What should I do first after a storm damages my roof?

Establish whether the building is safe to be in, before anything else. Stay out of standing water indoors until the power can be isolated safely, do not push a bulging ceiling because it is holding water, and do not climb up to look. Then photograph everything before anyone clears up or covers anything.

Can I just put a tarp on it myself?

We would rather you did not, and the reason is not liability. A roof that has lost fixings can look intact and give way under weight, and it is wet, which is the worst combination of conditions there is. Whatever is up there will still be there when someone with the right equipment arrives.

Why photograph before covering the damage?

Because a tarp hides exactly the thing somebody will later want to see, and it cannot be recreated. Photographing takes minutes and it is the only record of what the storm actually did. Everything else on the list can be done in a different order; this one cannot.

What is the difference between this and emergency roofing?

This page is the first few hours: is the building safe, what must not be touched, and what to record. The emergency roofing page is the work itself, the tarp and the make safe, with its own prices. The storm damage page is the repair assessment afterwards. Three stages, three pages, one set of figures.

How quickly can you get to me?

A single damaged house we aim to reach quickly. After a named storm the whole region is calling in the same hour, and no honest answer involves a specific time, so we will tell you where you are in the queue and what to do meanwhile. An active leak into a living space is triaged ahead of contained damage.

Is the emergency line really answered at night?

Yes, the line is answered around the clock. What happens next depends on what you describe: some situations need somebody that hour, and some are better handled at first light, when it is safe to be on a roof and possible to see what is actually wrong.

Should I sign anything before work starts?

Not on a doorstep, and not anything that assigns your claim or your benefits to a contractor. Our Covington storm damage page sets out the full doorstep contractor guidance, including licence checks and the assignment paperwork that should never be signed under any circumstances.

Are prices allowed to go up after a storm?

La. R.S. 29:732 restricts prices during a declared state of emergency, and whether it applies on a given day depends on the declaration in force. Our Covington emergency roofing page covers the statute in full. Either way, get the figure in writing with a date on it.

Will you deal with my insurance company?

No, and be wary of a roofer who says they will. Louisiana law restricts what a roofing contractor may tell you about your own cover. What we do is photograph and describe the damage and price the work, and hand that to you to use with your insurer.

Does emergency work need a permit in Covington?

Make safe work does not. A full reroof does, and it is inspected, under La. R.S. 37:3737(I). Which body issues it depends on whether the address sits inside the Covington city limits or in the unincorporated part of St. Tammany Parish.

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Storm Damage Emergency Response in Covington, LA

Big Easy Roofing responds to storm damaged buildings across Covington and St. Tammany Parish. The instinct after a storm is to get the roof covered. The right order is to check the building is safe to be in, deal with power and water, photograph what happened, and only then put anything on the roof.

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Service

City

Structure firstBefore anyone climbs

City or parishPermits a reroof

Photograph, then coverThe order that matters

Answered 24/7Emergency line

Covington storm emergency response at a glance

This page is about the first few hours after a storm, before any decision about roofing gets made. The order things happen in matters more than the speed, because two of the steps cannot be undone once they have been skipped: nobody should be on an unsafe roof, and nothing should be covered before it is photographed.

First thing checked

Is the building safe

Structural movement, ceilings holding water, and anything that has shifted are looked at before anyone gets on the roof. Call Big Easy Roofing on (504) 800-8196 and we will come and look.

Who permits a reroof

City or parish, by boundary

Emergency make safe work is not the reroofing the 2025 rule names. Where the storm takes the roof to a full replacement it becomes a permitted, inspected reroof through either the City of Covington Building Permits Office inside the city limits or the St. Tammany Parish permits office outside them. A Covington postal address does not tell you which.

The order that matters

Photograph, then cover

A tarp hides exactly the evidence somebody will later want to see. Photographing first costs minutes and cannot be recreated afterwards.

Emergency line

Answered 24/7

The line is answered around the clock. After a widespread storm the whole region calls at once, and the pricing, tarp duration and full make-safe scope for those calls live on our Covington emergency roofing page.

What we will not do

Interpret your policy

Louisiana law restricts what a roofing contractor may tell you about your own insurance cover. We describe the damage and price the work. Coverage is a question for your insurer.

What you keep

The photographs

Time and location stamped, taken before anything was moved, and yours whether or not you use us for the repair.

Emergency response is a different job from roofing, and treating it as the first step of a roof repair is how people get hurt. What has actually happened is that a building has been hit, and the first question is whether it is safe to be in and safe to work on. That is answered from the ground and from inside before anybody puts a ladder against it.

The second thing is that the situation is evidence, and evidence has a short life. Water stops running, debris gets cleared, a tarp goes over the hole, and within a day the only record of what the storm did is whatever somebody photographed. That is why the photographs come before the tarp rather than after it, even though every instinct says cover it first. It costs minutes and it is the part nobody can go back and do again.

The order we work in and why it is that order

Five steps, and the sequence is the point rather than the speed. Each one is on the list because doing it later, or not at all, costs something that cannot be recovered afterwards, and the two people most want to skip are the hardest to undo.

Step	What happens	Why it is here	What skipping it costs
1. Is the building safe	Structure and ceilings assessed from ground and inside	Nobody should be working on or under a compromised structure	A person on an unsafe roof, which is the one unrecoverable outcome
2. Power and water	Live electrics, standing water and gas checked or isolated	Water and electricity together are the hazard people underestimate	A hazard nobody looked for because everyone was looking up
3. Photograph everything	Time and location stamped, before anything is moved	It is the only record of what the storm actually did	The evidence, permanently. A tarp hides exactly what mattered
4. Make safe and cover	Tarp fitted, loose material secured, openings closed	Stops the second wave of damage from the next rain	Interior damage that keeps growing after the storm has passed
5. Assess and price	Damage categorised and the repair scoped in writing	A considered decision, made once the pressure is off	Signing something on a doorstep under pressure

Steps 1 and 3 are the ones people want to skip and the two that cannot be done later. Prices for the tarp and the make safe work are on our Covington emergency roofing page, and the damage assessment is on the storm damage page, so there is one set of figures rather than three. Call (504) 800-8196 and we will work it in this order.

What not to touch until somebody has looked

Four things people reasonably do straight after a storm that quietly make the situation worse. None of them is obvious and none is careless, which is exactly why they are worth saying plainly rather than assuming everyone already knows. Two are safety, and two are about not destroying the record of what happened.

Do not go into standing water indoors

Not until the power is off

Water on a floor under a damaged ceiling can be in contact with wiring or a fallen fitting. If the power cannot be isolated safely from outside the affected area, that is a reason to stay out and call, not a reason to be careful.

Do not push a bulging ceiling

It is holding water

A ceiling sagging under trapped water can release the whole load at once. It is dealt with deliberately, from the right position, with the room cleared, rather than poked to see how bad it is.

Do not clear up before photographing

The clear up destroys the record

Sweeping debris, moving furniture and covering openings all happen eventually. Doing them before anything is photographed removes the only evidence of what the storm did, and it cannot be reconstructed.

Do not climb up to look

Especially not on a wet roof

A roof that has lost fixings can look intact and give way under weight, and a wet roof after a storm is the worst combination of conditions. Whatever is up there will still be there when somebody with the right equipment arrives.

Be careful about who arrives at the door

A storm brings people to the door, and some of them were not in the area the week before. The short version is: do not sign anything on a doorstep, and get any price in writing with a date on it before agreeing.

Our Covington storm damage page sets out the doorstep contractor guidance in full, including licence checks and the assignment paperwork that should never be signed. This page is about the sequence of the first few hours; that one is about the people showing up during them.

Price gouging is regulated during a declared emergency

La. R.S. 29:732 restricts prices during a declared state of emergency, and whether it applies on a given day depends on the declaration in effect at the time. Get any figure in writing with the date on it, which is what lets anyone assess it later.

Our Covington emergency roofing page covers the statute in full, along with the make-safe pricing that sits under it, so the numbers and the rule live in one place rather than two.

Get Your FREE Quote Call (504) 800-8196

What a named storm does to how fast anyone can reach you

Being honest about response times after a widespread event is more useful than a promise nobody can keep. Three things about a regional storm change the picture, they are the same for every contractor working in this market, and knowing them makes it easier to judge whoever turns up at your door offering a firm time.

The whole region calls in the same hour

A single damaged house is a scheduling question. A named storm crossing the parish means every roofer in the area has the same queue on the same morning, and no honest answer involves a specific hour.

What we will do is tell you where you are in that queue and what to do in the meantime, which is more useful than a time that then moves. An active leak into a living space is triaged differently from damage that is contained.

The damage keeps growing until it is covered

The storm is the first event. The rain that follows it is the second, and on a roof with an opening in it that second event does most of the interior damage. That is the reason covering matters even when the repair is weeks away.

It is also why a temporary cover is a real piece of work rather than a sheet thrown over a hole. Our emergency roofing page sets out what that involves and what it costs.

Older housing stock takes wind differently

The Northshore has plenty of older housing, and an older covering that has lost its seal strip in a previous storm can lift in a wind that a newer roof shrugs off. The damage often does not look dramatic from the ground.

That is a reason to have someone look after a storm even when nothing is obviously wrong, rather than a reason to assume the worst. A broken seal strip lies back down looking untouched and leaks the following season.

Big Easy Roofing Process

Four steps, and the first two happen before anybody gets on the roof, because that is what makes the rest of it safe to do.

A roofer securing a weatherproof tarp over storm damaged roof decking

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Make the building safe

Structure, ceilings holding water, live electrics and standing water assessed from the ground and from inside. If it is not safe to be in, that is the first thing you are told rather than the last.

Photograph before anything moves

Every damaged element recorded with time and location stamps, inside and out, before any clearing or covering starts. The pack is yours whether or not you use us.

Cover and secure

Weatherproof tarp fitted, loose material secured and openings closed, so the rain that follows the storm does not do more damage than the storm did.

Then talk about the repair

The damage categorised and the work scoped in writing once the pressure is off, with no signature needed on a doorstep. Call (504) 800-8196.

Everything else we do in Covington

The rest of the Big Easy Roofing services available in Covington, each with its own page and written estimate. This page covers the first few hours. The emergency roofing page covers the tarp and the make safe work, and the storm damage page covers how the repair itself is assessed and priced.

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