If you’ve lived in North Texas longer than one summer, you already know the drill: blue skies at lunch, sirens by supper. July is peak severe thunderstorm season here, and along with the hail and the wind comes the thing that quietly does the most damage — water. A roof leak you didn’t know you had, a window that let in more than it should have, a slab that took on water faster than the yard could drain it.
The good news? What you do in the first 24 hours matters more than almost anything else. Here’s exactly what to do, in order.
1. Make sure everyone’s safe first
Before anything else — no wet electrical, no wading through standing water near outlets or panels, no walking under a sagging ceiling. If there’s any doubt about structural safety or electrical hazards, wait for it to be checked before you go back in.
2. Stop the source, if you safely can
If it’s a plumbing issue, shut off the water at the main. If it’s a roof leak, a tarp or bucket is a fine stopgap until help arrives — just don’t get on a wet roof in a storm to do it. Your job right now is damage control, not repair.
3. Document before you touch anything
This is the step most homeowners skip, and it’s the one insurance adjusters care about most. Before you move furniture or start mopping:
- Take photos and short videos of every affected room, from multiple angles
- Capture the water line on walls or baseboards if there is one
- Photograph damaged belongings before you move them
- Note the time and rough cause (“hail broke a window, rain came in around 3pm”)
You can start cleanup right after — you don’t have to wait around. Just get the pictures first. It takes five minutes and it can save you real headaches later.
4. Get the water out and start drying — fast
This is where the clock really matters. Mitigation professionals talk about a golden window of about 24–48 hours before wet materials start growing mold and secondary damage sets in. That’s not a scare tactic — it’s just how moisture and organic material behave in Texas humidity.
Here’s the honest sequence, the same one we use on every job: Day one is about stabilizing. Get standing water out, apply an antimicrobial to slow microbial growth, and get drying equipment running — real air movers and commercial dehumidifiers, not the little unit from the laundry room. Then, within 24–48 hours, we come back and reassess the whole area with moisture meters and a thermal camera to see what’s actually still wet underneath the surface. That second look lets everyone, including your insurance company, catch up before big decisions get made.
I know the fans and dehumidifiers are loud and disruptive — genuinely, choose your sanity, put on a podcast, get the kids outside for a bit. But please don’t turn the equipment off early, even for a few hours. Structural drying only works if it runs uninterrupted, and shutting it down risks the mold and secondary damage it’s there to prevent.
5. Call a professional when…
- Water touched drywall, insulation, subfloor, or has been sitting more than a couple hours
- You can’t tell how far the water traveled (it almost always travels farther than it looks)
- There’s any hint of a musty smell already
- You just want a second set of eyes before you decide anything
Surface-dry is not the same as actually dry. That’s the single most common thing homeowners get wrong, and it’s the reason “small” water events turn into expensive ones.
The Merlene Mitigation way
I’m not going to promise this won’t be disruptive — it will be, for a while. What I can promise is we’ll make it as least disruptive as possible, and we’ll be honest with you every step of the way about what’s actually needed and what isn’t. Josh handles water damage and inspections personally — you’re not getting handed off to a stranger — and because Merlene Mitigation runs lean, you get personal attention and fair pricing instead of franchise overhead.
If you’re dealing with storm damage anywhere in Pilot Point or the surrounding Denton County towns, give us a call. Even if it’s just to talk through what you’re looking at and figure out your next step, we’re glad to help.
-Ally