What to Do Immediately After a Hailstorm Hits Fort Wayne (7-Step Guide)

The storm just blew through. Your yard is iced over with hail, the wind chime looks like it went through a war, and your phone is already ringing with calls from out-of-town contractors who just "happened" to be in the neighborhood. What you do in the next 48 hours — before anyone climbs on your roof, before you call your carrier, before you sign a single thing — will largely determine whether you end up with a clean insurance settlement or a denied claim and a lot of wasted time.

Our team at Big Dog Roofing has walked hundreds of Fort Wayne homeowners through the post-storm process. Some came to us first and sailed through their claim. Others came after signing paperwork with a storm chaser, and we spent weeks helping them untangle the mess. This 7-step guide is what we wish every Allen County homeowner knew before the next May supercell rolls through.

Step 1: Stay Safe and Assess From the Ground

Do not climb on your roof. The first instinct for many Fort Wayne homeowners after a storm is to grab the ladder and go up to look around. Post-storm roofs are wet, possibly ice-covered, and often have loosened shingles and displaced granules that make the surface slippery in ways you wouldn't expect. Every year in Indiana, homeowners end up in the ER from post-storm roof inspections that could have been done from the ground or, better, by a licensed roofer with fall protection.

Instead, walk your property from the ground. Look up at the roof with binoculars if you have them, and look for missing shingles, displaced ridge caps, bent or dented vent pipes, and any daylight gaps. Check the yard for shingle debris, broken tree limbs, and hailstones you can measure. Look at your vehicles, AC condenser, mailbox, and window screens. This ground-level assessment tells you the severity of the storm and gives you a safe starting point for documentation.

Step 2: Document the Storm (Date, Time, and Evidence)

The single most important piece of information for your insurance claim is the date of loss — the exact date the storm occurred. Write it down immediately, along with the approximate time the hail started and stopped, and your best estimate of the hail size. If you can safely collect a hailstone and photograph it next to a ruler, coin, or golf ball for scale, that's gold. Most hailstones melt within an hour or two, so act fast.

Then capture the external evidence. Screenshot the NOAA Storm Events Database entry for your zip code — it's free and authoritative. Save any local news articles or TV weather coverage of the event. Save Facebook or Nextdoor posts from your neighbors showing storm photos, which establish a clear spatial record that the storm hit your specific area. This contemporaneous evidence is what turns "I think I had hail damage" into "the NOAA-confirmed May 14th storm that dropped 1.75-inch hail on 46807."

Step 3: Photograph Visible Damage (All Of It)

Go around your property with a camera or phone and photograph everything that shows the storm's severity, even things that aren't part of the roof. Every dent on your vehicle, every ding on your gutters and downspouts, every split window screen, every bent fin on your AC condenser, every round impact mark on your wooden deck railings — all of it is evidence of hail severity. Insurance adjusters use this collateral damage to corroborate roof damage, because the energy that dented your truck hood is the same energy that bruised your shingles.

Take wide shots that show location and context (front of house, driveway, backyard), then get close-ups of individual impacts with something for scale — a coin, a tape measure, a pen. Shoot during daylight, don't use flash if you can avoid it, and make sure the photos are time-stamped (most phones do this automatically in the metadata). Our hail damage identification guide covers the specific shingle-level signs to know about.

Step 4: Check for Interior Leaks (Attic and Ceilings)

Walk your home's interior with attention to ceilings, upper-floor walls, and the attic. Look for fresh water stains, wet spots, warped drywall tape, or bubbling paint. In the attic, use a flashlight to scan the underside of the roof decking for wet patches, drips, or daylight showing through. Check around the base of the chimney, skylights, and anywhere plumbing or vents pass through the roof — these are the first places a compromised seal will leak.

If you find active water intrusion, place a bucket or container under the drip and take photos of the source and the affected area. If the leak is significant, you may need an emergency roof tarp installed to stop further water damage before a permanent repair. Most Indiana homeowners insurance policies require you to take reasonable steps to mitigate ongoing damage — not tarping a known active leak can be used against you later in the claim.

Step 5: Schedule a Free Professional Roof Inspection Within 7 Days

Call a local, established roofer — not the person who knocked on your door that afternoon — and schedule a professional inspection within five to seven days of the storm. The reason for speed: you want the damage documented while it's clearly attributable to this specific storm, not muddied by subsequent weather. A qualified local inspector will climb the roof, chalk-circle every hail impact, count impacts per 10-foot test square, and give you a written damage report with photos you can take to your insurance carrier.

The inspection should be free. Big Dog Roofing provides a free 21-point roof inspection to every Fort Wayne homeowner, documented in writing, with no obligation to use us for repairs. If an inspector tries to charge you before setting foot on the roof, or pressures you to sign a contract before you've even seen the findings, that's a storm chaser — not a professional. Skip them and call someone local.

Step 6: File Your Insurance Claim BEFORE Signing Anything

This step is the one most homeowners get backwards. The right order is: inspection first, written damage report in hand, then file your insurance claim. Once your claim is filed and an adjuster is scheduled, you can work with your chosen roofer to coordinate the adjuster meeting. What you should never do is sign anything — contract, Assignment of Benefits (AOB), authorization for emergency repairs — before you have a documented inspection and before you've filed your claim on your own terms.

Some storm chasers will pressure you to sign an AOB on the first visit, promising "we'll handle everything with your insurance." What you're actually signing is away control of your own claim. The roofer becomes the decision-maker on settlement amounts, scope of work, and disputes. If the job goes bad, you can't easily switch contractors because they own the rights to the claim money. Our roof insurance claims guide walks through the whole claim process in detail, and our deductible guide explains exactly how much you'll owe out of pocket.

Step 7: Get Your Damage Assessment and Scope in Writing

Once the adjuster has visited and you have a settlement figure, and once you've chosen a roofer to do the work, every commitment needs to be in writing. The roofer's scope should list every line item — tear-off, underlayment, ice-and-water shield, shingle brand and color, flashing, ridge vent, gutters if included, cleanup, dumpster — with quantities and unit prices. Warranty terms should be spelled out: manufacturer's lifetime warranty on the shingles, craftsmanship warranty from the roofer (ours is 15 years), and who to call if something goes wrong in year three.

The payment schedule should also be in writing. A common clean structure is a small deposit at contract signing, a larger draw at material delivery, and the balance at job completion and inspection. Be cautious of anyone who demands a large up-front payment before work begins, and never pay cash without a written receipt. And no legitimate Fort Wayne roofer will ever offer to "eat your deductible" — that's insurance fraud under Indiana law and can void your claim entirely.

Common Mistakes That Cost Fort Wayne Homeowners Money

Three mistakes come up over and over in post-hail claims we've helped Fort Wayne homeowners clean up. The first is signing an Assignment of Benefits (AOB) on the first contractor visit. This transfers your claim rights to the contractor, who can then settle with your carrier, keep the money, and leave you with a job you can't control. Indiana has tightened AOB rules in recent years, but the document is still legal and still being pushed hard by out-of-state storm chasers. Don't sign one without reading it line by line, and frankly, you shouldn't need to sign one at all.

The second is letting the roofer "absorb" your deductible. Under Indiana Code, it is a criminal act (insurance fraud) for a contractor to waive, rebate, or offer to absorb the insured's deductible on a property insurance claim. It's also a clear red flag that the contractor is inflating the estimate to make up the difference — which puts you in the position of participating in fraud without realizing it. The third is hiring an out-of-town storm chaser who vanishes after the check clears. Our storm chaser red flags guide covers how to spot these operations before you sign. Hire local, veteran-owned, GAF-certified, with a physical Fort Wayne address you can visit.

What to Do Next

If you've just had a hailstorm come through Fort Wayne, New Haven, Huntertown, or anywhere in Allen County, your next move is to get a free professional inspection on the calendar in the next 5 to 7 days. Before you call your insurance company. Before you sign anything. Before you believe anybody who knocks on your door.

Big Dog Roofing is veteran-owned, GAF-certified, and has been serving Northeast Indiana out of Electric Works in Fort Wayne for years. We've completed 500+ roofs across the region, hold a 4.9-star Google rating from 75 reviews, and our crews are 100% in-house. Every replacement we install comes with a 15-year craftsmanship warranty and the lifetime GAF manufacturer warranty on Timberline HDZ shingles. Call 260.999.0347 or use our contact page to get your free inspection scheduled today.

Frequently Asked Questions