Water removal and drying after tornado wind opens a roof, wall or window in Meridian and Lauderdale County.
Fastest: call (833) 490-5225. Or send this and we call you back.
Tornado wind damage cleanup removes the rain and standing water that gets into a building after a tornado tears off roofing, breaks windows or opens walls. In Meridian and across Lauderdale County, a local technician covers the openings, pulls out the water and dries the structure to measured readings before rebuilding starts. Phones are answered 24/7.
A tornado in the Meridian area does two kinds of damage. The first is the damage you can see from the yard: shingles and sheet metal peeled off, limbs through the roof, siding stripped, windows blown in. The second arrives with the next hard rain and is easier to miss, because the water runs down inside walls and ceilings where nobody is looking. This page explains how that second kind of damage is handled, so you know what to ask for when you call.
The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-2 tornado in the Meridian area in April 2018, with estimated peak winds of 115 mph. The storm knocked out power in Meridian and Marion, uprooted trees and blocked Highway 45 south of Marion. A building with a fresh opening in its roof or walls keeps taking water until someone covers it, and a wind-damaged building is often the one that stays open longest because the first priority is the people in it and the trees around it.
If your building has been hit, call (833) 490-5225. Stay out of standing water near outlets, cords and the electrical panel, and keep clear of any part of the structure that looks like it could shift. The crew that comes will start with the openings, because nothing inside can dry while rain is still getting in.
Do not enter a building with a sagging roof, a leaning wall or a ceiling that is bulging with water. Do not run a generator inside or near an opening, and do not step into water near the electrical panel, outlets or any cord. Keep away from fallen power lines, and call the power company before you touch anything that may be live. A roof is not a place to clear debris on your own.
The first check is structural. The crew looks at the roof line, the walls and any tree resting on the building before anyone walks inside, and it keeps the power off at the meter or panel where the wet electrical equipment is. If the building is not safe, the crew says so and waits for it to be made safe.
Tarps, boards and temporary roof covers keep the next rain out. Covering the openings comes before everything else because water that is kept out stops adding to the damage. The cover is checked after each rain until the permanent repair is done.
Water that has pooled on floors or sat in a ceiling cavity is extracted with pumps and wet vacuums. Wet carpet and pad are lifted so the floor underneath can be seen and dried, instead of leaving them to hold moisture against the subfloor.
Soft insulation, swollen particleboard and drywall soaked above the base line are cut out and bagged. Solid wood, plaster and masonry are usually kept and dried, because removing them adds cost without a clear gain in most cases.
Air movers and dehumidifiers run until moisture meters show the framing, subfloor and wall cavities back at dry readings. The technician records the readings at each stage so the result is a measured end point, not a guess that the building feels dry.
The first job is to stop new water from entering. The crew checks the building for safety, covers the openings and only then starts extracting water, since every new rain adds to the wet material inside.
Most of the water that causes lasting damage arrives in the first few storms after the tornado. A roof with a torn section lets rain run down the rafters and into the attic, where insulation holds it against the ceiling. Covering the torn section stops that flow, and it is the step that protects the rest of the house.
Once the opening is covered, the crew reads the building. They look for water at the top of the walls, in the ceiling cavity, under the floor and in any room where the wind pushed rain through a window. The map of wet material decides which pieces come out and which can stay.
Water keeps coming in because wet material keeps wicking moisture from the air and from the next rain. Insulation, drywall and wood hold water long after the surface looks dry, so the damage can grow for days.
A soaked ceiling can look fine from below while the insulation above it is still full of water. When the building warms or the next storm arrives, that water moves into the drywall and the framing. This is why a crew measures the materials instead of relying on the look of a ceiling.
Wind-damaged buildings often have several small leaks that do not show up together. One opening lets water into the attic, another lets it down a wall, and a third drips at a light fixture. Finding every path is part of the work, and it is the reason the crew checks the whole structure rather than the one spot that looks worst.
Size of the opening, how long water has been in the building, how many rooms and floors it reached, and how much material has to come out decide the job. The price is explained and approved before work starts.
A small opening with one wet ceiling is a short job. A roof torn across several slopes, water that has reached two floors and a crawl space, or a building that has been open through several rains takes more equipment and more days. The crew can see these differences on the first visit and explains each one before it changes the scope.
Access also matters. A roof that can be reached from a ladder and a wall that can be opened from one side are simpler than a steep roof or an interior wall with a fireplace or tile in front of the wet area. None of these factors is a fixed charge. The scope and the cost are set out for you to approve before work begins.
The crew takes moisture readings on the framing, subfloor and wall cavities at the start, during and at the end of drying. Drying is finished when the readings return to dry levels, not when the surface looks dry.
Readings are taken in the same spots each time so the change can be seen. A ceiling joist that starts high and falls over several days shows the air is pulling moisture out of the wood. A reading that stops falling tells the crew the equipment is no longer doing useful work and the setup should change.
Humid weather slows the drying in Meridian, so the dehumidifiers are often run longer than the crew would expect in drier climates. The readings are the reason for that, and they are shared with you at the end of the job so you can see where each area stood.
A crew covers and dries the water damage. Cutting, lifting or moving a large fallen tree is separate work, done with equipment and training for it. Ask the crew which part of the debris is theirs before anyone starts.
A limb lying on a roof is both a water problem and a structural one. The water job starts once the limb is off and the opening is covered. Removing a whole trunk from a roof, or cutting a tree that has come down on a fence or a car, is a different job for a different crew.
Keep people away from any tree that is leaning on the structure, and do not climb onto a roof to clear debris after a storm. The water work can begin once the building is safe, and a technician will say what they can and cannot take on.
A shingle stripped from a single slope is a small opening. A limb through the decking or a torn sheet-metal panel is a larger one, and it lets rain reach the attic insulation and the ceiling below. The crew covers the opening, pulls the wet insulation and dries the framing before the roof is repaired.
Glass and debris blown into a room create a path for wind-driven rain to reach the wall cavity and the floor. Boards or a temporary cover go over the opening first. Wet drywall and insulation behind the opening are then checked and removed where they have soaked up water.
Houses with crawl spaces or raised floors can take water underneath as well as through the roof. The crew checks the space under the floor, removes standing water and dries the joists and subfloor. This work takes longer than surface drying because the air under a floor moves slowly.
The April 2018 tornado in the Meridian area knocked out power in Meridian and Marion and uprooted trees. Storm damage at that scale means many buildings are open at once, which pushes crews to cover the worst openings first and come back for the rest.
In May 2021 the National Weather Service in Jackson confirmed two tornadoes in Lauderdale County. The most damage across the county that spring came from straight-line wind rather than the tornadoes, so a tornado call in Meridian often turns out to be a wind-damage job with the same water steps.
The April 2008 severe weather outbreak left its main band of damage along the I-20 corridor around Meridian. Homes and businesses near that corridor are a reminder that a single storm can leave water damage across a wide area, and that is why the phone line is staffed 24/7.
Call any hour and explain what is going on. You get a clear price before any work starts.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Water removal and drying after straight-line wind opens a roof, wall or window in Meridian.
Water removed from attics and ceilings after a storm leaks through a roof in Meridian.
Covering a storm-opened roof or wall and drying what the rain reached in Meridian.
Opening and drying wet ceilings and drywall, and replacing soaked insulation, in Meridian.
After tornado or wind damage, check that the building and the people in it are safe, photograph the damage before anything moves, cover any opening in the roof or walls, and then remove the water.
Crews are dispatched 24/7 as fast as one is free, and the covering of openings is usually the first job on site. No arrival time is promised over the phone, because the storm itself decides how many calls are waiting. Say what you can see when you call so the right people can be sent.
The cleanup is the same: cover the openings, remove the water, dry the structure and measure the result. A tornado usually does more damage over a narrower path, so the number of openings and the amount of debris can be larger. The crew sizes the job from what it finds, not from the name of the storm.
If the panel is dry and you can reach it safely, switch off the circuits that serve wet areas. If the panel is wet, in a flooded space or hard to reach, leave the power alone and tell the technician on the phone. Never stand in water to reach a panel.
Move what you can lift safely to a dry room, and put wood pieces on blocks so the legs are off wet carpet. Do not stack wet fabric or upholstery. The crew will tell you which items can be dried in place and which should be set aside.
Rain that enters through a tornado opening is handled as storm water, and the cleanup steps are the same as for other storm entry. Water that rises from the ground or from a river is a different situation. If you are not sure where the water came from, say so on the phone and the crew will ask the right questions.
The crew covers the opening the tree left and dries the water damage underneath. Cutting or lifting the tree is separate work for a crew with the right equipment. Ask on the phone so the scope is clear before anyone begins.