What comes first, before anyone looks at the roof?
Any line on the ground is live until a utility says otherwise. Stay away from it, keep others away, and call 911. Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative gives exactly that instruction: stay away from a downed line, then call.
Brenham splits between two utilities, and the correct number depends on the address:
- Inside the city's electric footprint: the City of Brenham runs its own municipal electric utility serving more than 7,500 customers. Downed or low lines and other electrical hazards go to 979-337-7400. Outages go to the hotline at 979-337-7200.
- Outside it, across Washington County: Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, which covers 14 Central Texas counties including Washington. Their automated outage and hazard line is 800-949-4414.
Find out which one serves the property before a storm, not during one. A utility bill settles it in ten seconds.
What gets photographed, and in what order?
Wide shots first, then close-ups, all before anything is moved or cleaned up. The sequence that produces a usable file:
- The street and the yard. Debris line, downed limbs, neighboring damage — this establishes that a weather event happened here.
- Each elevation of the house, from the ground, showing the roof line.
- Shingles and debris on the ground, in place, before they are picked up.
- Every interior stain, with something for scale, and a shot of the clock or a timestamped phone photo.
- Close-ups of specific damage: the limb on the slope, the missing tabs, the dented vent hood.
Timestamps are the point. A carrier's first question is when, and a phone's photo metadata answers it without argument.
When does emergency cover go on?
As soon as it is safe, and without waiting for an adjuster. Texas policies place a duty on the homeowner to prevent further damage. Leaving a roof open to preserve evidence works against a claim rather than for it.
Tarping is not a repair and it is not priced like one. It is a separate visit, billed on its own, and the receipt belongs in the claim file alongside the photographs. A tarp bought at the hardware store and thrown over a slope at 9pm is how people fall off roofs; wet asphalt and wet metal are both slick, and a deck hit by a limb gives way underfoot.
What does a Washington County storm usually leave?
Broken seal strips more often than missing shingles. The county's record runs to thunderstorm wind at 50 to 65 mph rather than the coastal speeds that strip roofs outright. At those speeds the tab stays where it is and simply stops bonding, so the roof looks fine from the driveway and fails in the next storm.
The other two recurring patterns here are limb strikes, because Washington County storms drop trees, and driven rain finding marginal flashing. Tropical Storm Harvey reached the county in August 2017 as a rain and flooding event rather than a wind one, and long-duration rainfall finds every detail a roof was getting away with.
The sequence, in order
- Hazards: lines, gas, structural. 911 first, then the right utility number.
- Documentation: photographs from wide to close, before anything is touched.
- Cover: emergency tarping or dry-in as soon as it is safe.
- Interior: move valuables, relieve a bulging ceiling into a bucket, start air moving.
- Scope: a dry roof, walked and photographed in a documented condition report, before any leak repair is priced.
Steps three and five are separate jobs with separate prices. A crew that offers to do both in the dark on the same night is offering something that cannot be done well.