Hour one: safety, not the roof
Nothing on a storm-damaged roof is worth an injury, and the most dangerous moment is usually the hour after the wind drops, when people go outside to look.
- Stay off the roof entirely. Wet sheeting is slippery, lifted sheets have sharp edges under tension, and a partly detached sheet can move again in the next gust.
- Look for downed or contacting power lines near the roof and treat every one as live. Keep everyone away and report it.
- Switch off electrical circuits in any room where water is near light fittings, distribution boards or wiring.
- Watch for bulging ceilings. Trapped water is heavy and a saturated ceiling board can come down without warning — keep people out of the room.
- Secure loose sheeting only from the ground, and only if it can be done safely. A sheet lifting in wind is dangerous to neighbours and passers-by.
Hours one to six: document before you touch anything
Insurance decisions are made on evidence, and the best evidence exists only before you start cleaning up. This is also exactly the information a roofer needs to quote without a wasted site visit.
- Photograph the roof from several angles from the ground, including wide shots that show which planes are affected.
- Photograph every affected interior area: ceiling stains, wet insulation, damaged contents, water on floors.
- Photograph debris where it landed — displaced sheets, flashing, gutters, branches. Do not clear it until it is recorded.
- Note the date, time and rough conditions of the storm, plus wind direction if you know it.
- Keep every receipt from the make-safe stage onward, including tarpaulins, buckets and any emergency call-out.
- Write down what happened while it is fresh: when the noise started, what you heard, what you found first.
Hours six to forty-eight: make safe, then repair properly
Storm repair happens in two stages and it is important to understand why, because it affects both the cost and what your insurer expects.
A make-safe visit stops further damage: temporarily covering or refixing an open area, clearing a blocked outlet, removing a sheet that is about to fly. It is not a repair, it is not expected to look good, and it should not be priced as a permanent fix.
The permanent repair happens once the weather allows and the full extent of the damage is known — which frequently includes purlins, battens, ceiling boards and insulation that only reveal themselves once things dry out. Two mobilisations cost more than one, and that is normal for storm work rather than a sign of being overcharged.
- Ask explicitly whether a quote covers make-safe, permanent repair, or both.
- Expect hidden damage to be listed as provisional until strip-out, with a stated method for pricing it.
- Do not accept a tar or bitumen 'seal' on a metal roof as a make-safe — it corrodes the sheet and makes the permanent repair worse.
- Get the internal damage assessed too. Wet insulation and saturated ceiling boards keep causing damage long after the roof is closed up.
Working with insurance
Storm damage is one of the few roofing situations where a claim is often viable, and how you present it matters. Policies differ, so treat this as what to prepare rather than what you are entitled to.
- Notify the insurer early, even before you have a quote — most policies require prompt notification.
- Provide the dated photographs, the description of the event and the make-safe receipts.
- Expect the insurer to distinguish storm damage from gradual deterioration. A roof with pre-existing rust and loose fixings is harder to claim on, which is itself an argument for documented annual maintenance.
- Ask the roofer for a quote that separates storm-related work from any unrelated wear they notice while they are up there. Mixing the two slows claims down.
- Keep the damaged components if the insurer may want to see them.
Why wind takes Namibian roofs, and which ones
Wind does not usually push a roof off — it lifts it. Air accelerating over the roof creates suction on the upper surface, strongest at edges, ridges, corners and eaves, while wind entering through an open door, window or gap pressurises the space beneath. The roof is then being pulled up and pushed up at the same time.
That explains what actually fails in Namibian storms. Roofs come off at the perimeter first, thin-gauge corrugated sheeting on under-fixed purlins goes before heavier IBR, and long unbroken spans on farm sheds and workshops around Otjiwarongo and Grootfontein are especially exposed. In the north, the same storms bring the rain volume that then does the interior damage.
- Under-fixed perimeters: too few screws exactly where uplift is highest.
- Fixings through the pan rather than the crest where the profile requires otherwise, or screws overdriven so the washer no longer seals or holds.
- Corroded or fatigued fasteners that were already at the end of their life before the storm.
- Sheeting fixed to purlins that are themselves poorly tied to the trusses, so the whole assembly leaves together.
- Large open structures — carports, sheds, verandas — where wind gets underneath with nothing to resist it.
- Trees and unsecured items upwind: most impact damage is caused by something that was not tied down.
Reducing the odds before the next season
- Have fixing density and condition checked before the rainy season, with extra attention to edges, ridges and corners.
- Replace corroded or overdriven fasteners rather than adding more next to them.
- Re-secure or replace lifted and rippled sheet edges — a sheet already moving in ordinary wind will not survive a storm.
- Check that flashings and ridge capping are mechanically fixed, not just sealed.
- Trim overhanging branches and secure loose yard items, roof-mounted equipment and shade structures.
- Keep the annual inspection documented. It helps the roof and it helps the claim.