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Rita took the roofs off in 2005 and Laura loosened the ones that replaced them in 2020. Wind damage repair in Jefferson County is less about the storm's name than about two questions: how much of the roof is affected, and whether that amount crosses the line where the repair itself has to be built to the windstorm specification and inspected.
The Port Arthur tower recorded a 112-knot gust in Rita, about 129 mph, and the Beaumont airport 91 knots. At those speeds shingles do not simply blow off; the sealant strip breaks, the tab lifts and creases at the nail line, and the shingle lies back down looking almost right. That creased shingle sheds water for a while and then does not. The damage a homeowner sees from the yard after a storm, the missing tabs and the ridge cap in the neighbor's hedge, is usually the smaller part.
On the older pier-and-beam houses in Beaumont's Old Town and across Mid-County there is a second pattern: plank decking with gaps between boards, nailed up in the 1950s, that lets a lifted shingle pull its nails through. The repair there is not a bundle of shingles. It is decking.
TWIA's own list separates the two. “Temporary repairs after a storm” are on the list of work that does not need a Certificate of Compliance, so a tarp weighted over an open slope in Groves the night after a storm is exactly what it looks like: a stopgap, and a proper one. “Repairing a significant portion of a roof” is on the other list, the one that requires the work to be built to TDI's adopted windstorm specifications and inspected.
Where the line falls is a call the inspector makes for the specific job. The contractor this site connects you with will tell you which side of it the repair looks to be on before pricing it, and TDI's fact sheet says to ask the local windstorm inspections office before work starts if there is any doubt. A repair done without the inspection when one was needed leaves the roof without paperwork it may later need.
Applies in Beaumont, Port Arthur, Nederland, Port Neches and Groves. In Vidor, Orange, Bridge City and Lumberton there is no windstorm inspection requirement; see those city pages.
Every slope walked, not just the one facing the wind. Laura came from the southeast; the north slopes in Nederland still lost seal.
Ridge cap and the first course at the eave are where wind gets under a roof. Drip edge attachment is part of the windstorm specification for a reason.
Daylight through plank gaps, nails backed out, water trails. On a pier-and-beam house the attic is also where the porch roof addition meets the original.
Laura's damage across Jefferson, Orange and Hardin counties was mostly trees on roofs, by the National Hurricane Center's account. A limb strike is a decking job, not a shingle job.
On insurance, plainly: this site does not file, negotiate, adjust or settle insurance claims, offers no arrangement of any kind involving a deductible, and the contractors it connects you with do not either; Texas law does not permit a roofing contractor to act as a claims adjuster. What a contractor can give you is a written scope with photographs of the damage, which is yours to use as you see fit. Questions about your policy go to your agent.
Tarping comes first, as soon as it is safe to be on a roof, and it is answered outside normal hours. Permanent repairs follow once the contractor can see the whole roof dry and, where the repair is large, once the inspection is arranged.
A temporary repair does not, by TWIA's list. Repairing a significant portion of a roof does. The inspector decides what significant means for the job in front of them; ask before the work rather than after.
If the roof is on its second or third Jefferson County storm and the damage is spread across slopes, replacement to the current specification is often the more honest quote. If the damage is one slope and the roof is young, a repair. The contractor should show you which on the roof, not tell you on the phone.
Say which city and which slope. A contractor who has repaired Jefferson County roofs after more than one hurricane calls back.
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