The first 48 hours after storm damage to your roof

Storms here do not arrive one at a time. When a hailstorm or a named storm crosses this part of Louisiana, thousands of roofs are damaged in the same afternoon, every roofer and every adjuster in the region is oversubscribed at once, and a lot of people you have never met start driving your street. Knowing the order to do things in is genuinely worth something.

Hour one: safety, then only safety

Do not go up on the roof. Not to look, not to photograph, not to put a tarp down. A storm-damaged roof has lifted decking, hidden soft spots and debris on it, and it is wet. More people are injured in the aftermath of a storm than during it, and falls from roofs are a large part of that.

Inside, if water is coming through a ceiling, kill the power to that part of the house before you go anywhere near it with a bucket. If a ceiling is bulging and holding water, stay out of the room; that weight comes down all at once.

Hours one to six: document before you touch anything

This is the part that pays for itself later. Photograph everything, from the ground and from inside, before anything is moved, covered or cleaned up.

• Wide shots of each elevation of the house from the street, showing the whole roof
• Closer shots of any visible damage, missing shingles or displaced metal
• Every interior stain, drip and wet patch, with a note of the room
• Debris where it landed, before you move it
• Fallen limbs, downed fence, damaged gutters, anything else on the property
• The date and time on each photograph

Then start a written log: every call you make, who you spoke to, what was said, and when. It feels excessive on day one and it is the single most useful document you will have in week six.

Hours six to twenty-four: report and mitigate

Report the claim to your insurer and get a claim number. Do this early even if you do not yet know the extent of the damage, because the queue is forming while you decide.

Then arrange a temporary repair to stop further damage. This is called mitigation, and most policies expect you to do it. It does not mean permanent repairs; it means stopping water getting in. Keep receipts for anything you buy or pay for, and photograph the temporary repair as well.

One of our customers had a branch come through the roof. A project manager was out the following morning to patch the hole temporarily, and the crew came back about four days later to replace the decking and finish it properly. Those two visits do different jobs, and the first one matters as much as the second.

Hours twenty-four to forty-eight: who to let on the property

After a regional storm, people will knock. Some of them are legitimate local contractors doing exactly what this company did in its first year. Others will be gone by the time anything goes wrong.

Reasonable things to ask anyone who turns up: their Louisiana contractor licence number, an address you could drive to, how long they have been working in this parish, and what workmanship warranty they offer in writing. Cypress Roofing holds Louisiana Contractor License #75979, works out of 13119 Airline Highway in Gonzales, and every roof carries a two-year workmanship warranty.

Things that should end the conversation: pressure to sign anything today, an offer to cover or waive your deductible, a demand for a large cash payment up front, or any promise about what your insurer will approve. Nobody standing in your driveway can know that.

What happens next

An adjuster will be assigned and will schedule a visit. Try to have your roofer present for it, so the two people who need to agree about the roof are looking at it together rather than exchanging messages through you. We handle the claims paperwork and will meet the adjuster at the property.

Free evaluations happen within 24 to 48 hours, which in storm season is the window that actually matters. Call (225) 238-6147. We cover Ascension Parish, Baton Rouge and all the surrounding parishes.