What you do in the first 48 hours after a hailstorm or wind event has more impact on your insurance claim outcome than almost any other decision you'll make. Documentation made in the first day is unimpeachable. Damage that's mitigated quickly stays small. Storms that get reported promptly produce smoother claims. And mistakes made in those first two days can cost you thousands of dollars or close the door on a legitimate claim entirely.
This is an hour-by-hour action plan based on how the process actually works for northern Illinois homeowners. It assumes a hailstorm just rolled through your neighborhood in Loves Park, Rockford, or anywhere across our service area, and you're standing in your kitchen wondering what to do next. We've walked hundreds of homeowners through this sequence as part of our storm damage repair services. Follow it in order.
Stay inside until the storm has fully passed. Severe storms in northern Illinois often come in waves — what feels like the end of the storm can be a brief lull before another cell hits. Wait at least 30 minutes after the last hail or thunder before going outside, and check your phone for active weather alerts.
Hour 0–1: Stay Safe and Confirm What Happened
Check the Inside of the Home First
Before you go outside, walk the inside of your home. Look up at every ceiling for new water spots, drips, or sagging drywall. Check around skylights, vent penetrations, and the highest interior corners — these are where leaks typically appear first. If you have an attic that's accessible, look in there too.
If you find active water entry, contain it immediately. Move furniture out of the affected area, put down towels or buckets, and document the location with photos and video. Time-stamped video showing active dripping is powerful evidence later.
Check Family Members, Pets, and Neighbors
Make sure everyone in the household is accounted for and uninjured. If you have outdoor pets, bring them inside. Check on elderly neighbors if you're in a residential neighborhood — they may need help and not be able to ask for it.
Check for Live Electrical Hazards
Severe storms can take down trees and power lines. Do not approach any downed lines, even if they appear inactive. If you see a downed line on your property, stay back and call ComEd at 1-800-EDISON-1. Do not assume "it's not making sparks" means it's safe — energized lines are not always visible.
Confirm the Storm Event
Pull up your phone and check the weather report. Note the date, time, and severity of the storm. Take screenshots of the radar imagery if available. Both NOAA Storm Events and HailTrace will eventually publish the storm path and hail size data — but the immediate weather screenshots from your phone are the cleanest evidence that the event occurred at your specific location.
Hour 1–3: Document Everything Visible From the Ground
Once it's safe to go outside, your job for the next two hours is documentation. Not assessment. Not deciding whether you have a claim. Just documentation.
Save the Hail (Seriously)
If hailstones are still on the ground, photograph them with a coin or measuring tape next to them for scale. Then collect the largest one or two and put them in a freezer bag. This sounds odd, but a frozen hailstone with a date written on the bag is concrete physical evidence of the storm event and the hail size — both of which can come up in your claim.
Walk the Perimeter of Your Property
Move slowly and methodically. Take wide-angle photos of every elevation of your home — front, back, both sides, and any detached structures. Then move closer for detailed shots of:
- Soft metals. Gutters, downspouts, AC condenser fins, vent caps, mailboxes, light fixtures, exterior wall vents. These are the strongest evidence of hail impact because they show dimples clearly.
- Siding panels. Cracks, dents, holes, missing pieces, warping, or impact marks on every elevation.
- Windows and screens. Cracked glass, holes in screens, dents in window frames, damaged glazing strips.
- Outdoor structures. Patio covers, sheds, fences, decking, outdoor furniture.
- Vehicles. Hail damage to cars and trucks is covered separately under your auto policy's comprehensive coverage. Photograph dents, cracked glass, and any damaged trim.
- Plants and trees. Stripped foliage, broken branches, debris field. This documents storm intensity and supports the claim that significant impact occurred.
Photograph From Multiple Angles With Scale
For every dent or damaged area, take three shots: one wide showing context, one medium showing the affected area, and one close-up with a coin or measuring tape next to the damage for scale. This is what insurance adjusters look for and what makes documentation defensible.
Don't Get on the Roof
Wet shingles are slippery. Hail-damaged shingles can be unstable. Compromised flashing can give way. We've seen homeowners try to do their own roof inspections in the first 24 hours and end up at the emergency room — turning a claim that would have been straightforward into a much more complicated situation. Document everything you can see safely from the ground using binoculars if needed. Leave the roof inspection to a professional.
If your gutters and AC condenser show clear hail dimples, that is some of the strongest evidence available. Soft metals don't lie about whether hail fell at your address. Focus your documentation effort here — the gutters tell the story even when the roof's damage isn't visible from the ground.
Hour 3–12: Mitigate and Stop Further Damage
Once you've documented what's already happened, your job for the next several hours is making sure things don't get worse. This is called "mitigation" in insurance language, and most policies require the homeowner to take reasonable steps to prevent additional damage. Failing to mitigate can affect your claim.
Tarp Active Leaks
If water is actively entering your home through the roof, that needs to be stopped. Most reputable contractors offer emergency tarping services after major storms — we do, and we typically respond within hours of a call. A tarp doesn't repair the roof, but it stops further water from entering and prevents secondary damage to insulation, drywall, and contents inside the home.
Don't try to climb on the roof and tarp it yourself. The risk of falls is real, and a poorly installed tarp can actually make the leak worse. Call a professional.
Board Up Broken Windows
If the storm broke windows, board them up with plywood as soon as possible. This protects against secondary water damage from continued rain, prevents intrusion, and is reimbursable as an emergency measure under most homeowner policies. Save your receipts for plywood, screws, and any rented tools.
Move Damaged Items Out of the Rain
If anything inside the home was damaged by water entry, move it to a dry area. Lift wet rugs and put fans on them. Open windows to dry out wet drywall and reduce mold risk. Take photos of every damaged item with date stamps before you move them.
Save Every Receipt
Plywood, tarps, fan rentals, dehumidifier rentals, gas to drive to the hardware store, hotel costs if you can't stay in the home — all of these are reimbursable under most homeowner policies as Additional Living Expenses or emergency mitigation costs. Keep every receipt and write the date and reason on each one.
Hour 12–24: Call a Local Contractor for Inspection
This is the most important step in the entire 48-hour window, and it's the one most homeowners get wrong. Call a local contractor before you call your insurance company.
This is not a typo. The conventional advice is to call your insurance company first. We recommend the opposite, and here's why.
The moment you call your insurance company and ask them to "send someone out to inspect the roof," you've filed a claim — even if no payment is ever issued. That claim stays on your insurance record permanently. If the adjuster decides your damage doesn't meet the threshold or classifies it as pre-existing wear, you've got a denied claim on your record with no benefit. That denied claim affects your premiums and your ability to switch carriers later.
An independent contractor inspection avoids this trap entirely. We walk the entire roof, perform test-square impact assessments, photograph every documented hit, check soft metal damage, examine flashing and vents, and produce a written report telling you whether you have a claim worth filing — before you ever call your insurance company. Our inspections are free and there's no obligation to file.
What "Local Contractor" Actually Means
Within hours of any major hailstorm in northern Illinois, out-of-state contractors flood the area knocking on doors. Some are legitimate. Many are not. Storm chasers are particularly common in Rockford, Loves Park, and Belvidere because the I-90 corridor makes it easy for crews from out of state to drive in, work the area for two weeks, and disappear.
"Local" means a contractor with:
- A physical address in northern Illinois you can drive to today
- An Illinois roofing license (required by the Illinois Roofing Industry Licensing Act)
- A phone number that picks up six months from now
- A track record in your community with verifiable references
- No pressure to sign anything on the first visit
Our shop has been on Riverside Blvd in Loves Park since 1986. We answer the phone six months later because we're still here.
What Happens During the Inspection
A thorough storm damage inspection takes about 45 to 60 minutes. The inspector walks the entire roof using test-square methodology, photographs every documented hit with location reference, examines all soft metals, checks flashing and vents, looks at gutters and downspouts, and inspects siding and windows. Afterward, they produce a written report with photos, NOAA storm data referencing your address, and an honest assessment of whether you have a claim worth filing.
If you don't have a claim worth filing — because the damage is minor, your deductible is too high, or your policy type makes filing financially worse than self-paying — a good contractor will tell you that. We've talked plenty of homeowners out of filing claims that wouldn't have helped them.
Hour 24–48: Decide on the Claim and Notify Your Insurance Company
By this point, you have:
- Documentation of the storm event (weather screenshots, NOAA data, frozen hailstone)
- Comprehensive photo and video documentation of all visible damage
- Mitigation measures in place (tarps, boards, fans)
- A professional contractor inspection report
- An informed sense of whether filing a claim is worthwhile
Now you can make a decision about the claim itself. There are three possible paths from here.
Path A: File the Claim
If your contractor inspection identified storm damage that exceeds your deductible by a meaningful margin, file the claim. We'll continue managing the process from there as part of our storm damage repair work. Call your insurance company's claims line, provide them with the date and time of the storm, your contractor's documentation, and a description of the damage. They'll issue a claim number and assign an adjuster.
For a complete walkthrough of every step from here, see our complete insurance claim process guide. You'll want to read that before the adjuster visit, ideally with your contractor present.
Path B: Skip the Claim
If the damage is minor, your deductible is high, or your policy is configured in a way that makes filing financially disadvantageous (for example, an old roof on an Actual Cash Value policy with significant depreciation), self-paying for repairs may be the better financial choice. Filing a claim that will pay out little or nothing still puts a claim on your record and can affect your future premiums.
If you go this route, get a written estimate from the contractor and proceed with the work directly. The contractor can repair documented damage without insurance involvement and you maintain a clean claims record.
Path C: Wait and Monitor
For borderline cases — moderate damage, uncertain claim value, or situations where you want to reassess in a few months — waiting and monitoring is sometimes the right call. Document everything thoroughly now, save the contractor inspection report, and watch for delayed signs of damage like new leaks during the next significant rain event. Most Illinois policies allow 6 months to 1 year to file a storm damage claim. Filing later is harder but not impossible if conditions worsen.
The Critical Mistakes to Avoid in the First 48 Hours
The same mistakes come up again and again, and any one of them can damage your claim outcome:
- Calling the insurance company first. Get a contractor inspection first so you know whether you actually have a claim worth filing. Avoiding the "zero-pay claim" on your record matters.
- Climbing on the roof yourself. Slip-and-fall risk is real. So is causing additional damage that wasn't there from the storm. Stay on the ground.
- Doing temporary repairs that go beyond mitigation. Tarps and boards are mitigation. Replacing shingles or "fixing" damage before the adjuster sees it can compromise your claim because the original damage gets altered.
- Signing a contract with the first contractor at the door. Storm chasers move fast and pressure homeowners to sign before they've thought it through. Take 24 to 48 hours to evaluate. A legitimate contractor will give you that time.
- Throwing away receipts. Plywood, tarps, hotel costs, dehumidifier rentals — all reimbursable. Save every receipt.
- Disturbing damaged areas before documentation. Clean up later. Document first.
- Not photographing soft metals. The gutters and AC condenser are some of your strongest evidence. Don't skip them.
- Letting a contractor "waive your deductible." This is illegal in Illinois. Walk away from any contractor who offers it.
When to Call Us Immediately
Some situations don't have time for the full 48-hour sequence. Call us right away if:
- Active water is entering your home. We provide emergency tarping and can typically respond within hours.
- The storm caused significant structural damage. Trees on the home, large sections of missing roof, or extensive siding damage all warrant immediate professional attention through our storm damage repair services.
- You're being approached by storm chasers and feeling pressured. A 10-minute phone call with us can give you the perspective to slow down before signing anything.
- You're in a high-priority area we can reach quickly. Loves Park, Rockford, Machesney Park, Belvidere, Roscoe — we can usually be on-site within 24 hours after a major event, often sooner.
For everything else, the 48-hour sequence above is the right pace. Move with purpose, but don't panic. The decisions made in the first two days set the trajectory for the entire claim.
How We Help in the First 48 Hours
When you call us after a storm, we're set up to move quickly. Here's what that looks like in practice as part of our storm damage repair service:
We schedule inspections within 24 to 48 hours of a major storm event, sometimes faster. Our inspector walks the full roof and exterior using insurance-claim-grade documentation methodology — test squares, soft metal evidence, NOAA storm data referencing your address, and a written report you can hand to your insurance company. The inspection is free and there's no obligation to hire us afterward.
If you have active water intrusion, we provide emergency tarping. If your situation calls for boarding up windows or emergency soffit work, we handle that too. Mitigation measures are billed against your eventual insurance claim, so you're not paying for them out of pocket if the claim is approved.
If you decide to proceed with a claim, we handle the documentation, attend the adjuster meeting, prepare any necessary supplements, and manage the back-and-forth with your insurance company. You don't navigate the process alone — that's the whole point of working with a contractor experienced in insurance claims.
And if you decide not to file a claim, we're still here. We can do the repair on a direct-pay basis or recommend monitoring for a few months while you watch for delayed damage. Our advice doesn't depend on you signing a contract today.
Ready to Get Started?
If a hailstorm or wind event just hit your home, the first call to make is for an inspection. Call us at (815) 636-6446 or request an inspection online, and we'll be in touch as quickly as possible — within hours after a major event.
We serve homeowners across Loves Park, Rockford, Machesney Park, Belvidere, and 14 other northern Illinois communities. For deeper reading on any phase of the claim process, see our complete insurance claim guide or our breakdown of what insurance adjusters look for. The more you know going in, the smoother the process.
