a storm is forecast.
• Set up a home watch person or a neighbor who can check the house after a storm and send photos.
• Leave clear notes on where the main shutoff, water heater breaker and well pump breaker are.
• When you come back, turn the main on slowly and walk the house looking for drips before you leave the water on.
• Run water in every sink, tub and shower for a minute. Traps can dry out over a long absence and let sewer gas into the house.
• If the house took on water while you were gone, don’t relight a gas water heater or flip the breaker on an electric one until it’s been checked.

Insurance documentation

Policies vary, so read yours and talk to your agent or adjuster. Federal flood guidance gives a few steps that hold up across most claims:

• Photograph and video the damage, inside and outside, before you move or throw anything out.
• Record serial numbers for damaged appliances, including the water heater.
• Keep samples of damaged materials like carpet when you can.
• Save receipts for everything you spend on repairs and replacement.
• Talk to your adjuster before signing agreements for cleanup or remediation work.

Federal guidance also notes that flood insurance policies under the national program don’t cover mold damage, which is one more reason to dry things out and document fast.

When to call a plumber

Some of this is homeowner work. Shutting valves, storing water and flushing faucets after a notice lifts don’t need a pro. Other jobs do.

• Any water heater, gas or electric, that sat in floodwater.
• Sewage coming up through a drain, or repeated backups after the storm.
• Low pressure, a running meter with everything off or a spongy spot in the yard.
• Crusty, corroded fittings on supply lines or at the water heater.
• A main shutoff that wouldn’t close when you needed it.

We work on residential plumbing across Lee, Charlotte and Collier Counties, including Naples, Fort Myers, Estero and North Fort Myers. Check our service areas, then call (239) 518-4198 or send a request through our contact page. Septic tank pumping and well disinfection are separate trades, and your county health department is the right first call for well testing.