If a windstorm off Puget Sound just ripped shingles off your roof, dropped a tree limb through your fence, or sent rain pouring through a cracked window, call Frontline Fire & Flood at (253) 200-0503. The company runs a 24/7 emergency line, is an IICRC Certified Firm, and carries a Washington state contractor license (CCFRONTFF761CB), so one call can get a tarp on your roof and water extraction started without you having to coordinate two separate companies.
Tacoma sits right where the Tacoma Narrows funnels wind off the Sound, and South Sound homes take a real beating when an atmospheric river rolls through in fall and winter. If you’re standing in your living room right now looking at a hole in the ceiling, here’s the order of calls that actually matters.
Is This a Safety Emergency First, or a Property Emergency?
Call 911 or Tacoma Public Utilities before calling any restoration company if you see a downed power line, smell gas, or the tree in your yard is still cracking and shifting. A live wire in standing water or a tree that hasn’t finished falling is a life-safety hazard, not a repair job.
Once the fire department or utility crew confirms the scene is safe, that’s when a storm damage call makes sense. No reputable crew will send someone onto an unstable roof or into a yard with an energized line down, and neither should you. If the damage is contained (a missing shingle, a cracked window, water coming through a soffit) and nothing is actively sparking or shifting, you can skip straight to the next step.
A Tree Fell on My House. What Do I Do First?
Move everyone out of rooms near the impact point and stay off the roof, even if the tree looks like it’s just resting there. A limb or trunk that’s punched through sheathing can still shift under its own weight, and attic insulation soaked with rainwater adds a lot of unseen load to already-cracked framing.
Photograph the damage from a safe distance, both the tree and the hole it made, before anything gets moved. Insurance adjusters want to see the storm’s actual impact, not just the repair. If the tree opened the roof or an exterior wall to weather, that’s an emergency tarping situation, not a wait-and-see one; the longer it sits open, the more interior damage you’re looking at.
Who Handles Emergency Roof Tarping and Board-Up After a Windstorm?
A storm damage restoration crew handles emergency tarping and board-up, and it’s meant as a temporary stop-gap, not the repair itself. Plywood over a broken window or a tarp lashed down over a breached roof section buys time until an adjuster inspects and a roofer or general contractor does the permanent fix.
Done right, a tarp is secured at the ridge and overlapped so wind can’t get underneath and peel it off during the next gust, which matters in a Tacoma windstorm as much as the first one. Board-up and tarping also covers broken windows and compromised exterior doors after wind-driven debris, which is common from Old Town Tacoma down through the Stadium District and the bluffs near Point Defiance Park, where big maples and firs take the brunt of a gust.
What Happens to the Water That Got Inside?
Rainwater coming through a breached roof usually starts out relatively clean, but it degrades the longer it sits in wall cavities, insulation, and drywall, picking up contaminants and moving toward a dirtier category of water under the ANSI/IICRC S500 standard. That’s why extraction and drying need to start fast, not after the tarp goes up and everyone goes home.
Mold can begin growing on wet materials within 24 to 48 hours, according to the EPA, so the drying timeline matters more than how the patch job looks. Water damage restoration after a storm means pulling standing water, setting air movers and dehumidifiers, and checking moisture levels inside walls and under flooring, not just mopping up what’s visible. Our storm and wind damage guide covers what that drying process looks like in more detail.
What Happens When You Call?
The first call is mostly information gathering: your address, what got damaged (roof, window, siding, a tree down), whether water is actively coming in, and your insurance carrier if you have it handy. That lets the crew bring the right equipment the first trip instead of guessing.
On arrival, the crew does a quick safety check of the damaged area, stabilizes the breach with a tarp or board-up, and starts photographing and moisture-mapping the affected rooms. Washington homeowners policies generally cover sudden wind and tree damage as a covered peril, and that photo and moisture documentation is exactly what an adjuster needs to process the claim without a dispute. If you have specific coverage questions, the Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner publishes plain-language guidance on what standard policies typically include.
Once the property is stabilized and the water is moving out instead of soaking further in, the rest is standard restoration: structural drying, moisture verification, and handing off to a roofer or contractor for the permanent repair.
If you’re reading this with a hole in your roof right now, request a storm damage assessment or call direct. Getting a tarp on before the next band of rain moves through is the difference between a repair bill and a much bigger one.
About the Crews Behind This Guide
This guide reflects how storm and water damage calls are actually handled by an IICRC Certified Firm founded in 2014 and licensed in Washington (CCFRONTFF761CB), serving Tacoma, Lakewood, Puyallup, and the South Sound through each fall and winter storm season. The crews carry the IICRC Water Damage Restoration Technician (WRT) and Applied Structural Drying (ASD) credentials referenced above, and the business holds a 4.9 rating across 137 Google reviews from local customers.
Need help now? Call Frontline Fire & Flood at (253) 200-0503.