Storm & wind

What to do after a storm. What the carrier pays for.

Hurricane winds, a straight-line wind event, a tornado, or a derecho — a major storm is a documentation problem before it’s a money problem. The first 24 hours set the ceiling on every later argument, and the carrier’s strongest move — pushing wind-driven rain onto the National Flood Insurance Program — is exactly the line we argue back on day one. Below is the playbook we run on every storm file: what to do (and what not to) in the first day, the five-step LightHouse process, a sample recovery band, and the carrier pushbacks we argue back. Reach out the moment the wind dies down; the earlier we’re on the file, the more coverage we can pull through.

The first 24 hours

What to do. What to avoid.

The first day sets the ceiling on every later argument. Half of this column is the work most policyholders never think to do; the other half is the work that quietly hands the carrier its strongest denials — including the wind-vs-flood redirection and the ACV-only first number.

Do

Tarp the roof and board up broken windows within 24 hours.Every hour of additional water intrusion expands interior damage and weakens the “sudden / accidental” argument. Emergency mitigation is recoverable — but only if it’s documented as emergency mitigation, not deferred maintenance.

Photograph every damaged surface before any cleanup.Shingles lifted, missing flashing, broken window glass, debris-strike patterns, water lines on interior ceilings and walls. Geo-tagged, date-stamped media taken the day of the storm is the single strongest document against every later denial — including the “pre-existing” and “flood, not wind” defenses the carrier will lean on hardest.

Save every tarping, board-up, and mileage receipt from hour one.Emergency mitigation cost is recoverable under the policy’s “reasonable expense” clause and as ALE — but only what’s documented. Receipts, contractor invoices, and the mileage log are the difference between a paid line and a denied one.

Call us before you sign any release or scope-of-work waiver.The carrier’s preferred mitigation contractor’s scope is the carrier’s first move to cap your recovery. Don’t sign a blanket authorization or a sole-contractor waiver until a licensed public adjuster has read it alongside your policy.

Avoid

Don’t let the carrier redirect wind-driven rain to NFIP.Wind-driven rain entering through a roof the storm damaged is a homeowner-policy wind claim, not a flood claim. Carriers exploit the “rising water” line in the flood definition to push policyholders to the National Flood Insurance Program and walk away. We rebut that line on day one.

Don’t pull debris off the roof or pick up broken glass yourself.Safety first — and the debris-strike pattern photographs best undisturbed. The adjuster needs to see the impact direction (and the wind speed it implies) and a cleared roof tells a weaker story than a storm-marked one.

Don’t accept the ACV-only first number.Storm totals routinely trigger replacement-cost coverage and a code-upgrade endorsement on the roof system. Actual cash value (depreciated) is not what your policy pays. The ACV-vs-RC delta on a full re-roof in our region regularly runs mid-five figures.

Don’t let the carrier’s adjuster alone scope the interior.Wind-driven entry creates hidden ceiling and wall moisture routes that surface only with moisture-mapping and a borescope inspection. A visual-only walkthrough quietly concedes the interior portion of the loss.

The LightHouse 5-step process

From the wind dying down to a signed settlement.

Every storm loss is different, but the structure of a strong claim is the same. Here’s what working with LightHouse on a hurricane, straight-line wind, tornado, or derecho loss looks like, start to finish.

Step 01
Emergency tarping + board-up + on-site scope
Within 24 hours of engagement we coordinate roof tarping, broken-window board-up, start the date-stamped photo log, and draw a wind-path and interior water-line baseline. Storm losses move fast — the first 24 hours set the ceiling on every later argument, including the wind-vs-flood line carriers push hardest.
Step 02
Policy review + coverage mapping
We read the policy end-to-end: dwelling, other structures, contents (replacement cost vs. ACV), ALE, code-upgrade, debris removal, “reasonable expense” mitigation, sewer-backup and wind-endorsement riders, and the cosmetic-match exclusion carve-outs. The framework drives the claim, not the carrier’s first letter.
Step 03
Full loss documentation
Line-item inventory, contractor scope, roof-system causation chain, contents priced at current replacement cost (not ACV), the interior wind-driven water entry lines a visual-only walkthrough misses, shingle batch-mismatch evidence for the code-upgrade argument, and ALE tracked through the full rebuild window.
Step 04
Third-party estimate
We commission an independent, licensed estimator’s Xactimate-style scope. Carriers litigate their own numbers; they negotiate harder against an independent scope, which moves the recovery up.
Step 05
Negotiation + settlement
Filed, rebutted, re-opened, escalated as many times as it takes. You review and approve the final number — we don’t sign until you do.

A sample recovery

What a typical storm recovery looks like.

Anonymized to county-level only — no policyholder names, addresses, claim numbers, or exact figures. The point of this row is to show how the work lines up on a wind matter, not to advertise a specific settlement. The full recovery gallery lives at{' case results .

Bucks County, PA

Hurricane wind event

$210K roof + interior + ALE extension through rebuild

Full roof-system replacement funded at replacement cost with code-upgrade endorsement applied, interior wind-driven water entry documented and paid, and ALE carried through the entire rebuild window.

Illustrative · Anonymized · Recovery bands shown, exact figures withheld.

Carrier pushbacks we argue back

The four denials we see most often on a storm file.

The carrier’s playbook on a wind claim follows a pattern. Below are the four pushbacks we argue back most often — including the wind-driven-rain-to-NFIP redirection and the cosmetic-match shingle exclusion — and how our rebuttal frames the line item back open.

Carrier tactic
Wind-driven rain = flood, file with NFIP
Our rebuttal
Wind-driven rain entering through a roof the storm damaged is the homeowner-policy wind peril, not a flood. We rebut with the NOAA storm report, the damage path on the roof system, the wind direction at the loss location, and a causation chain that ties interior water lines to roof-system breach — not rising or pooling water.
Carrier tactic
Roof was already worn — pre-existing condition
Our rebuttal
Carriers love a “this would have failed anyway” denial. We rebut with date-stamped pre-storm photos, the manufacturer’s expected service life for the shingle batch on file, and a depreciation schedule pegged to the event date — not a carrier-invented effective age.
Carrier tactic
Cosmetic-match exclusion on shingles
Our rebuttal
Most homeowner policies carry a code-upgrade endorsement when discontinued shingle colors or batches make a partial repair impossible. We argue the manufacturer batch-mismatch as a code requirement, not a cosmetic preference, and re-open the line.
Carrier tactic
ALE cutoff short of rebuild completion
Our rebuttal
ALE runs until the family is “back to normal” — not until the carrier’s preferred contractor finishes. We track the rebuild Gantt and keep the ALE open through every documented delay — supply chain, weather, inspection, and contractor scheduling.

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