Impact of Hurricane Joaquin On Your Gutters

As of Wednesday, tropical storm Joaquin has officially turned into a hurricane. Weather services predict that it will hit the mid-Atlantic and northward with potential to hit the New Jersey-Pennsylvania area by Sunday/Monday morning. This storm has the possibility to produce winds as high as 90-100 MPH.

This path is still uncertain and can change at any time. However, it is important that you and your home are prepared.

Joaquin & Your Gutters

Although your home and gutter systems are made to withstand such weather conditions, here are some potential damages that can occur to your gutter systems in a storm of this intensity:

  1. High winds, heavy rainfall, and falling debris and branches can potentially bring your gutters down.
  2. Possible overflow can happen with these heavy amounts of rainfall.
  3. Flooding around the foundation of your home can occur.
  4. High winds can cause excessive amounts of smaller debris to fly around raising potential for gutter clogs.

Preparation For The Storm

Here are some ways to prepare and potentially avoid this damage:

  1. Make sure your gutters are properly secured. Have a professional come in to look at and refasten them before this weekend.
  2. If your gutters often overflow in a heavy storm, this could mean that they are too small. There may be a clog somewhere.
  3. Address any clog, or heavy overflow, this could cause flooding around your foundation, which can cause potential water damage, and damage to surrounding landscape. Installing guards and/or having your gutters cleaned before a big storm can significantly decrease your chance of overflow.
  4. This excessive falling of debris and particles during a big storm, like Joaquin, can cause clogs. These can again be avoided by making sure your gutter system is fully cleaned before the big storm and/or by having guards.

Joaquin’s Path

As of right now, the predicted path of storm Joaquin passes through the east coast hitting NJ, PA, NY, and VA on the way. Use the above warnings as a means of measuring what repairs you may need. We can help to access your gutter system afterwards. If you have not had the time to prepare, we can assist you with the repairs afterwards.

“Regardless of the ultimate outcome of Joaquin’s path, portions of the East Coast will still see multiple impacts from the evolving large-scale weather pattern, including flooding rainfall, gusty winds, high surf, beach erosion and some coastal flooding,” the Weather Channel says.

What The Pros Say

Making sure our clients are prepared, as well as educated for such situations is important to us. We recently began an “Ask the Professional” webinar series where we have other professionals come in for a Q&A session to help educate our followers on things such as basement flooding, roof maintenance, and remodeling.

Please be safe in the storm and contact us today to get your gutters ready for Joaquin!