Preventative Measures for this Spring Storm Season

We all know the expression about spring flowers and gentle spring showers. In the Southeast, those showers are frequently neither gentle nor showers.

Spring brings the most severe convective weather of the year: downbursts producing straight-line winds above 60 mph, hail with little warning, and rain heavy enough to overwhelm drainage that handles the rest of the year fine.

The work that protects a property happens before any of that arrives. Here are five things worth doing now.

1. Maintain the Structure and Exterior

Storms rarely create damage from nothing. They finish what was already weakened.

A shingle that lost its seal last fall stays in place through ordinary rain and lifts free in the first real wind. A gutter with two loose hangers holds until it fills with water and comes down. An outbuilding already leaning does not survive a downburst. The storm gets blamed, but the condition was there beforehand.

On the roof

Look for shingles that are lifted, curled at a corner, or out of alignment with the courses around them. Check flashing at chimneys and walls for separation or rust. Look at pipe boots, since the rubber dries out and splits after roughly eight to twelve years of sun. Any of these is a small repair now and an entry point later. Our roof maintenance program covers this.

Gutters and drainage

Clear them before spring rain arrives rather than after. A packed gutter overflows at the foundation and backs up onto the fascia, and the weight of wet debris pulls hangers loose. Confirm downspouts discharge several feet from the building. More on gutters and downspouts.

Trees

Dead limbs and branches extending over the roof or near windows are the highest-value thing on this list to address, because tree damage is both the most destructive and the most preventable. Limbs touching the roof also abrade shingles in everyday wind, well before any storm arrives.

2. Double Check Your Insurance Coverage

A short call to your agent before storm season is worth more than anything you will do after one. Specific things to ask:

• Replacement cost or actual cash value? ACV policies subtract depreciation based on the age of your roof, which on an older roof can mean a payout far below what replacement costs. Many homeowners assume they have replacement cost and do not.
• What is the wind and hail deductible? It is often separate from your standard deductible and sometimes calculated as a percentage of the insured value rather than a flat amount.
• Is there a roof age exclusion or a cosmetic damage exclusion? Both have become more common, and both change what a hail claim will produce.
• What is the reporting deadline for storm damage? Knowing this matters because roof damage often does not leak immediately.

Knowing the answers ahead of time will not prevent damage, but it removes the worst surprise in the process. See our storm damage and claims support.

Document the Property Before Anything Happens

This is the step almost nobody takes, and it is the one that most often decides how a claim goes.

Adjusters evaluating storm damage are looking for pre-existing wear. Damage they attribute to age rather than to a specific event is not covered, and without evidence of prior condition, that determination is made entirely from their inspection of a roof that has just been through a storm.

What to have on file:

• Dated photographs of the roof, gutters, siding, and any outbuildings, taken from the ground on a clear day
• A professional inspection report establishing condition, which carries considerably more weight than homeowner photos
• Receipts and records for any roof or exterior work, including the installation date of the current roof
• Your policy declarations page, saved somewhere you can reach it without power

A dated record showing your roof was sound in March is what separates an approved claim from a denied one in June. We provide free inspections and full documentation whether or not anything needs repair.

3. Have a Family Plan Everyone Knows

If a storm or flood warning is issued, everyone in the household should already know where the safest place in the home is and when to go there. An interior room on the lowest floor, away from windows, is the general guidance.

Agree on a meeting place in case you are separated, and a plan for reaching each other if cell service is interrupted. A text will often send when a call will not.

Practice it once. A plan nobody has walked through is a plan in name only.

4. After a Storm, Stay Out of Harm’s Way

Downed power lines should be treated as live regardless of appearance, and reported to the power company immediately. Stay well clear and keep children and pets away. Energized lines can charge the ground around them and objects in contact with them.

Do not enter a flooded basement. Water in contact with electrical systems presents a real shock hazard, and there is no way to assess that from the top of the stairs.

Stay off the roof. Beyond the fall risk, walking a storm-damaged roof breaks additional shingle seals and scuffs granules loose, which makes it harder for an adjuster to distinguish storm damage from foot traffic. Photograph what you can see from the ground and leave the rest to an inspection. If water is actively entering the house, we offer emergency roof repair.

5. Keep a Storm Kit

Store it somewhere safe and reachable in the dark. Contents worth having:

• Flashlights and spare batteries
• Battery-powered or hand-crank radio
• Bottled water and non-perishable food
• First aid supplies
• A supply of any current medications
• Phone charger or power bank
• Copies of insurance documents and identification

Rotate perishable items as they expire. Checking the kit twice a year, when you check the gutters, keeps both on the same schedule and keeps preparedness in mind rather than out of it.

You will hopefully never need it. If you do, you will be glad it is there.