When the wind rises in The Woodlands, the danger to a roof is mostly wood: a limb, a top or a whole pine. What can be done that night, what has to wait for approval, and what the Township’s standards say about the time allowed.
Hurricane Beryl reached The Woodlands on July 8, 2024. Between 5 a.m. and midnight that day, The Woodlands Fire Department took 235 calls, and Fire Chief Palmer Buck reported to Community Impact 35 trees on homes, 32 trees blocking roads, six downed power lines, seven rescues and 19 calls for gas lines ripped out of the ground. More than 250,000 Entergy customers in the region lost power.
Two months earlier, the May 16, 2024 derecho crossed the Houston metro with gusts estimated near 100 mph. No count specific to The Woodlands has been found for that storm, so none is given here.
It is different from hail or wind. A limb cracks or breaks the decking and can push the rafters down while the shingles above look nearly intact. A whole tree opens the roof. Even a glancing hit can split a ridge or pull a gutter and fascia loose. The damage worth finding is under the surface, and it is found from the attic as much as from the roof.
Section 1.5.V.C of the Township’s 2024 Residential Development Standards: emergency repairs required to temporarily prevent property loss or damage, or bodily injury, may be made without application, review or prior inspection. Tarping an open roof, securing a hole and removing a limb from the roof are exactly that. The permanent repair is a separate step.
For other casualty damage, the standards ask owners to notify the Township at (281) 210-3800 within five working days (1.5.V.B), and require that removal, repair or restoration begin within 30 days and be completed within 180 days (1.5.V.F).
After major storms the Township has temporarily eased applications. Following Beryl, through September 30, 2024, a roof repaired with like-kind roofing needed no application, compliance deposits were waived, and a full roof replacement still needed an application, on an expedited basis. After a June 2023 storm, applications and deposits for urgent storm-related work were waived through September 30, 2023, and after-the-fact applications and inspections were required from October 1. These windows are announced after each event; do not assume one is open.
This site does not file, negotiate, adjust or settle insurance claims, and the contractors it refers you to do not act for you with your insurer; Texas law does not allow a contractor to advertise that service on a property it is working on. The contractor’s part is a written description of the damage and the repair.
Whether the damage is covered is a matter between you, your agent and your carrier. Photographs taken before anything is moved are worth having whatever the answer turns out to be.
If anyone is hurt, a line is down or you smell gas, 911 first. Then a tree service to remove the tree safely, and the roofing contractor to secure the opening. Tarping to prevent further damage needs no Township application.
The standards require that restoration of casualty damage begin within 30 days and be completed within 180 days (section 1.5.V.F).
Yes. Cracked decking and bent rafters can sit under shingles that still lie flat. Look in the attic under the strike, and have the contractor check from inside.
Call. Say where it landed and whether the roof is open.
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Woodlands Roofing