What to Do Immediately After Storm Damage to Your Home
The hail stopped around 3 p.m. You walked outside, and the driveway looked like someone had dumped a bag of marbles across it. The downspout was bent sideways. Up on the roof, three shingles were sitting in the front yard. By the time you got inside, the ceiling in the back bedroom was dripping. You had maybe 30 minutes of daylight left and no idea what to do first.
That's a familiar situation after a severe Midwest storm. You're not in crisis mode — the house is still standing — but you're not okay, either. What you do in the next 24 to 72 hours matters more than most homeowners realize. Done right, you protect both your house and your insurance claim. Done wrong, you give the insurance company reasons to reduce your payout, and you create damage problems that compound over the next few months.
Here's what to do after storm damage hits your home, step by step.
Don't Go on the Roof — Check What You Can Safely See First
First instinct is to climb up and look. Don't. Wet roofs are slippery. After a hail storm, shingles have a compromised granule layer that reduces traction further. After high winds, there may be lifted or partially detached shingles, sections of softened decking, or structural movement you can't identify from above without training.
A ceiling that's actively sagging, bubbling, or cracking after a storm may be holding standing water. Don't walk under it — saturated drywall can hold 100+ pounds before it gives way. Clear the room and leave it until a contractor checks the structural load above.
Walk the perimeter of the house and look up. From the ground, you can usually see missing shingles, dented gutters, cracked siding panels, or displaced flashing. Check windows for cracked or broken glass. Examine the siding for dents, cracks, or panels that got blown loose. Look at the gutters — hail damage often shows as dents along the back edge, or sections that have pulled away from the fascia.
Go into the attic if you have access. Water stains on the underside of the roof decking, wet insulation, or daylight coming through where it shouldn't — those are signs of a breach. Don't wait for ceiling stains to appear. By the time a stain shows up inside the house, water has been pooling for hours.
Check the basement for flooding, especially after heavy rain paired with hail or wind. Gutters that failed or downspouts that backed up can push water toward the foundation fast.
Document Everything Before You Clean Anything Up
This is where homeowners cost themselves the most money — by cleaning up before taking photos. The moment you throw away bent gutters, sweep granules off the driveway, or stack tree branches, you're removing evidence your adjuster needs.
Photograph and video every visible sign of damage before touching anything. Ground-level shots of the roof, close-ups of damaged siding panels, the bent gutters, the driveway full of granules. Document the interior — the dripping ceiling, wet attic insulation, and any cracked glass. Date-stamp everything. Most smartphones handle this automatically in the metadata.
If tree limbs fell on the structure, photograph where they landed, what they hit, and how they're resting before anyone removes them. Don't cut them up and stack them before the adjuster sees the impact site.
This documentation is your claim. Adjusters work from photos and their own inspection. If the evidence is gone before either happens, proving the damage scope becomes an argument instead of a fact.
Call Your Insurance Company Within 24 Hours
Most homeowner policies require you to report damage "promptly." That's a legal term, and it's typically interpreted as 24 to 72 hours for storm damage. Waiting a week isn't a technicality — it can genuinely complicate your claim by giving the insurer grounds to question whether the damage happened in the storm at all.
When you call, give them the date and approximate time of the storm, the type of storm, and a list of what you observed. You don't need a full damage assessment — that's the adjuster's job. You just need to open the claim.
Write down the claim number, the adjuster's name, and the date you called.
What your policy likely covers — and what it doesn't. Standard homeowner policies cover wind and hail damage to the structure. They do not cover flood damage from rising water — that requires a separate flood insurance policy. If a tree falls on your house, most policies cover the structural damage and the cost to remove the debris from the structure. If the tree just falls in the yard without hitting anything, removal is typically not covered. Interior water damage is covered only if there's a corresponding breach in the exterior envelope — a leak that came in through a damaged roof, for instance. If water backed up through a drain or came in under a door, that may fall under a separate "water backup" rider. Know your policy.
Make Emergency Temporary Repairs to Stop Further Damage
Here's something most homeowners don't know: your policy typically covers storm damage, but it does NOT cover damage that happened because you failed to protect the home afterward. If the roof has a breach and you leave it open through three days of rain, the additional water damage from those three days may be denied.
You're allowed — and often required — to make emergency temporary repairs.
Acceptable emergency repairs: Tarping over a section of missing or severely damaged roofing. The tarp needs to extend past the ridge and be secured at all edges — a loose tarp in the wind becomes a sail that creates more damage. Boarding over broken windows with plywood cut to fit. Using roofing cement to seal a small section of exposed decking or a lifted flashing edge. Placing buckets and towels to contain active interior dripping.
One more reason to act fast: mold doesn't wait. Water that gets into framing, insulation, or drywall can begin growing mold within 24 to 48 hours. You can't see it starting, but by the time you smell it, it's already spread. Getting moisture dried out — and temporary repairs in place — in the first day makes a real difference in what's recoverable.
Keep all receipts for materials and any emergency contractor labor. These costs are typically reimbursable as part of the claim. Photograph the temporary repairs so the adjuster can see what you did and why.
Do not make permanent repairs before the adjuster inspects. Replacing shingles before the insurance company documents the damage scope is one of the most common ways claims get reduced. Temporary protection is fine. Full repairs wait.
Get an Independent Contractor Inspection Before the Adjuster Arrives
Insurance adjusters are thorough, but they're not infallible. And they carry a financial incentive — for their employer — to document what they see rather than what might be missed.
Getting an independent contractor inspection before or alongside the adjuster visit gives you a written second opinion on paper. A contractor who knows what hail impact looks like on a specific shingle profile, what wind-lifted flashing looks like at a valley versus normal wear, and how to catch soffit damage that's easy to miss from the ground — that's an asset to your claim.
Be careful here: after major storms, storm-chasers flood the area. They follow hail events and knock on doors within days. Some are legitimate. Many aren't. Red flags: pressure to sign a "direction of payment" agreement before any inspection, an offer to "waive your deductible" (that's insurance fraud), or a demand for a contingency contract before they'll even look at the roof. Never sign an Assignment of Benefits (AOB) agreement — this transfers control of your insurance claim directly to the contractor, which removes you from decisions about your own home and can complicate or delay the payout significantly. Work with a local contractor who has a local address, verifiable references, and won't ask you to sign anything before they've assessed the damage.
What to Expect from the Claims Process
The initial Scope of Loss. The adjuster visits, inspects, and produces an itemized estimate of what the insurance company says the damage is worth. This is not a final number — it's a starting point.
Actual Cash Value vs. Replacement Cost Value. Most policies pay out first in Actual Cash Value (ACV) — replacement cost minus depreciation. On a 15-year-old roof, the ACV payment might be 40 to 50% of what a new roof actually costs today. The remaining portion — called the recoverable depreciation, or "holdback" — gets released after you complete repairs and submit receipts.
Percentage-based hail deductibles. Many Midwestern policies now carry a percentage-based hail deductible — typically 1% to 2% of the home's insured value — rather than a flat dollar amount. On a $300,000 home, a 1% hail deductible is $3,000. Know what yours is before you get contractor estimates, so there's no surprise.
Supplement requests. If your contractor's scope is higher than the adjuster's initial assessment, the contractor can submit a written supplement with line-item backup. This is normal and common. Adjusters miss items — additional layers of roofing that need to come off, code-required ice-and-water shield that wasn't included, and drip edge replacement required for code compliance on a full tear-off.
When to consider a public adjuster. If your claim is large, complex, or you're getting significant pushback from the insurer, a licensed public adjuster works on your behalf — not the insurance company's. They typically charge 10 to 15% of the final settlement but can increase payouts substantially on claims where damage was undercounted. Worth the conversation on any claim over $20,000 or where the adjuster's scope and your contractor's scope are more than $5,000 apart.
Timeline. From initial claim to final check: 30 to 90 days for a straightforward claim, potentially longer after a major storm event that triggered thousands of simultaneous filings.
A Few Things That Complicate Claims
Pre-existing damage. If the adjuster identifies deterioration, nail pops, or granule loss that predates the storm, they may attribute some damage to maintenance issues. This is a judgment call, and a contractor who can document which damage pattern is consistent with hail impact — the distribution, the size, the directionality — versus which represents long-term wear is worth having.
Delayed reporting. Waiting more than a week gives the insurer grounds to question whether the damage actually occurred during that specific storm. A storm hit on May 15th. You called on June 4th. Now they're asking whether that broken flashing was really from the storm or from the April rain event that wasn't covered.
Choosing the lowest bid. If you get three estimates and choose the one that's $4,000 below the others, there's a reason. Either the materials are cheaper, labor is thinner, or the scope is incomplete. The insurance company owes you a properly restored roof. Make sure your contractor's scope matches what the claim paid for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most policies allow one to two years from the date of the storm, though some have tightened to 12 months. The practical rule: file as soon as you notice damage, always within 30 days. The longer you wait, the harder it is to connect the damage to a specific storm event.
You can, but be careful. Wet shingles are slippery, and hail damage reduces traction further. If the storm left standing water or the pitch is steep, hire someone. Emergency tarping typically costs $200–$500 and is reimbursable as part of the claim.
Request a re-inspection. You're entitled to dispute the initial Scope of Loss. Have your contractor's written assessment ready to submit alongside the re-inspection request. If disputes persist, most policies include an appraisal clause — both sides hire appraisers, who appoint an umpire, and the umpire's decision is binding.
No. You have the right to choose your own contractor. Some insurers have preferred contractor networks and may incentivize you to use them, but you're not required to. Who performs the work is your call.
The first check is typically the Actual Cash Value — what the damaged items were worth, given their age. The holdback is the depreciation amount the insurer releases after you complete repairs and submit receipts. You'll receive a second check for that amount once the work is done.
Damage thresholds vary. If your damage is below a certain percentage of total roof area, insurers may approve repairs rather than a full replacement. This is worth disputing if the damage is extensive — age of the roof, extent of coverage, and state regulations all factor in.
Schedule an estimate — Craftsman Exteriors handles storm damage inspections and insurance claim documentation across Madison, Verona, Fitchburg, Middleton, Sun Prairie, and southern Wisconsin. We'll document the damage in writing and walk you through what your claim should cover before the adjuster arrives. Call (608) 975-5747.
