Sponsored Post: What to Do About Hail Damage?

Warmer weather is arriving, and that means that, at some point, tiny balls of ice will fall from the sky and cause untold and unstoppable damage to your property. The steps that you take after a damaging hailstorm will be the difference between a long-term problem or a temporary annoyance.

Sometimes hail causes immediate and obvious problems, like broken windows or dented vehicles. But other consequences are more subtle, like structural damage in your roof. State Farm’s Stephanie Wilmsmeyer has dealt with the many risks associated with hail.

“A lot of times, if you have a newer roof, it can withstand hail,” she says. “But if the roof is a little older anyway, and a hailstorm comes, that’s when you start to see problems like leaks, grit running into your gutters, and that stuff.”

After hail damage, Wilmsmeyer advises clients to get an estimate in order to be as informed as possible about the damage. “We generally have local roofers go out and take a look, just to see what we’re dealing with,” she says.

In the immediate aftermath of a storm, it’s important to mitigate the damage as quickly as possible to prevent snowballing damage throughout your property, even if that means tacking a tarp up over damaged parts of your roof for a couple days. Generally, hail accompanies other nasty weather, like severe wind that can take down tree branches.

The best way to prepare for hail weather is to know your insurance policy and get rid of other potential risk factors, like weak or dying trees. “But, it’s spring in Missouri,” Wilmsmeyer says. “It’s going to happen.”