After the Storm: the First Steps, in Order

The order matters more than the speed. Almost everything that goes wrong in the hours after a storm goes wrong because someone did step four before step one: walked into a wet room to reach a breaker, threw away the ruined carpet before photographing it, or signed something while the water was still moving. This is the order, and the reason for each step.

1. Power and water first, and they are the same problem

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is direct about the combination. It says not to enter standing water to reach the main power switch, to call an electrician to turn it off instead, and never to switch power on or off while standing in water. That instruction is the reason an electrical contractor is often the first call after a flood rather than a later one: the person who can safely kill the power is a licensed electrician, not you.

Treat every downed line as live, and keep away from anything it is touching. If the house smells of gas, leave it and call the utility from outside.

2. Do not start the clean-up. Start the record

Before anything is moved, photograph and film the whole property: each room from the doorway, each damaged item close up, the roof from the ground, the exterior walls, the fence line, and the high-water mark on the wall if there is one. Photograph serial numbers on appliances while they are still in place.

This is the record you no longer have once the debris is at the curb. Your policy is likely to require both that you protect the property from further damage and that you can substantiate what was lost, and those two duties pull against each other right at the start. Photographs are how you satisfy both.

3. Stop the water getting worse, without doing the repair

Temporary protection - a tarp over an opening, boarding a broken window, moving what can be moved to a dry floor - is normally expected of you. A permanent repair is not, and doing one before the loss has been documented can cost you the argument about what it cost. Roof damage after a storm covers where the line between the two sits on a roof.

4. The drying window is 24 to 48 hours, and it is not a metaphor

The Environmental Protection Agency puts the number plainly: if wet or damp materials are dried 24 to 48 hours after a leak or spill, in most cases mold will not grow. That is the whole reason drying is a separate job from repairing, and why it starts before anyone has agreed who is fixing the roof.

A wall or a subfloor that feels dry to a hand is routinely not dry to a moisture meter. If a restoration firm is involved, ask what readings it is working to and ask to see them. Drying out and beating the mold clock was written for a freeze burst, but the drying physics and the verification questions are the same after a storm.

5. Work out which trades you need, and which of them your state licenses

Storm damage usually splits across more trades than people expect, and the states do not credential them alike. Two examples from this site's own coverage:

• Roofing. Florida licenses roofing contractors through DBPR. Texas licenses no roofers at all, so in Texas the credential that exists is a voluntary industry one. Same trade, completely different check.
• Drying and restoration. Several states license no trade called restoration, so there is no state license to ask a restoration firm for. What can be checked there is whatever adjacent license the specific job needs, plus voluntary certification. The methodology page sets out exactly which register stands behind each vertical in each state.

Whichever trade it is, the check is the same one, and it is free: how to verify a contractor's license walks through the lookup for all ten states, and how to check a contractor's insurance covers the certificate, which several states do not publish at all.

6. Slow down at exactly the point you want to speed up

Washington's Department of Labor & Industries, warning homeowners after the floods of December 2025, put the temptation and the answer in one sentence: as tempting as it is to go with the first - or the cheapest - contractor, it is crucial to check their background before you hire. It also notes what an unregistered contractor usually lacks: unregistered "contractors" are usually working without a bond. If they do substandard work or fail to finish the job, it leaves the homeowner with even more problems.

Hiring a contractor after a storm is the long version of that paragraph, including what several states do to unlicensed work once an emergency has been declared.

Before the next one

The National Weather Service issues a hurricane watch 48 hours in advance and a warning 36 hours in advance, which is enough time to secure a house and not enough time to research a contractor. The pre-season checklist is the work that makes this page shorter next time. Directory pages checked against the state register: restoration firms in Houston, electricians in Tampa, plumbers in Virginia Beach.