Hurricane season starts on your roof
June through November is a fact of life here. The difference between a close call and a claim is usually what happened in May.
Every roof in South Mississippi lives on a hurricane calendar. The good news: most catastrophic roof failures start at small, findable weaknesses — a lifted shingle edge, a corroded flashing joint, a clogged gutter dumping water where it shouldn't. Finding them in calm weather is cheap. Finding them mid-storm is not.
Before the season (May)
- Walk your yard and look up: lifted or missing shingles, sagging gutter runs, exposed nail heads at ridge caps.
- Check ceilings and attic after a hard rain — staining now means an active leak that a hurricane will turn into a flood.
- Clear gutters and downspouts; overflowing gutters push water under the roof edge exactly where wind wants to start.
- Trim limbs over the roof line. In Pine Belt storms, trees cause as much roof damage as wind itself.
- If your roof is 15+ years old or you can't remember its last professional look, schedule an inspection — it's free and it dates-stamps your roof's condition, which also helps any later claim.
When a storm is named and coming
- Photograph your roof and each side of your home — dated 'before' photos make an after-storm claim dramatically cleaner.
- Secure yard items that become projectiles; more shingle punctures come from flying debris than from wind.
- Know where your policy documents are and what your wind deductible is.
- Don't put anyone on a roof for last-minute repairs in deteriorating weather. Nothing up there is worth it.
The first 48 hours after
Safety first: downed lines and weakened structures kill people after storms. From the ground, photograph everything. If water is coming in, a professional tarp job stops the damage from compounding — insurers expect reasonable mitigation and generally cover it. Then get a documented inspection before signing anything with whoever knocks on your door first: after every major storm, out-of-town crews flood the region, work fast, and leave faster. Check licenses. Ours is MSBOC #R22245, and we're still here after the trucks leave.
Storm damage right now?
Emergency tarping and documented storm inspections are the front end of our storm response.
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