Though absolutely essential to all life as we know it, water can also be a catastrophically destructive force, and as much good as it does, water damage has simultaneously been one of the greatest risks to civilizations all through history. Evidence of humanity’s collective fear of water damage restoration come in the Deluge Myths, that have been shared (in various iterations) by cultures across the globe. What’s more puzzling is that several of these great flood myths originated in places that, at the time of their conception, had no interaction by any means and in some cases were totally oblivious to each other’s existence. Another problem is mold damage restoration, perhaps one of the most unseen problems which is built mostly from water damage also.
Maybe the renowned instance of a deluge myth, detailing apocalyptic degrees of water damage, is the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, shared by all three major Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). The story goes that God, sick and tired of the wickedness of mankind, chooses to flood the earth to destroy all life – save for Noah and his family, whom God considered as righteous enough to survive. He instructs Noah to build an Ark, and upon it he’ll house his family and two of every animal so that once the flood waters have receded, the earth can be repopulated. God then vows never again to destroy the earth by flood. Although still perceived literally by certain Christian fundamentalists, the tale is viewed today as allegorical, with next to zero scientific evidence of water damage to support ever such a flood occurring. What’s interesting about the story is its characteristics with legends and myths coming from other places.
On the opposite side of the world from Mesopotamia where the Abrahamic deluge myths originated, the Native American Hopi tribe of Arizona in the United States has its own edition of the deluge myth. Reported by Hope mythology, humanity was damaged four times by the water damage of a great deluge for much the same reason as in the Abrahamic myths: Hopi Gods angered by the depravity of men decided to clean the slate, sparing only a select few who lived lives dubbed decent enough to reactivate yet another iteration of humanity.
Modern day scientists have long thought over the origins for these kinds of myths, and their findings, interestingly enough, aren’t evidence of actual water damage, but instead proof that ocean born life existed in places that have become far from any bodies of waters. Ancient peoples having found seashells and the remains of sea creatures atop mountains and far inland were likely the inspiration powering these deluge myths. Needless to say given the advantages of modern science, we now know that these shells and sea creatures are without a doubt the fossilized remains of life that once persisted in prehistoric oceans. Because millions of years ago, the earth was shaped very differently due to plate tectonics, oceans once existed in places where there have since dried up into deserts and plains, leaving evidence of the life they harbored behind.
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