What to Do After Hail Hits Your Roof in Abilene
Abilene sits squarely in Texas hail alley: more than 200 confirmed hail days in the past twelve years, and 2025 was the most active year on record with 25 hail days, including the June 8 storm that dropped hail up to 2.5 inches with 61 mph winds from Wylie down to Jim Ned. When a storm rolls through, what you do in the first few days determines whether your insurance claim goes smoothly or gets denied. Here’s the checklist.
Step 1: Document from the ground
Walk your property and photograph everything: dented gutters, granules in downspouts, shingle pieces in the yard, damaged window screens, dents in AC fins. Date-stamped phone photos are fine. Don’t get on the roof.
Step 2: Get a professional inspection
Most hail damage isn’t visible from the ground. Bruised shingles and cracked mats only show up close. Get a local roofing company to inspect and photograph the roof itself. This documentation is the backbone of your claim.
Step 3: Watch out for storm chasers
After every big Abilene hail event, out-of-town crews go door to door. It happened all over town after June 2025. Some are legitimate; many aren’t. Red flags:
- Pressure to sign “today only” paperwork
- Asking you to sign over your insurance claim (an “assignment of benefits”)
- No local address or local references
- Demanding large deposits before work starts
Choose a company you called, not one that knocked.
Step 4: File the claim with documentation in hand
Call your insurer with your photos and the inspection report ready. Ask your roofing contractor to be present when the adjuster comes, so a second set of trained eyes keeps damage from being missed.
Step 5: Repair or replace
If damage is confined to one area, repair may be all you need. Widespread hail bruising across multiple slopes usually means the adjuster approves full replacement, and with the hail sizes Taylor County sees (a 4-inch stone was recorded here in June 2025), multi-slope damage is common.