The first 48 hours after hail: what you do now shapes the entire claim.

A hailstorm rolls through, and within about an hour there is a truck at the end of your street and a business card in your door. What you do over the next two days — how you document, who you let on the roof, and whether you file at all — has more influence on how this ends than anything that happens later. Here is the order of operations we walk clients through.

Hour zero: safety, then stop

Before anything else: do not go on the roof. Not to look, not to take pictures, not because the roofer at your door offered to walk it with you. Hail-struck roofs are slick, granules act like ball bearings, and falls are the most common serious injury after a storm. Everything you need to document in the first pass can be done from the ground.

Check for hazards — downed lines, broken glass, water coming through a ceiling. Address those first. Then slow down.

Day one: document before you touch anything

Photographs taken before any repair are the single most valuable thing you can produce. Once a tarp goes up or a contractor starts work, you have lost the ability to show what the loss looked like at the moment it happened.

From the ground and from inside, capture:

• Wide shots of each elevation of the house. Four corners, all sides. These establish context.
• The soft metal. Gutters, downspouts, roof vents, flashing, the AC condenser fins, mailbox, garage door. Soft metal dents are the clearest ground-level evidence that hail of a damaging size actually fell at your address — and unlike shingle damage, you can photograph them without climbing anything.
• Window screens, siding, fascia, and any painted surfaces.
• Interior water intrusion. Ceiling stains, wet insulation, water on floors. Photograph the damage and the source if you can see it.
• Vehicles. Hail damage to cars runs through your auto policy's comprehensive coverage, not your homeowners policy, and it carries its own separate deductible. Document those too.
• Hailstones themselves, if any are still on the ground. Put something next to them for scale — a coin, a ruler, your hand — and note the time.

Timestamp everything. Most phones do this automatically; leave the metadata intact and do not run the images through an editor.

Write down the date and time of the storm

This sounds trivial. It is not. Wind and hail deductibles apply per occurrence, and if two storms hit weeks apart, the date each piece of damage occurred determines whether you face one deductible or two. Adjusters cross-reference claims against weather data. Get the date right from the start and you avoid a fight later.

Day one: make reasonable temporary repairs

Your policy obligates you to prevent further damage. That means if water is coming in, you tarp it, move belongings out of the way, and get buckets under active leaks.

Two rules:

• Temporary, not permanent. Tarp the roof; do not replace it. Permanent repairs made before an adjuster inspects can complicate the claim considerably.
• Keep every receipt. Tarps, plywood, fans, a dehumidifier rental, a hotel room if the house is uninhabitable. Reasonable emergency expenses are frequently reimbursable, but only if you can document them.

If the roof needs tarping and you are not comfortable doing it safely, hire someone. That cost is part of the mitigation.

Day one: the roofer at your door

Storm-chasing crews follow hail across the plains. Some are competent and some are not, and the ones knocking on doors within hours of a storm are, as a group, worth extra caution.

Before you sign anything:

• Do not sign a contingency agreement or an "authorization to inspect" without reading it. Some of these documents assign the contractor rights in your claim or lock you into using them if the claim is approved. That is a significant thing to hand a stranger on your porch.
• Be wary of an offer to "cover" or "waive" your deductible. In Oklahoma this is a serious problem, not a favor. The deductible is your legally required share of the loss, and arrangements that inflate an estimate to absorb it can expose you to fraud allegations, not just the contractor.
• Check for local roots. A physical address in the metro, an Oklahoma license and insurance, references from this county, a business that existed before this storm.
• Do not let anyone on your roof who has not shown you proof of liability and workers' compensation coverage. If they fall on your property uninsured, that becomes your problem.

There is no urgency that justifies signing on the spot. A legitimate contractor will still be there in three days.

Day two: do the deductible math before you call it in

This is the step most homeowners skip, and it is the one that determines whether filing makes sense at all.

Most Oklahoma homeowners policies carry a separate wind and hail deductible expressed as a percentage of your dwelling coverage — commonly in the 1 to 5 percent range — rather than the flat dollar deductible that applies to other perils. On a $400,000 dwelling limit, a 2 percent wind and hail deductible is $8,000.

So before you file, get a rough sense of the damage and compare it to that number:

• Damage clearly and substantially above the deductible? File. That is what the coverage is for.
• Damage clearly below it? Filing produces no payment and puts a claim on your record that can affect your rate and your claims-free credit at renewal.
• Close to the line? This is where a conversation with your agent is worth having before you pick up the phone.

We would rather tell a client not to file than watch them take a rate consequence for a claim that paid nothing.

Day two: get an independent assessment

If you are near the line, or you simply want a second opinion before deciding, have a reputable local roofer inspect and give you a written estimate — without signing a contingency agreement first. Some will do this as a straightforward inspection.

What you want out of it is a documented scope and a number, so that you are making the filing decision with information rather than a guess.

When you do file

Call your agent or the carrier's claim line. Have ready:

• Policy number
• Date and approximate time of the storm
• A description of what is damaged
• Your photographs
• Receipts for temporary repairs

Then keep a log. Every call, every name, every date, every promised follow-up. Claims that go sideways almost always go sideways in the handoffs, and a contemporaneous log is the cheapest insurance against that.

Be present for the adjuster inspection

Meet the adjuster at the property if you can, and have your roofer there as well if you have one engaged. Point out the damage you documented. Adjusters inspect a great many roofs in the weeks after a large hail event; being present and organized measurably improves the odds that everything gets on the estimate.

What not to do

• Do not throw away damaged property before it is documented and the adjuster has had a chance to see it.
• Do not accept a settlement figure you do not understand. Ask for the itemized estimate and read it.
• Do not let a contractor tell you what your policy says. Read it, or ask your agent.
• Do not assume your first payment is the whole payment. If your policy settles on a replacement cost basis, the initial check is commonly the depreciated amount, with the recoverable depreciation released after the work is completed and documented.

The bottom line

Document from the ground before you touch anything, tarp what is leaking, keep the receipts, be extremely careful about what you sign in the first 48 hours, and run the deductible math before you file. Do those five things and you have handled the storm about as well as it can be handled. If you are our client, call us before you call anyone else — walking clients through this decision is a large part of what we are here for.

Frequently asked questions

Should I file a hail claim in Oklahoma if the damage is small?

If the estimated damage is below your wind and hail deductible, filing generally produces no payment while still placing a claim on your record, which can affect future pricing and claims-free credits. Comparing a written estimate against your actual deductible amount before filing is usually the better approach.

Can a roofer pay or waive my insurance deductible?

Arrangements where a contractor absorbs or waives your deductible are widely treated as improper, because the deductible is the policyholder's required share of the loss. Homeowners should be cautious about any offer of this kind and can raise concerns with their agent or the Oklahoma Insurance Department.

How long do I have to file a hail claim?

Policies contain notice requirements and time limits for reporting a loss, and the specific wording varies by policy. Reporting promptly after you discover damage is generally advisable, and you should check the conditions section of your own policy or ask your agent about the deadlines that apply to you.