The named storm in the Gulf is forecast to make landfall near you in 48 hours. Your gutters haven't been cleaned since spring. The patio cover you've been meaning to inspect has a couple of fasteners that look loose. The downspout from the back gutter discharges six inches from the foundation, where you've been meaning to add an extension. The forecast cone has narrowed, and your zip code is in it.



48 hours out, you're not installing. You're prepping. New gutters, new patio cover, new downspouts — all too late. What you've got now is what's going through the storm with you. The work over the next two days is making what's already on the house perform as well as possible during landfall and documenting everything so that any damage has a paper trail when you file the claim afterward.

Here's the priority list, in order, with the things to skip.

The 48-Hour Priority List

The order matters because conditions degrade as the storm approaches. Rain bands often arrive 12-24 hours before landfall. The wind gets unsteady. Ground saturates. Ladder work that's safe at hour 48 is dangerous at hour 12.

Photograph First — Insurance Documentation

Take your photos before you do the prep, not after. Adjusters need to see what was there before the storm — your prep work is the second photo, not the first.

The shots that matter:



Every gutter run, from the ground, with at least one shot showing each downspout. Fascia condition where visible. Patio cover panels from below. Carport from all four sides. Each elevation of the home. Damage already present (existing rust, sagging sections, loose corners) — photographed on purpose so the post-storm comparison shows what's new versus what was there.

EXIF metadata embedded in modern phone photos automatically captures date, time, and GPS location. That's what proves when the photos were taken. Verify EXIF is enabled on your phone before hurricane season — it's the default on iPhones; Android phones often need it turned on in Camera settings.

Back your photos up to cloud storage immediately. iCloud, Google Photos, Dropbox — all work. Local-only backup loses the file if the home floods. Cloud-uploaded photos survive.

TIP: Organize the photo set by structure as you shoot — front-yard album, back-yard album, attic album. After the storm, the adjuster wants to see specific structures, not a chronological dump of 200 unsorted photos. Sorted folders shorten the inspection by hours.

Clean Your Gutters and Downspouts

The highest-impact 48-hour task. A clean 6-inch K-style gutter handles 6+ inches per hour of rainfall through a 3"x4" downspout. The same gutter clogged with leaves or Spanish moss handles maybe 1 inch per hour before overflowing. Hurricane bands deliver rainfall at 1-3 inches per hour sustained, with peaks above 5 inches per hour. Clean gutters handle the storm; a clogged gutter overflows at the slightest rise, and water cascades down the wall behind for the next several hours.



The DIY approach, when you can do it safely:

Clear visible debris from your gutters by hand from a stable ladder. Run a garden hose with a pistol nozzle to flush each downspout from the gutter outlet — you should see clear water exit at the bottom. If a downspout is blocked, snake a plumbing auger from the bottom up.

If unsafe to climb at 48 hours out — high winds already, rain bands arriving, ground saturated — skip the cleaning. Move to other priorities.

TIP: If you can't clean the gutters yourself, do what's possible from the ground: photograph everything, secure loose items, and run downspout extensions where reachable. The mitigation work the insurer will reimburse later requires documentation, not climbing, and ground-level work is what's left when ladder work isn't safe.

Downspout Discharge Path

Adding temporary extensions where the current discharge points are too close to the foundation: 4-inch corrugated PVC pipe sections from any home center, fitted into existing downspout outlets. Direct the water at least 10 feet from your foundation, or to the storm drain if accessible.



This isn't the permanent fix. The permanent fix is— storm-drain connection, French drain, or graded underground extension. The 48-hour version is whatever moves water 10 feet beyond its current landing point.

The extensions don't have to look pretty. They have to function throughout the storm. Pull them after the storm passes; reconfigure the permanent system once you're not under a hurricane warning.

Secure or Remove Loose Patio Cover Panels

A loose patio cover panel becomes a projectile at 80 mph. Take it off or strap it down — don't leave it to fail.



Aluminum patio cover panels are typically secured with self-tapping screws into structural members at 12-24 inch intervals. The fastening system is rated for ASCE 7 wind load specifications appropriate to the installation zone. When fasteners are loose (due to corrosion, age, or prior wind cycling), the panel-to-frame bond can fail at wind speeds well below the system's rated capacity. A 4-foot panel that comes loose at 80 mph has hundreds of pounds of kinetic energy; impact with another structure or a window can cause serious damage.

Inspect connections; tighten any visibly loose fasteners with a hand screwdriver. Don't introduce new screws into structural members at the last minute — that risks splitting the aluminum. For panels already separated or visibly compromised, removing them entirely before the storm is safer than leaving them to fail catastrophically during landfall.

If the entire patio cover shows structural distress (sagging at midspan, multiple loose connections, fasteners that are mushroomed and rusted), consider whether removing more than a panel makes sense. A patio cover that fails partially during a hurricane often takes part of the roof or fascia with it.

Patio cover already showing loose fasteners or visible damage before the storm? Joe's Gutters & Patios provides emergency pre-storm assessments where time allows — and post-storm priority scheduling for damage assessment and repair. Save the number now: 504-813-4293.

Tree Branches and Debris

Tree branches that overhang gutters or the roof should be trimmed back where it's safe to do so from the ground. Time-pressed homeowners often skip this; the trade-off is gutter clogs from broken branches during the storm.



What you can do safely from the ground: trim small branches with a pole pruner. Pick up any deadwood that's already on the ground. Bring in or strap down loose lawn furniture, planters, decorative items, and trash cans — they all become projectiles at hurricane wind speeds.

What you should not do: climb trees, operate chainsaws on branches above ground level, or do any rooftop work with the storm 48 hours out.

WARNING: Do not attempt rooftop work, ladder work above 8 feet, or chainsaw operation in the final 24 hours before landfall. Falling barometric pressure brings unstable wind conditions; ground saturation makes ladder feet unstable; rain bands often arrive 12-24 hours before the storm itself. The risk-reward shifts heavily toward shelter once landfall is within a day.

What NOT to Attempt

Re-sealing leaking gutter joints with hardware-store caulk. Silicone or latex caulk requires 24-48 hours at 50-80°F with low humidity to cure properly. Louisiana 48-hours-before-landfall conditions are exactly wrong for that — high humidity, falling barometric pressure, often rain bands already arriving. Hardware-store caulk on a leaking gutter joint 24 hours before landfall is the wrong material in the wrong conditions. The cure won't happen, and the bandage falls off mid-storm.

Adding new gutter fasteners. New screws driven into existing fascia or aluminum can split material that was holding fine; the prep "fix" creates the failure point.

Painting or treating exposed surfaces. Won't dry, will wash off, leaves a streaking pattern that the adjuster will see post-storm.

Climbing on the roof to "inspect." Slippery, unsafe, high-risk falls.

Pressure washing gutters. Wrong tool even in good conditions; dangerous in pre-storm conditions.

Filing pre-emptive insurance claims. The claim cycle starts at loss, not before. Claims filed before the storm get rejected and create record entries that complicate the actual post-storm filing.

TIP: Save Joe's contact 504-813-4293 before the storm hits, not after. Phone networks get overloaded post-landfall, and the call queue tightens. Pre-storm contact reservation gets you on the priority list for post-storm response.

After Landfall — The 72-Hour Window

The 48-hour-before prep matters most when paired with the 72-hour-after documentation. Once safe to access your property, walk the perimeter, photograph everything, get a contractor on-site for a written damage assessment within 72 hours, then file the insurance claim.



Joe's responds to storm calls with priority scheduling across Greater New Orleans. The pre-storm contact reservation matters because phone networks get overloaded post-landfall, and the call queue tightens fast.

Frequently Asked Questions

Save the Number Before the Storm

The work in 48 hours isn't dramatic. Photograph, clean what's safe to clean, secure what's loose, store what's mobile. Skip the temptation to "fix" things that shouldn't be touched in pre-storm conditions.



Save the contractor's number before the storm. The phone network gets overloaded after landfall, and the call queue tightens fast.

The prep matters. The post-storm documentation matters more. Your gutters and patio cover were either ready for the storm, or they weren't, by 48 hours out — what you can affect now is the cleanup and the claim, not the structural performance.

Save Joe's number now. Joe's Gutters & Patios responds to post-storm calls with priority scheduling across Greater New Orleans — gutter damage, patio cover damage, and carport replacement. 504-813-4293, same-day call-back, no trip fee, Louisiana contractor license #CL.65670.