What to Do in the First 48 Hours After Storm Damage
The first two days matter more than people expect. Not because the roof will get dramatically worse, but because this is when the evidence is freshest and when the worst decisions get made.
Hour 0–2: safety only
- Stay off the roof. Wet decking after a storm is genuinely dangerous, and a compromised deck will not tell you it is compromised until it gives.
- Treat any downed line as live and keep well away.
- If a ceiling is bulging with trapped water, move what is beneath it out of the way.
Hour 2–12: document, from the ground
Photograph everything before you touch anything: elevations of the house, close-ups of visible damage, debris, hail on the ground if any is still there, interior staining, and the date. Timestamped photos of hail beside something for scale are unusually persuasive later.
Hour 12–24: mitigate, and keep the receipts
You have a duty under virtually every policy to prevent further damage. Tarping and temporary patching are expected and generally recoverable — but keep receipts and photograph the temporary work. Do not have permanent repairs done yet; once the evidence is gone, so is your claim.
Hour 24–48: get an inspection, then call your insurer
In that order. An inspection first means you understand what actually happened before you open a claim, and you avoid filing one for damage that turns out to be below your deductible — which can count against you for nothing.
The people knocking on your door
After every significant storm, out-of-area crews arrive and go door to door. Some are legitimate. Many are not, and they will be gone before any warranty is tested. Before signing anything:
- Ask where they are based and check that the business existed before this storm.
- Never sign a document that assigns your insurance benefits or authorises work “pending insurance approval” without reading exactly what you are committing to.
- Refuse anyone who offers to cover, waive or discount your deductible. In Texas that is illegal, and it tells you everything about how they operate.
- Get the scope in writing, with materials named.
Then take your time
Once the roof is documented and temporarily secured, there is no emergency. Get more than one estimate and read them properly.
We inspect for free and handle the claim end to end — see storm damage and insurance claims, or read how to file a roof insurance claim in Texas.
What Emergency Tarping Should and Should Not Involve
Your policy requires you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, and a properly installed temporary cover is one of them. Reasonable is the operative word.
A tarp should be secured over the damaged area and battened, not weighted down with whatever was in the garage — a loose tarp in the next gust does more harm than no tarp. It is a temporary measure with a life measured in weeks, and it is not a repair.
Be wary of anyone charging heavily for emergency tarping while simultaneously asking you to sign a contract for the permanent work. Emergency mitigation is generally reimbursable under your policy; keep the invoice and the photographs. What should not happen is an emergency service being used as leverage to lock you into the replacement before you have had time to think.
Photographs That Actually Help a Claim
Most storm photographs are useless to an adjuster — too close, too few, and taken after the clean-up. What helps:
- Wide shots of each elevation of the house, from the ground, before anything is touched
- The interior damage: ceiling stains, wet insulation, damaged contents, with a wide shot establishing which room
- Collateral damage — gutters, air-conditioner fins, window screens, fencing, decking. This is how hail size gets established
- Anything that dates the event: fallen limbs, debris, a local news report saved as a screenshot
- Every receipt: tarps, fans, a hotel night if the house was uninhabitable, a plumber, a tree service
Timestamps matter. Leave them on, and do not crop or edit.
If You Rent, or Live Under an HOA
The answer differs from a single-family homeowner’s.
If you rent, the structure is your landlord’s claim, not yours. Your renter’s policy covers your possessions. Report the damage to the landlord in writing the same day and photograph it — it is their claim, but it is your evidence.
In a condominium or an HOA community, the roof is generally common property and the association files. Report it to management immediately rather than arranging your own contractor. Damage across a multi-building property has to be documented building by building for a carrier to accept it, which is a different exercise from documenting a single house — our multi-family and HOA page covers how that runs.
Then Slow Down
After the first 48 hours, urgency stops being your friend. The roof is covered, the damage is documented and the claim is reported. Everything from here — choosing a contractor, agreeing a scope, scheduling the work — is better done unhurried.
The people who lose money after a storm are almost never the ones who took an extra week to decide. They are the ones who signed something on the doorstep on day two. Our storm damage and insurance claims page sets out what happens next.
