Tyler Families Surveying Damage After Thunderstorm
The Lynn family is one of many who suffered damage from Tuesday afternoon’s thunderstorm in Tyler. More specifically, a tree is now on top of their house. They immediately made a call to their insurance company who gave them some tips on using a reputable repair business.
Tyler Lynn was in his house when the tree hit. “I was in my room, which is right there where the tree’s kind of falling on, and all of a sudden I saw a flash of lightning and I heard a big crunch. Next thing I know, I come out and see that there’s a big tree laying on our house.”
After the shock wore off, he called his insurance company, who walked him through the next steps on finding a trustworthy repair company. “The insurance agent, when I talked to her yesterday, after we were done talking, she said to always make sure to ask for to see insurance papers because she said there’s a lot of unscrupulous people out there that come out of the woodwork after a storm, and that’s one thing I should look for.”
Roland Browne owns local company Stonewater Roofing. He said that if homeowners find themselves in this situation, they need to protect themselves. “You want to definitely use a reputable company, like Stonewater Roofing. You want to use someone that’s insured. In our case we’re insured up to $3 million. A lot of these guys, they don’t have any insurance, they don’t have any worker’s comp.”
Browne said that its also important to document everything for your insurance company. “I think one of the mistakes people make when this happens is they’ll go ahead and call a company out, take the tree off, and they will not have any photos of that prior to,” he added. “Your insurance company wants to see photos of the damage prior to you taking it off.”
You can always check with the Better Business Bureau if you’re unsure about a business or person that has approached you and offered services. Lynn said that his insurance agent also encouraged him to check with multiple companies for quotes on the repair.
A version of this article originally appeared on East Texas Matters.