What the spring storms do

Two kinds of damage in one storm

A spring storm in Lancaster County usually brings both hail and strong straight line wind, and they leave completely different marks. Being able to tell them apart makes the difference between a claim that gets taken seriously and one that goes nowhere.

Wind damage runs in lines. Uplift pressure concentrates along the perimeter of a roof plane, so the sealant strip lets go at a rake or an eave and a whole course lifts at once. What you see is a straight edged area of missing or folded shingles, usually starting at a corner and working inward, with the rest of the roof untouched. Creased tabs that folded back and slapped down are the same thing caught early.

Hail damage is scattered. Individual impacts land at random across every slope that faced the sky, each one a roughly circular spot with the granules knocked off. Press one and it feels soft, because the mat underneath has fractured even though the shingle has not opened.

The confirmation nobody thinks to look at

The fastest way to confirm hail is to stop looking at the roof. Look at the soft metal instead. Gutters, downspouts, vent caps, the flashing around a chimney, a metal shed, the fins on the air conditioner unit, a mailbox.

Hail hard enough to bruise a shingle will mark all of those, because they are softer than the roof is. If the metal around your property is unmarked and somebody is pointing at hundreds of hits on the shingles, the marks came from something else, and the claim will be denied for that exact reason once an adjuster runs the same check.

Dented metal with a roof that looks fine from the ground is the more interesting case, and the one most likely to be missed.

The first week

Photograph everything from the ground on all four sides, including the soft metal, before anybody climbs up. Photograph the yard and anything that came off. Photograph ceilings, even faint marks. Write down the date and which storm.

Then get somebody up there and stop further damage if shingles are gone. A temporary cover is expected of you under most policies and it is not an admission of anything. Keep the receipt.

What you should avoid is letting a contractor chalk up the roof before the adjuster has seen it in its original state. That looks like what it is.

Why the distinction matters on a claim

Wind and hail are often under the same deductible on a Nebraska policy, but they are argued completely differently. A wind claim turns on whether shingles are still sealed, which is a technical question somebody has to answer on the roof. A hail claim turns on a count of impacts per square, which is a measurement.

Both of them turn on the damage being reported while the date is clear. A roof that gets looked at in May after a May storm is in a far stronger position than the same roof looked at in November.

Once the claim is moving, the Nebraska rules about who may do what, and about the contract you are asked to sign, are on the contracts page. They are better than most states and worth knowing.