Galveston flood recovery: how to dry your walls after Tropical Storm Arthur

What to do in the first 48 hours

• 1.Get the water out and the source stopped. Coastal floodwater is contaminated ("Category 3") and often salty — wear protection and discard porous items it soaked.
• 2.Open the walls so the cavity can dry. Pull baseboards; remove a strip of wet drywall or drill weep holes so trapped water can drain and air can reach the cavity.
• 3.Move air and dehumidify. Fans aimed along the walls plus a dehumidifier, running for days.
• 4.Measure, don't guess. Drywall over ~17% moisture usually has to be replaced.

For the full walkthrough, see how to dry out walls after a flood and how long drywall takes to dry.

Why coastal walls stay wet so long

In a standard wall, the drywall sits flush to the base plate and the cavity is sealed at the bottom. After a flood, water pools there with no way to drain and no airflow to dry it — so the wall stays wet for weeks while mold sets up inside. On the coast, where flooding is a when-not-if, that means tearing out the bottom of every wall over and over. (More: why walls stay wet for months.)

Rebuild so your walls drain next time

If you're already opening walls, it's the moment to fix the design that traps water — especially on the island, where there will be a next storm. That's exactly why Rock Bloks exists.

Rock Bloks are perforated polymer inserts that fasten to the base of each wall stud, behind the baseboard. The lattice creates open channels at the bottom of the wall, so — in the inventor's words — "the water diverts away, and nothing is capable of holding any water inside." When floodwater recedes, the wall drains and air flows in, so it dries in days instead of months, with far less to tear out. Standard framing, same studs and base plate.