After the September 2026 Windstorm: How to Check Your Roof in Howell, Brighton and Hartland

On the evening of September 3, 2026 a second round of severe storms moved across Livingston County behind the line that had already produced tornado warnings earlier in the day. The National Weather Service in Detroit recorded an estimated 70 mph gust in Howell and 60 mph in Brighton, and the same system produced the first confirmed tornado inside the City of Detroit since 1997. Closer to home, straight-line winds took down trees and wires around Parkers Corners, along Chilson Road, on Maltby and Rickett Road in Brighton, on Lone Tree and Pleasant Valley Road in Hartland, and in the Lakeshore Pointe and Brighton Gardens neighborhoods. Fowlerville, Milford and Highland had damage too, and parts of the county picked up more than four inches of rain by the morning of September 4. Tens of thousands of DTE customers were without power into the weekend.

If your lights came back on and nothing is sitting in the yard, it is tempting to assume the roof is fine. This post is about why that assumption is the most expensive one a Livingston County homeowner can make after a wind event, and exactly what to look for.

Why a 60 to 70 mph gust matters even when no shingles blew off

Asphalt shingles hold to each other with a heat-activated sealant strip. Wind in the 60 to 70 mph range frequently breaks that bond without removing the shingle. The tab lifts, flexes, and settles back down looking untouched from the driveway. From the roof it lifts under a hand with no resistance, and the next storm drives water underneath it. Damage almost always starts at the edges of the roof — the rakes, the eaves, the ridge, and any course that was already unsealed — rather than in the middle of the field where a homeowner naturally looks.

The other September 3 problem is impact. Limbs and whole trees came down across the county, and a limb that bounced off a roof can crease shingles, crack a pipe boot or dent a vent without leaving an obvious hole. Heavy rain on top of that finds every one of those openings.

A ten-minute check you can do from the ground

• Walk the full perimeter of the house and look at every edge of the roof, not just the front. Look for lifted or curled tabs, shingles that look slightly out of line with their neighbors, and any exposed black underlayment.
• Check the ground, the gutters and the downspout splash blocks for granules, shingle pieces or bits of ridge cap. Granules in the gutters after a windstorm point to shingles that were scoured or creased.
• Look at the gutters themselves. Sections pulled away from the fascia or bent downward are a sign of the wind load the roof edge took.
• Look at anything that sticks up through the roof — plumbing vents, the furnace flue, the chimney, skylights. Pipe boots and flashing are where wind-driven rain gets in first.
• Go into the attic with a flashlight in daylight. Look for daylight through the deck, dark water stains on the underside of the sheathing, wet insulation, or a musty smell that was not there in August.
• Check ceilings on the top floor over the next two weeks. A stain that appears after the next ordinary rain is water that got in on September 3.

Do not climb on the roof. Wet decking, loose granules and lifted shingles are a fall waiting to happen, and walking on a roof that has just been wind-loaded can turn a lifted tab into a torn one.

What we look for that you cannot see from the ground

Our inspectors are HAAG Certified, which means wind damage is documented the way the property insurance industry expects it to be documented — slope by slope, with the sealant bond checked by hand along every edge course, photographs with dates, and a written report you keep whether or not you ever do anything with it. A wind inspection after an event like this usually takes under an hour, and the honest outcome for a lot of Howell homes will be that the roof held. When it did not, you will know exactly where and why.

If you do have damage

Sudden wind damage is the kind of loss most Michigan homeowners policies are written to cover, and the clock on a claim starts on the date of the storm, not on the day you notice a stain. We give you the documented report and the storm date so that when you talk to your carrier you are calling with evidence. If your adjuster wants to see the roof, we will meet them on it and walk them through what we found. The details of how a Michigan storm claim works, including the one-year rule, are on our storm damage page.

Watch for the crews that follow the storm

Every wind event in Greater Southeast Michigan brings out-of-area crews into the neighborhoods with the most tree damage. Some are fine. Some are not. If a company you have never heard of knocks on your door this month, ask for their Michigan builder license number and look it up before you sign anything, and never pay anything up front. On Top Roofing has worked out of 5896 Sterling Drive in Howell since 2010, and we will be here next storm too.

Schedule a free wind inspection

If your home is in Howell, Brighton, Hartland, Fowlerville, Hamburg, Pinckney or anywhere else in Livingston County and you would like the roof checked after the September 3 storm, call (810) 588-3933 or use the form on this site. There is no charge for the inspection and no obligation afterward.