The past couple of weeks have been hard on central Indiana. Beginning around August 11, historic rainfall poured across the region, some areas taking more than 11 inches over three days. The flooding along the White River and across Indianapolis neighborhoods has been devastating, lives were lost, families were displaced, and the state has requested federal help with the recovery.
If your home came through this stretch of weather, the first thing that matters is that you and your family are safe. Property can be repaired. This post is here for when you are ready to start looking at your home, and it is meant to be practical and honest, not a sales pitch. If you just need someone local to talk to about what you are seeing, we are around.
Safety first, before you inspect anything
Floodwater and storm-damaged buildings carry real hazards that are easy to underestimate. Before you start assessing anything, keep a few things in mind.
Do not enter standing water that may be near electrical lines or outlets, and do not turn power back on in an affected area until it has been checked.
Floodwater is often contaminated. Wear boots and gloves, and keep children and pets away from it.
Do not climb onto a wet or storm-damaged roof. Saturated decking can be structurally unsound, and this is the single most common way people get hurt after a storm.
If you smell gas, see structural sagging, or have any doubt about whether your home is safe to be in, stay out and get a professional to check it.
Your safety comes before any inspection. None of what follows is worth taking a risk over.
What heavy rain and flooding can do to a roof
Flooding is usually thought of as a ground-level problem, but events like this one are almost always paired with the wind, hail, and sheer volume of rain that also punish a roof. Days of heavy, wind-driven rain find every weak point, a lifted shingle, a worn bit of flashing, a small gap you never knew was there, and push water through it.
The damage often shows up inside before it is visible outside. That is why the attic and ceilings are usually where you will first notice something is wrong.
How to check for damage safely from the ground and inside
You can gather most of what matters without ever getting on a ladder. Once it is safe to do so, look for:
New water stains, discoloration, or sagging on your ceilings and around light fixtures
Daylight, damp insulation, or a musty smell in the attic
Shingles that are missing, lifted, or scattered in the yard after the storms
Granules collecting heavily in gutters and downspouts
Bent, loose, or missing flashing around the chimney, vents, and skylights, visible from the ground with binoculars
Any peeling paint or bubbling on interior walls and ceilings, a sign moisture is moving through
If you find any of these, it is worth getting a professional set of eyes on the roof before the next round of rain, since the forecast has stayed active.
If you have an active leak right now
If water is coming in, the priority is to slow it and protect what you can while you arrange repairs.
Take clear photos and video of the damage before you move or clean anything. Document it exactly as the storm left it, then contain the water where you safely can. Move belongings out of the way and put a container under active drips. If an opening in the roof needs covering, that is a job for a professional on a dry, stable surface, not something to attempt on a wet roof.
Good documentation now protects you later, both for insurance and for understanding the full scope of what happened.
Insurance and this kind of event
This is worth understanding clearly, because it catches a lot of people off guard. A standard homeowners policy typically covers wind and storm damage to your roof, but flood damage is usually not covered unless you carry separate flood insurance. Water that comes in through a storm-damaged roof is treated differently from water that rises up from the ground. The two can happen in the same event, which makes documentation especially important.
A few things that help:
Photograph and date everything before repairs begin, and keep receipts for anything you spend protecting the home. Report damage to your insurer promptly. Given the scale of this event and the FEMA involvement, keep an eye on official state and county resources, since disaster declarations can open up assistance beyond your regular policy. A licensed roofer can give you a written assessment of the storm-related roof damage specifically, which helps separate what your homeowners policy may cover from the flood-related damage it may not.
A word on storm chasers
After a disaster of this size, a lot of out-of-town crews will show up. Some are legitimate. Many are not. Be cautious with anyone who pressures you to sign on the spot, especially assignment of benefits paperwork that hands over your insurance rights. Read anything before you sign it, and if a document is confusing, it is completely reasonable to wait and ask questions. A trustworthy local company will still be here next week, and the one after that.
For more on spotting hidden damage and handling a claim, our guide on what to do about roof damage after the June 2026 Indianapolis storms walks through the process in more detail.
We are here when you are ready
317 Restoration is a locally owned company based on the south side of Indianapolis. We are part of this community, and events like this hit close to home for us too. When you are ready to look at your roof, we will give you an honest assessment of what the storms actually did, with no pressure and no scare tactics.
If you want a straightforward, local set of eyes on storm damage once things settle, you can reach us here or call (317) 970-4687. If cost is a worry during a hard time, we also offer roof financing to help spread the work out. Take care of yourselves and your neighbors first. The roof can wait until you are ready.
Why I wrote it this way, and a few honest notes:
This event is a live disaster with fatalities, so I led with safety and people, kept the sales language minimal and to the very end, and made the whole thing genuinely useful. That's not just the decent approach, it's the smart one: in a moment like this, a roofing company that shows up with empathy and real help earns far more local trust than one that opens with "book now." Google and your neighbors both reward that.
One accuracy point I made sure to get right: flood damage and roof/storm damage are covered differently by insurance (flooding usually needs separate flood insurance). That distinction is genuinely important right now and I stated it carefully, but you should add your own standard "check with your insurer / we're not insurance advisors" caveat if you want, since specifics vary by policy.
For the links: same as before, highlight the phrase and use the Link button with the paths in parentheses. The June-storms link only works if that post is published, so make sure it's live or remove that one line.
Two things worth considering: given the seriousness, you might have David glance at this before publishing, since the tone reflects on the business during a sensitive local moment. And if 317 is doing anything to help locally (even just honest free assessments for flood-affected homeowners), mentioning that genuinely would be both true to the moment and good for the business. Want me to add a line about that if he's offering it?
