What we know from the National Weather Service
Severe thunderstorms swept across metro Atlanta and northeast Georgia between roughly 5 PM and midnight Saturday, September 5, 2026. NWS Peachtree City issued severe thunderstorm warnings covering Gwinnett, DeKalb, and Fulton, with the strongest cells running from Roswell through Dunwoody, Doraville, Duluth, and Alpharetta. Peak wind gusts reached 60 mph. Hail up to 1 inch was reported in isolated spots but did not meet the shingle-damage threshold on NWS Local Storm Reports.
Fox 5 Atlanta reported more than 50,000 customers without power at peak, with Cobb EMC, Jackson EMC in Hall County, and Georgia Power all affected. WSB-TV Channel 2 confirmed a large tree fell on a home in Roswell and additional damage in DeKalb County on Sugar Downs Court SE. NWS Local Storm Reports document 34 wind-damage events across 15 Georgia counties.
60 mph
Peak wind gusts confirmed by NWS Peachtree City
50,000+
Customers without power at peak Saturday night
34
NWS wind-damage reports across 15 GA counties
72 hrs
The documentation window that decides most claims
Where the damage hit
NWS Local Storm Reports place the confirmed wind damage across 15 Georgia counties, concentrated on the northeast metro corridor. If your county is on this list, your claim is straightforward to substantiate on the wind-event side. The fight, if there is one, will be over whether the tree that fell was healthy at the time.
| County | NWS reports | Notable damage |
|---|---|---|
| Hall | 8 | Chestnut Mountain, Candler, Road Atlanta area. Trees and lines down along Hwy 211 and Hwy 53 |
| Fulton | 5 | Sweet Auburn (tree across Edgewood Ave NE), College Park (tree on power lines at Virginia Ave), NNW Alpharetta (Ellard Dr and E. Addison Dr) |
| Jasper | 4 | Monticello, Turtle Cove neighborhoods |
| Henry | 3 | Stockbridge (Guthrie Place, Forest Road, Country Mill Lane) |
| Warren, Rockdale, Gwinnett, Gordon, Clayton | 2 each | Gwinnett: E. Jones Bridge Rd. Rockdale: Cherry Hill Rd. Clayton: Fitzgerald Rd near Mundys Mill |
| Stephens, Oglethorpe, Habersham, DeKalb, Carroll, Butts | 1 each | DeKalb: Sugar Downs Ct SE (tree hit a home). Carroll: Broad St and Burson Ave (tree on unoccupied home) |
Source: NWS Local Storm Reports via Iowa Environmental Mesonet. Filed within hours of the event by first responders, emergency managers, and the public. This is the same dataset carriers cross-reference when they decide whether to accept or fight a wind claim.
The wind versus tree-health denial fight
This is the single most common denial pattern after a Georgia wind event. The homeowner files. The carrier sends an adjuster. The adjuster looks at the fallen tree, spots any hollow, decay, or fungus, and writes it up as a maintenance failure rather than a wind failure. The denial letter cites the standard maintenance exclusion, and the claim closes with a zero.
The counter is documentation done in the first 72 hours, before the tree service crew shows up and hauls the evidence away. Three pieces of proof defeat this denial almost every time.
First, the wind data. The NWS Local Storm Reports linked above are official government records showing 60 mph gusts in your county on September 5. That is well above the wind threshold at which even a fully healthy 60-foot tree can fail, and it is the number that starts every legitimate wind claim.
Second, the neighborhood pattern. Photograph every downed tree, snapped limb, and damaged fence within a two-block radius of your home. If four other trees fell on the same street, the pattern is wind, not decay. Carriers cannot argue a whole street of trees was rotten.
Third, the tree cross-section. Before the tree service cuts and removes the trunk, ask them to leave a cross-section of the break point for you. If the wood is solid, that photograph destroys the maintenance defense in a single frame. If there is decay, an arborist letter can still explain that the decay was internal and the tree failed at the moment wind loading exceeded structural capacity, which is a covered wind event under any standard HO-3 policy.
The first 72 hours, in order
What you do this weekend decides most of what the carrier pays over the next 30 to 90 days. Here is the sequence in order, starting the moment it is safe to walk outside.
1 Photograph everything before you touch it
Walk the entire property with your phone in video mode. Narrate the date and address. Capture every angle of the damage, every downed tree, every impacted structure, every wet floor, every roof line. Get up on the second floor and shoot down into gutters and onto the roof if it is safe. If the tree is on the house, do NOT climb, but photograph from every ground angle you can. Save copies to cloud storage that day, not just your phone.
CRITICAL · do this before cleanup crews arrive2 Report to your carrier within 24 hours
Call your homeowners insurance company today, whether or not the damage looks major. Georgia policies contain a prompt-notice provision, and carriers use delay as a reason to reduce or deny. Get a claim number in writing. Report the facts as you observed them, list the visible damage, and ask what the carrier requires next. Do not commit to a repair cost or accept an on-the-spot offer.
RED FLAG if the carrier tries to close the file on the phone3 Preserve the tree cross-section
Before any tree service cuts and hauls the tree, ask the crew to leave you a 12 to 18 inch cross-section of the break point. Photograph it in daylight, with a ruler in the frame for scale. This one photograph is what defeats the maintenance-exclusion denial in most cases. If the tree already got removed, do not panic. Ask the tree company for a written statement about what they observed at the break.
DO THIS BEFORE THE TREE SERVICE ARRIVES4 Cover the roof, then wait
If the roof was breached, tarp it or hire an emergency tarp service. Save every receipt. The policy pays for reasonable mitigation. Do NOT hire a permanent roofer or sign a repair contract yet. Emergency mitigation is different from repairs, and signing a repair contract before the claim is scoped is the fastest way to end up paying out of pocket for anything the carrier later refuses. See our guide on hiring a contractor after an insurance settlement in Georgia.
Tarp yes. Sign a repair contract no.5 Check inside the attic for water paths
Every tree-punctured roof creates a hidden water intrusion path. Even if the visible ceiling looks fine, the attic insulation and framing above may be wet. Take a flashlight into the attic within 48 hours and photograph any wet insulation, water staining on rafters, or drip trails. Interior water damage compounds by day 7 to 14. Documenting it early is the difference between a fully paid interior scope and a denied supplement.
Attic photos protect the interior scope6 Save the outage timeline
Screenshot the Georgia Power or EMC outage map showing your address without service, and note the start and restoration times. If you have a Food Spoilage or Refrigerated Property endorsement, save receipts for replacement groceries. If a sump pump failed and water backed up during the outage, that is a Water Backup coverage claim and it is separate from the wind claim. Both can be filed on the same event.
Screenshot before the outage map resetsWhat Amanda handles on a wind-storm claim
A Georgia public adjuster represents the property owner on the insurance claim, not the carrier. On a wind-storm loss like this one, that means several things happen in parallel.
The wind-event proof gets built first. NWS reports pulled, neighborhood damage photographed, tree cross-section documented, arborist consulted if needed. The interior scope gets walked and priced with a full construction estimate, not the carrier's software minimum. Debris removal, tarping, matching, code upgrades, and Loss of Use all get itemized separately so the carrier cannot bundle them into a single lowball number. If the carrier tries the maintenance-exclusion play, the documentation record forces them off it before the denial letter goes out.
On the average metro Atlanta wind-storm claim with a tree strike on a covered structure, this process moves the settlement between $8,000 and $60,000 higher than what the homeowner would have collected filing alone. On the tree-service and tarp bills alone, the difference is usually enough to cover the public adjuster fee.
Free claim review for Saturday night's storm
If a tree hit your home, garage, or fence, or if the wind took shingles or gutters, get a Georgia public adjuster on the phone before you call your carrier. 15 minutes is all it takes to know whether the claim is being scoped correctly.
Frequently asked questions
A tree fell on my house during the Saturday storm. Does homeowners insurance cover it?
Yes. When a tree falls on a covered structure such as your dwelling, garage, or fence, the standard HO-3 policy covers the damage to the structure under Coverage A or B and the removal of the tree from the structure under Debris Removal, typically up to $500 to $1,000 per tree. If the tree missed the structure, most policies pay nothing for removal, which is why the first photo matters so much. Coverage attaches when the tree touches the building, not the ground.
The insurance company says the tree was dead or rotting. Can they deny my claim?
They will try, and this is the most common wind-storm denial in Georgia. Carriers point to a maintenance exclusion and argue the tree fell from decay rather than the wind event. The counter is documentation: NWS Local Storm Reports showing 60 mph gusts in your area on the loss date, photos of neighboring trees also down or damaged, and, when needed, an arborist letter stating the tree failed under wind loading. A public adjuster builds that record before the carrier commits to a denial.
How long do I have to file a wind claim in Georgia?
Two clocks matter. Prompt notice: report the loss to your carrier within days, not weeks. Most Georgia HO-3 policies require notice as soon as reasonably possible, and carriers use delay as grounds to reduce or deny. Suit limitation: most Georgia policies contain a one-year or two-year suit-limitation clause counted from the date of loss, not the date of denial. Read your declarations page. If your claim gets slow-walked, that clock is running the entire time.
The power was out but the tree missed my house. Do I have any claim?
It depends on what spoiled and whether you carry the right endorsement. Standard HO-3 policies exclude food spoilage from power interruption originating off the premises unless you carry a Food Spoilage or Refrigerated Property endorsement, which typically pays $500 to $1,000 per outage event. If the outage caused water damage inside the home, such as a sump pump failure and a flooded basement, Sump Pump and Water Backup coverage may apply. Check your declarations page before filing so you know which coverage to invoke.
The bottom line
Saturday was not the biggest storm to hit metro Atlanta this year, but it was a real wind event with 34 confirmed damage reports on the government record. Every homeowner from Roswell to Alpharetta to Chestnut Mountain to Stockbridge to Carrollton has legitimate wind coverage on their policy, and every one of those claims will be tested against the maintenance exclusion if the tree that fell had any visible age or decay.
The claim is not won by the tree. It is won by the photograph of the tree, taken this morning, before the removal crew shows up this afternoon. Get out there with the phone. Then call.