Georgia storms move fast and leave uneven damage. One house on a street loses half a slope while the one next door looks untouched. That inconsistency is exactly why so many damaged roofs go unreported until the leak shows up months later.
You do not need to get on the roof to know whether something happened. Stay on the ground and work through this list.
Start with the ground, not the roof
Walk the perimeter of the house and look at what the storm put on your lawn. Shingle pieces, granule piles at the bottom of downspouts, and torn sections of ridge cap are all direct evidence that something came off the roof.
- Shingle fragments or full shingles in the yard or landscaping
- Heavy granule accumulation where downspouts discharge
- Bent, dented, or detached gutters and downspouts
- Dented soft metal — gutters, vents, AC fins, and mailboxes are hail indicators
- Limbs down, especially any that landed on the roof before rolling off
Then look up — from a distance
Back up across the street and look at the roof planes one at a time, ideally with binoculars or a phone camera zoomed in. Wind damage tends to show as an interruption in the pattern.
- Missing shingles leaving dark rectangles of underlayment or decking
- Shingles lifted or out of alignment with the courses around them
- Displaced or missing ridge cap along the peak
- Bent or lifted flashing at chimneys, sidewalls, and valleys
- Any tarp-sized area that looks visually different from the rest of the slope
Check inside too
Interior signs sometimes beat exterior ones, especially with hail damage that broke the shingle mat without removing anything visible. Look at ceilings on the top floor for fresh discoloration, check around light fixtures and vents, and get into the attic with a flashlight if you can do it safely.
In the attic, look for damp insulation, dark staining on the underside of the decking, and any point of daylight. Photograph anything you find.
Document before you call anyone
Take wide photos that show the whole house and the date, then close-ups of each specific issue. Note the date of the storm. If you have a weather alert on your phone from that day, screenshot it.
This matters because insurance adjusters work from evidence. A clear record of what the roof looked like immediately after the event removes most of the argument later on.
What not to do
Do not get on a wet or damaged roof. Do not let anyone who knocked on your door after the storm start work before you have an inspection and an estimate in writing. And do not wait — most policies have a filing window, and damage that sits open gets worse and harder to attribute to the storm.
If the roof is open to the weather, call us at (678) 255-7075. We tarp 24/7 across McDonough and Metro Atlanta, document everything with photos for your claim, and come back in daylight for the full inspection.