Why contents pack-out is needed in Newman
In Newman's assisted apartments a single loss crosses several households, and each one's belongings need a list of their own. Valley Manor at 719 Driskell Avenue has 48 units, Newman Family Apartments at 751 has 67, and Westside Village at 2030 Prince Street has 40 for residents 55 and older. Water from one unit lands on the furniture of the next. Insurance Code section 2071 asks the insured to separate damaged from undamaged personal property and furnish a complete inventory, so each unit is listed under its own name.
Rooms have to be clear before drying equipment and controlled demolition can work, and 86 percent of Newman's homes are detached houses. Of 3,389 units counted in 2019, 2,928 are single-family detached; one home in ten dates from 1939 or earlier and 38 percent from 1980 to 1999. A city-wide inspection in February 2024 found about 500 units needing some rehabilitation. Furniture and stored goods come out before the flooring and wall bases do. EPA Table 1 notes that upholstered furniture may be difficult to dry completely within 48 hours.
A Main Street shop or office empties before the building can be dried or stripped, and its paper is the part that will not wait. Downtown is a grid of about six by six blocks holding the commercial core, with the 1920 Carnegie Library at Main and Kern, now the Newman Museum, and the 1940 West Side Theatre. Fittings, stock, files and equipment are listed by room as they come out. FEMA asks for photographs of the insides of closets and cabinets, serial numbers taken from large appliances and samples of damaged material kept before anything is discarded.
Creek water that comes through Newman carries silt, and what it soaks does not go into a box. Orestimba Creek overflows most often between October and April, usually as sheetflow less than two feet deep, and it damaged homes in 1958, 1985, 1995 and 1998; in March 1995 buildings in town stood in more than two feet of sediment-laden water. Porous belongings that water reached are photographed where they are, listed and held for the adjuster, while what stayed above the line is inventoried and packed.
East of Highway 33 the stored goods belong to whoever rented the space, and a pack-out covers what the building holds. The industrial zone runs from Kern Street south to the Merced County line, and in 2006 it held low mini-storage warehouses, the vacant pad of the public scales and the tanks of the F&A Dairy. Offices, break rooms and records are inventoried and moved; tenants' stored goods stay with them. After a fire, cleaning follows IICRC S700, one of whose parts is fire and smoke damage contents restoration.
In January 2023 Stanislaus County said 82 families had been ordered to leave in the Newman area, and one assisted-living home in Newman was evacuated. When a building empties in a hurry, the inventory is what tells the adjuster what was inside.
Contents pack-out, as delivered in Newman
Newman is 26 road miles from the Modesto base, entered on State Route 33, the main road into and through the city. The same list carries the job from the first box to the last one put back.
State Route 33 is the way in, carrying 7,300 to 9,100 vehicles a day at Driskell Road and Kern Street. When Orestimba Creek floods, roads close, as they did in March 1995, so arrival runs toward the far end of the window. Access and parking for the truck are agreed on the call.
The walk-through settles what leaves, what is cleaned where it stands and what is held, before a box is opened; the owner or manager and the adjuster both take part. Damaged and undamaged property are separated, and the adjuster is consulted before any agreement is signed.
Every room is filmed and photographed, cabinets and closets opened, brands, models and serial numbers written on the list, and samples of damaged material kept back.
Boxes labelled by room against the inventory leave by a Driskell Avenue walkway or a Main Street shopfront, bound for secure storage.
Cleaning matches the loss: S700 after fire, the contents component of S500 after water, S520 after mold, with books, papers, upholstery and drapes handled as EPA Table 1 sets out. What cannot be brought back is held and listed for the adjuster.
Secure storage holds the contents through the repair, and the storage and relocation costs go on the record.
After the rebuild each box goes back to the room it came from, checked against the inventory. The contractor's photos, reports, scope and invoice stay in your client area.
Where contents pack-out is needed in Newman
Newman's areas run outward from the six-by-six downtown grid, and each one holds a different kind of contents and a different way out.
Downtown and Main Street
A grid of about six by six blocks with the commercial core, Newman's oldest homes and the 1920 Carnegie Library at Main and Kern. Shop fittings and stock are listed apart from the household contents above them.
Central Residential District
Bounded by Yolo, T, Inyo and P Streets, the Housing Element's Area 1 and one of four with the most homes needing repair. A whole-house inventory here takes in the garage and any stored goods.
Rehabilitation Areas 2 to 4
Area 2 from Inyo Street to Prince Road, Area 3 from Kern and Driskell to Eucalyptus Avenue, Area 4 from Lucille Avenue to Main Street. Damage already there is photographed and listed apart from the loss.
Driskell Avenue apartments
Valley Manor's 48 units at 719 Driskell Avenue, run by the Stanislaus Regional Housing Authority since July 2004, and the 67-unit Newman Family Apartments at 751. Each household's boxes are labelled to its own unit.
Highway 33 corridor and the Westside Marketplace
In 2006 the highway carried service commercial, convenience stores and gas stations outside downtown, with the Westside Marketplace at the southern end and 40 senior units at 2030 Prince Street. Retail fittings pack out by suite.
Industrial zone east of Highway 33
From Kern Street south to the Merced County line, holding low mini-storage warehouses and the tanks of the F&A Dairy in 2006. Office areas and records come out; tenants' stored goods stay with them.
Sherman Ranch and Lucas Ranch
North-east subdivisions drained by the open channel along Sherman Parkway, parts of them inside the 2006 dam inundation mapping. Newer houses are inventoried room by room like any other, garage included.
Creekbridge, Stephens Ranch and Creek Canyon
Subdivisions drained by CCID ditches rather than city pipe: the Clery Ditch serves Creekbridge in the south-west, the Miller Ditch near Shiells Road the other two. Ground-floor rooms are cleared first when a ditch backs up.
Inyo Avenue and Canal School Road
The city's storm drain pump station stands on this corner, with the 78-acre parcel bought in 2014 for the Newman Community Conservation Area beside it. North of Inyo, ground-floor storage is listed first.
Mattos Ranch
A master plan area in the south-east with homes and retail, its Phases 1 and 2 recently annexed. Creek water turned south by the railroad embankment ponds in this part of the city, so ground floors empty first.
Northwest Newman Master Plan area and Orestimba Road
A 362-acre plan adopted in April 2017 just outside the city, beside a fringe of historic orchards, old barns and farmhouses on Orestimba Road and Fig Lane. Farm buildings are inventoried one at a time.
River Road parks on the San Joaquin
Mobile home and RV parks east of town along the river, Catfish Camp and Fisherman's Bend among them, under evacuation orders in March 2011 and January 2023. A coach's contents are listed room by room like a house's.
Contents pack-out sub-services available in Newman
Questions from Newman property owners and managers
Not everything. The creek usually arrives as sheetflow less than two feet deep, most often between October and April, and in March 1995 it left more than two feet of sediment-laden water inside buildings in town. Silt and the water that carried it put porous belongings outside what EPA Table 1 covers, so those are recorded and kept back for the adjuster. Glass, metal, sealed containers and anything that stood above the water line are boxed, labelled and cleaned in the usual way.
Each household's own. Valley Manor has 48 units at 719 Driskell Avenue and has been run by the Stanislaus Regional Housing Authority since July 2004; a loss that crosses a floor reaches more than one home. Every unit is photographed and listed separately, and boxes are labelled to the unit they came from. Insurance Code section 2071 puts the duty to separate damaged from undamaged personal property and furnish a complete inventory on the insured, and the Housing Authority and each resident receive the list that applies to them.
Not the pack-out itself. Most of downtown along Main Street lies in the FEMA 100-year flood zone, and where a building is substantially damaged the City requires an Elevation Certificate to reach the Public Works Department at 938 Fresno Street before final occupancy. That is a question for the rebuild, not for the inventory. The contents are listed, packed and cleaned on the same schedule, and they come back once the building is signed off.
Yes, room by room on one list. The parks along River Road east of town, Catfish Camp, Martin Trailer Park, Thomas' Resort and Fisherman's Bend among them, were under evacuation orders in March 2011 and January 2023, and the County said afterwards that because of trouble getting property and trailers off the ground, some people lost trailers or took severe water damage. Coaches stand close together, so the truck's position and the route out are agreed before packing starts.
Only on the owner's or tenant's instruction. In 2006 the industrial zone from Kern Street to the Merced County line held low mini-storage warehouses among its buildings, and the goods inside a rented unit belong to whoever rented it. Where a pack-out is asked for, the unit is photographed before anything moves and listed item by item, and what can be cleaned follows the standard for the loss. Anything past cleaning is held and listed rather than thrown away.
Some of them. EPA Table 1 treats non-valuable books and papers as discards, and for valuable ones it suggests photocopying, discarding the originals, and freezing the items in a frost-free freezer or meat locker or freeze-drying them. It warns that an upholstered piece may be hard to dry completely inside 48 hours and that a valuable one is worth a specialist's opinion, and it sends window drapes back to the manufacturer's instructions. Its footnote says the same for anything of high monetary or sentimental value.
Contents pack-out near Newman
