A flooded workshop looks like a total loss, and the first instinct is to write off everything that went under. Most of it can be saved. Steel survives a soaking well if it is dealt with in days rather than weeks, and the work comes down to doing things in the right order.
Get the water out of the room first
Nothing useful happens while tools sit in a few inches of silty water. Every day they stay there, rust bites deeper and wooden handles take up more water. In coastal areas hit by a hurricane, a garage can hold water for days after the street has drained, because the slab sits lower than the drive. Owners in Florida tell us the job starts with a call for emergency water pumping in Orlando or wherever they live, since a bucket chain cannot keep pace with a flooded garage, and only after that does anyone open a tool chest.
Rinse before you dry
Floodwater carries mud, salt and whatever else it picked up on the way. Drying a tool with that film still on it locks the contamination against the metal. Rinse each tool in clean water, using a stiff brush on the grime in corners, around adjusters and inside plane bodies. Work quickly, one tool at a time, rather than leaving a bucket of tools to sit.
Then dry hard and fast
Wipe each piece down and get warmth on it straight away. A low oven, a heat gun held at a sensible distance, or a warm room with a fan all work. The aim is to drive water out of joints and threads before it starts to oxidise them. Take planes and spokeshaves apart so the frog, iron and cap all dry separately.
Once dry, coat every bright surface with a light oil or a water-displacing spray. That buys time to deal with each tool properly.
Rust is cosmetic until it is not
Flash rust that appears within hours wipes off with oil and fine abrasive. Rust left for a week starts to pit, and pitting on a plane sole or a chisel back costs flattening time later. Prioritise the tools whose working faces matter most: chisels, plane irons, saw plates and measuring rules.
Wooden handles and boxes
Beech and ash handles swell when soaked and can split as they dry. Let them dry slowly at room temperature, away from heaters, and expect a loose handle to need re-wedging. Waterstones and oilstones are usually fine once dry; diamond plates are unaffected.
What to let go
Tools with electronics, sealed bearings or cheap pressed steel rarely justify the effort. Tape measures that went under tend to seize. Spend the time on the tools you would struggle to replace, and accept that the rest were a lesson about where in the workshop the good chisels should live.