Wind, hail and flood
Storm damage restoration
How a storm inspection finds the damage and its cause, which policy responds to which peril, and how to choose a contractor who will still be here next year.
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Written by HyreRestore Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The short answer
Right now: Stay out from under sagging ceilings, damaged roofs and leaning trees, and keep well away from downed power lines. Do not climb onto the roof. Photograph the damage from the ground, then get the openings covered: see emergency board-up and tarping.
Storm damage restoration starts with closing and drying the building, then splits by cause. Wind and hail are homeowners perils, sometimes with their own wind/hail deductible. Flood, water rising from outside, is excluded from standard homeowners policies and insured separately through FEMA’s NFIP or a private policy. The cause of each area decides who pays.
What decides a storm claim?
Wind, hail and flood can fall under different policies. Which one caused each area of damage decides who pays.
Rain driven in through a torn roof is a homeowners question. Water rising from outside is a flood question.
Tarping and board-up are emergency work, separate from the permanent repair.
Crews that follow storms can be gone before a bad repair shows, and the warranty leaves with them.
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What should you look for after a storm?
Some storm damage is obvious. The expensive kind can be quiet, which is why the inspection matters more than the first look.
And shingle granules collecting at the downspouts.
Gutters, vents, flashing and air conditioner fins record whether hail hit and roughly how big it was.
They can appear days after the storm.
Common entry points for water, even when the main roof looks fine.
Look for impact marks on the side of the house that faced the storm.
Where the water came from decides the claim: up from the ground, in at the surface, or down from a roof breach.
What does a proper storm inspection cover?
It has two jobs: find all the damage, and establish what caused it. The claim is decided on the second.
Roof, flashing, penetrations, gutters, siding, windows, doors, soffits and any detached buildings.
Hail impact marks, creases from wind lift, and debris strikes.
Including the attic, where water entry shows first.
The wet area can be larger than the stained area.
Down from a breach, in through an opening or up from the ground. This decides which policy responds.
An adjuster will consider it, so know the answer yourself.
How is a storm loss worked, in order?
Safety and photos first, emergency covering next, and the permanent repair only once the pressure is off.
Downed power lines, unstable trees and damaged structure come first. The CDC advises staying away from damaged buildings until an inspector or official says they are safe.
Every side of the house and every affected room, with the date. Note the storm date. This set is the backbone of the claim.
Tarp and board up every breach. It is separate emergency work with its own invoice.
Contact your homeowners insurer, and your flood insurer too if water rose from outside. Two perils can mean two claims and two adjusters.
A full water mitigation scope with a stated drying goal and daily readings. Wet insulation and walls are the hidden part of storm damage. See water damage restoration.
Wind, hail, flood or pre-existing, documented area by area. This decides which policy pays for which repair.
Written scopes from local, licensed, insured companies with a verifiable local address. The emergency is over, so take your time.
Permits where required, matched materials where possible, and a warranty from a company that will exist next year. Keep the photos, drying log, scopes and invoices.
Which peril caused it, and why does that matter?
The same puddle on the same floor can be covered or not, depending on the route the water took. Understand this before you talk to an adjuster.
| Peril | How the claim treats it |
|---|---|
| Wind | Wind tearing off roofing, breaking a window or dropping a tree onto the house is a peril standard homeowners policies are built to cover. |
| Hail | Covered under homeowners policies too, but it can carry a separate wind/hail deductible, which the Insurance Information Institute says runs from 1 to 5 percent of the insured value. Check your declarations page. |
| Flood | FEMA says most homeowners insurance does not cover flood. It is written separately through the NFIP or a private flood policy, with a waiting period before it starts. |
| Wind-driven rain | Rain forced in through an opening the storm made, such as a torn-off shingle or broken window, is handled as part of the wind damage. Rain through an old defect is treated differently. |
| Rising water | Water rising from outside, whether an overflowing creek, surface runoff or storm surge, is flood, and outside the homeowners policy. |
| Sewer or drain backup | Can be excluded from the base homeowners policy and sold as an add-on (an endorsement). Check whether you have it before the next storm. |
After a big storm, damage can have more than one plausible cause, and the cause recorded decides which policy responds. Dated photos and the weather record for the day carry more weight here than in any other kind of loss.
What moves the price
Storm work spans emergency covering, drying and construction, and your deductible structure can matter as much as the damage.
| Factor | Why it changes the number |
|---|---|
| Emergency tarping and board-up | Priced by openings and area, and invoiced separately. Small next to the repair, and important to the claim. |
| Damage to the outside | Roof repair or replacement, how many sides of siding, how many windows. The largest variable. |
| Drying | A full drying scope, equipment count times days, wherever water got in. |
| Interior repairs | Ceilings, walls, insulation and flooring below every breach. |
| Tree and debris removal | Its own trade. Policies can treat a tree that hit the house differently from one that fell in the yard. |
| Demand after a big storm | Labor and materials tighten across a whole region. A real cost driver, and the pressure out-of-town crews rely on. |
| Code upgrades and matching | Rebuilding can trigger current code requirements, and a discontinued shingle or siding may not match. Some policies include ordinance-or-law coverage for code costs; some do not. |
HyreRestore publishes no average price for this work. Category of loss, affected area, how long equipment runs and local rebuild costs move the number far enough that a single figure would mislead.
How does a storm claim treat the damage?
How homeowners and flood coverage are built, not what your policy says. Storm coverage varies by region, so read your declarations page.
| Question | How the claim treats it |
|---|---|
| Are wind and hail covered? | They are perils the standard homeowners forms are built around. Check your limits and any wind/hail deductible. |
| What is a wind/hail deductible? | A separate deductible, paid as a percentage (1 to 5 percent is the typical range, per the III) rather than a flat sum. Run your numbers in the deductible calculator. |
| What about hurricanes? | The III says hurricane deductibles are higher than other homeowners deductibles and usually a percentage of the policy limits. Read the trigger conditions before the season. |
| Is flood covered? | No, not by standard homeowners insurance. It needs an NFIP or private flood policy, and FEMA says an NFIP policy typically takes 30 days to go into effect. |
| Can one storm mean two claims? | Yes. A torn roof and a flooded basement can involve your homeowners insurer and your flood insurer, each covering a different part. |
| What about an old roof? | Insurers separate storm damage from wear. An older roof can be settled on a depreciated basis, or the damage disputed. |
| Do I have to protect the house? | The III tells policyholders to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage and save the receipts. That is why emergency tarping matters. |
Coverage is decided by your own policy and the peril, not by what is typical. Read the declarations page, and where the answer matters, put the question to your insurer in writing.
Before you sign in a storm zone, check the address.
Not the phone number and not the truck lettering: the physical business address, the state license, the insurance certificate, and how long the company has worked in your county. A company here for one season can be unreachable when a repair fails next winter. The tarp is already on, so take the day.
What to ask before you sign
What evidence supports it?
Rather than my homeowners policy?
From the permanent repair?
How long have you worked in this county?
Can I have your insurance certificate from your insurer?
What is the drying goal, and will I see the log?
Show me which.
What to have ready
Every side of the house and every affected room, before any repair or tarping.
Save local weather reports or warnings. NOAA’s Storm Events Database logs events by county.
Especially the wind, hail and hurricane deductible lines.
Its number and insurer.
And records of past repairs or storm claims.
Where this goes wrong
After a big storm, out-of-area crews canvass whole neighborhoods. Some do good work. The problem is that they may not be here next year, so the warranty depends on a company that has left. Check the physical address and local history before you sign.
FEMA says most homeowners insurance does not. Flood is a separate policy with a waiting period, so it cannot be bought once a storm is forecast.
Quotes are for the permanent repair, which can wait. Every hour an opening stays uncovered adds damage inside, and the insurer expects reasonable steps.
Ask for dated photos from the inspection, ideally taken while you are there. Damage in a report that you cannot see in a timestamped photo is a problem for the claim.
A percentage wind/hail deductible can be larger than the repair. Knowing it changes whether filing makes sense. Try should I file a claim?
Ruined belongings, damaged fencing, the fallen tree: all of it is evidence. Photograph and list it before it goes. The III says to avoid throwing out damaged items until the adjuster has visited.
Your inquiry
Tell us about the damage
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A person reads it and replies by email, free and with no obligation. Matching is not live yet, so this is not a dispatch line and nobody is sent to the property.
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Questions
Is storm damage covered by homeowners insurance?
What is the difference between flood damage and storm damage?
What is a wind or hail deductible?
How do I avoid a storm-chasing contractor?
Is hail damage always visible from the ground?
How soon after a storm should I file a claim?
Can I get flood insurance once a storm is forecast?
Do I have to use the contractor my insurer recommends?
What should I do about a tree on my house?
Should I sign an assignment of benefits after a storm?
Written and audited by
HyreRestore Research Desk
Primary-source research and fact checking
We are a research desk, not a restoration company and not an insurance adjuster.
We read the federal agency guidance, the state insurance statute or the industry standard ourselves, and we publish the rule with the document it came from and the date we read it.
Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. The counts below are taken from the pages on this site.
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- source documents linked from these pages
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- government (.gov) domains among them
- 0
- average prices published without a source
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- restoration jobs we perform
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. A mold rule comes from the EPA, a flood rule from FEMA and the NFIP, a claim rule from the state insurance statute. We do not cite an article that cites a source.
- Every figure carries its retrieval date. Guidance is revised and statutes are amended. A number without the date it was read cannot be checked.
- Paywalled standards are named, not quoted. IICRC S500 and S520 define the categories and classes of water and mold work. We describe their public structure and say plainly when the controlling text sits behind a purchase.
- Safety before the claim. Electricity near water, sewage, smoke and mold come first on every page where they apply. We explain the work; we do not tell you to do it yourself.
- We do not dry, remediate or rebuild anything, we do not adjust claims, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favorable mention.
Authorship on this site is organizational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.
Sources & retrieval dates
Information on this page is general and may vary by location, building code, zoning, the condition of your house and your own circumstances. It is not legal, insurance, medical or engineering advice.
HyreRestore is not a restoration contractor and not an insurance adjuster: we dry nothing, remediate nothing and rebuild nothing, and we do not supervise or warrant anyone's work.
This page explains the work so you can read a scope, judge the company that wrote it and follow your own claim.