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Storms, Fire, & Water Risks Explained by a North Texas Home Expert
Episode Overview
In this premiere episode of Know Your Home, host Dan O’Malley sits down with Daniel Cook, owner and operator of Cook DFW Roofing & Restoration, to answer a deceptively simple but critical question:
What are the biggest threats to your home—and how can you protect your family when they happen?
As a home construction, renovation, and restoration expert serving homeowners across Dallas–Fort Worth, Daniel Cook breaks down the three most common and costly dangers to North Texas homes: severe storms, fire, and water damage. Drawing from real-world experience, he explains why these events escalate so quickly, how much damage they can cause in minutes, and what homeowners can do before disaster strikes to reduce risk and improve outcomes.
Episode Summary & Highlights
- Why North Texas storms are uniquely destructive—and how hail, wind, and sideways rain damage roofs and exteriors
- How quickly storm damage can add up to tens of thousands of dollars
- The most overlooked fire safety tools every homeowner should have
- Why fire often causes the most expensive insurance claims
- The difference between flood damage and everyday water emergencies inside the home
- Why knowing your water shut-off location matters more than you think
- How preparation—not panic—keeps families safer during severe weather events
Full Episode Transcript
Dan: Your home is your most valuable asset, so it’s important to do everything you can to protect it and your family. What are the top three threats to my home?
Daniel: Well, Dan, that’s a great question. And believe it or not, thunderstorms wreck havoc on your home. They can really cause a lot of damage, followed up by fire, which can happen from storms or it could happen from interior of the home as well. And then lastly, floods, water damage, both from natural disasters as well as just regular water happening to break inside your own pipes, toilets overflowing, all kinds of different things like that.
Dan: And we need to know more about these situations. And in order to do that, you need to know that you’re talking to an expert. This is home expert Daniel Cook. He’s the owner and operations director at Cook DFW Roofing and Restoration, serving families in Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas. Daniel, why are storms such a menace to my home?
Daniel: Dan, they just come up so fast. And in the North Texas area especially, we are in a high, high densely populated region. We have a lot of homes that are stacked on top of each other. We have what’s called squall lines or dry lines that come through and they mix with the moisture coming up from the Gulf of America now. And when they do that, it just creates a lot of disturbance and that makes these storms pop.
And when they pop, you’re talking about winds up to 75, 80, 90 miles an hour. Not even tornatic winds, but just high, high straight line winds. Then on top of that, we have a large amount of volume of rain that comes down. And then with that wind, that rain comes in and it blows sideways sometimes.
Then we have hail that develops in some of these storms. And sometimes the hail can get up to two and three inches in diameter. So imagine it’s basically like a major league pitcher throwing baseballs at the side of your home consistently for 15 to 20 minutes. And so yeah, as far as your roof getting damaged, the windows, all your siding—things around your home that get broken—it’s amazing how much these storms can affect your home.
So a lot of times people think a storm’s coming and it’s going to rain or something like that, and they don’t understand how much damage can occur in a matter of 15 minutes to your home. You could be having $60,000–$70,000 worth of damage to your home. That by far is the number one biggest issue: how fast these storms can occur and how much damage they can cause in a matter of minutes.
You know, in 2025, they measure the size and the caliber of a storm by how much impact it caused in losses. And so when you get a billion dollar storm, that’s significant. And those numbers have been increasing over the years, obviously because the cost of everything’s raising up. But in the US in 2025, we suffered a billion dollar loss every 10 days.
Dan: That’s amazing.
Daniel: It is. It’s mindboggling. I mean, if you think 10 years ago, we had maybe 10 billion-dollar events. Now we’re getting one every 10 days. And that’s all natural disasters.
That means it could be coming from a flood. It could be coming from tornadoes. It could be coming from a large hail event, which is the most common. It could be coming from high wind up in the Midwest—they have a lot of high wind events. But all of these combined, and national wildfires—those are always a large one too—the amount of disasters we’re having and storms coming through is just mindboggling.
Dan: Yeah. And there’s a huge regional impact as well. Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, also known as Tornado Alley, saw significant hail activity contributing to large insured losses. It’s amazing that insurance companies still even operate in Tornado Alley.
Daniel: Well, that’s a whole bunch of government assistance now. I mean, states get with insurance providers, especially the large ones. They make it to where they want those insurance companies in there.
Now the rates obviously go up as the cost of business overall goes up. You know what insurance used to cost a couple of thousand dollars, let’s say 10 years ago. Now you’ve got rates averaging anywhere between four and six, even $7,000 a year on policies. So obviously those rates have to go up.
The cost of ownership of a home goes up, but you have to protect it. You have to have that insurance. And that’s what makes knowing your policy and what happens to your home so important. And that’s a whole other topic, but man, that can be really scary when you start looking at your insurance policies.
Dan: And this is just our premier episode of Know Your Home, presented by Cook DFW Roofing and Restoration, starring Daniel Cook, home expert. And we will be delving really deeply into the boring, tedious nature of insurance claims, but they are massively important.
Whether you’re financing your home or you’re paying cash, you need homeowners insurance. And that is something we all have to navigate. And it’s important to know as much as you can as a homeowner about that process and what the claim process is like. And we will jump into that topic in future episodes.
For now, we’re still talking about the top three threats to my home. And we’re starting with the storms. So, Daniel, what can I do to protect my family in a severe weather situation?
Daniel: Well, it’s always important when you have a family, especially little children. Pets are obviously important to the family. When you know you have something coming through—and majority of the time with technology now—it’s important to watch out and have some type of alert system set up at your house, whether it’s on your phone.
I know they make apps that will alert you and ding you when there’s storms coming around. I know there are radios that have alerts set up that you can keep inside your home. Obviously, if you’re watching TV, they break into regular channels, but not all the streaming that everybody does these days. So that’s what’s so important.
We’re not living in the 80s and the 90s anymore where they broke in and had the natural weather system come in and beep everything out. That just doesn’t happen because people don’t use those resources anymore.
So you need to set up something inside your house, either on your app or a NOAA radio inside your home that alerts you when storms are coming—because it can look beautiful outside. You’re thinking everything’s rosy, but within 20 minutes that dry line can come across and rip through your neighborhood really fast and catch you off guard.
So be prepared. Have some type of warning system set up for your home so you can get a hold of all the people. You need to know what’s going on.
When the storms are coming, and you know they are, be prepared. You need to have your designated place inside your home—a safety zone—that is ready and prepared. And that doesn’t mean it’s the coat closet you’re going to take three or four minutes to clear out. It needs to be a place everyone knows to go when you call or when a warning goes out.
Everybody knows they need to get in that closet or that bathroom. It’s an interior portion of your home on a lower floor. And why we say interior—we don’t want to sit on the exterior portion of a wall of a house because if your roof gets torn off, that structure gets weak. Those walls can collapse.
So we typically like that interior portion of the home. Under some stairs is another one. I’ve seen a lot of newer homes with closets connected under the stairs, and it gives you a really nice area that’s covered and completely surrounded.
And let’s be realistic: you’re in there maybe 5 to 10 minutes. If you’re really going to stay in there for a while, you want to be in there 10 minutes before, 10 minutes after. But let’s just say 15 to 20 minutes max.
You don’t need a pantry in there, but you may want bottles of water just in case. Maybe a toy to keep the kids calm. Keep the dogs entertained if you’re bringing pets in. Ideally it’s comfortable enough that everybody can relax and be safe through the storm.
Once it’s gone, get everybody out. If something significant happens to your home—tornado, heavy damage—when you get out of that room, be cautious. There could be live wires. There could be natural gas leaking. There could be all kinds of safety issues.
So you need to be cautious leaving your home and getting everybody out together. And once you get out, you need a reunion point outside—front yard, park across the street, somewhere in the neighborhood—and you need to stay together.
Don’t leave each other because it’s going to be chaotic. I’ve seen these pictures of events, and you can’t wrap your mind around it unless you drive through it. Debris everywhere, roads covered, first responders moving in, vehicles everywhere.
You’ve got to stay together, keep the family organized. Make sure everybody has good shoes on. There could be broken glass, construction materials, nails—shrapnel in the yard. You need to be protected.
I would always have some type of jacket. When you go into that safety room, act like when you come out you might not be able to get anything except what’s in that closet or on your body.
I can’t tell you how many pictures I’ve seen of people wearing shorts and a t-shirt and no shoes because they didn’t think the storm would hit. They ran into the closet and then came out and everything was gone.
There’s nothing worse than being unprepared and something significant like this happens. It’s scary. I can’t tell you raising my girls how many times we thought we were going to get hit, and the girls are freaking out, the wife is freaking out, everybody’s freaking out—and I’m like, “Everybody stay calm. Let’s get into our safety room. We’re all together. We’re going to be okay.”
Got the dogs in there. Lord, I can’t remember—I almost didn’t get a dog in there one time and all hell broke loose with the family. So you’ve got to have a plan for everything involved.
Dan: Yeah, it’s one of those things where daddy go get the dog and if you don’t have the dog, you don’t come back. [laughter]
Dan: And it also sounds like it’s a good idea—for that interior closet, bathroom, whatever—that you have some of those things ready to go. So if you don’t have much warning and you don’t have time to dress accordingly, when you go into that safe room you already have that stuff for every family member.
A jacket for everybody. Shoes for everybody. So if something catastrophic does happen, you can exit prepared and protected from all those things you mentioned.
Daniel: Yeah, 100%. If you have a large enough closet, you just said it perfectly. You need safety preparation: materials, clothing, shoes, a couple bottles of water—whatever you can. That’s your go room.
Dan: That’s your safety room. That’s your go materials basically.
Dan: And really, you could have a go bag you keep in that space. So if you have to bolt from the house quickly, all you do is grab that bag and it’s got those things for everyone. Otherwise you keep it in the bag in that room, and when you get in there you can pull it out, get everyone dressed, ready to rock and roll.
Daniel: Yeah.
Dan: The second biggest threat to my home is fire. With an average claim of over $88,000 from 2019 to 2023, fire in the home—often caused by cooking accidents, faulty wiring, and heating equipment issues—is the costliest threat to the home. What three tools do I need to protect my home and my family from a fire?
Daniel: The most important are fire extinguishers—downstairs and upstairs if you have a two-story home. Next is a fire blanket. Not many people have seen those. They come in a little package and they’re designed to wrap around your body if you need to evacuate and there are flames around you. It helps reduce burns if you’re walking through a fire.
And then lastly, if you have a two-story home and you can’t get downstairs safely, you need an emergency ladder system you can deploy out of a window so you can escape without going through the fire.
Dan: So let’s dig in deeper to the fire extinguishers because there’s a lot of good information you have about those.
Fires are one of the scariest things because they catch everybody off guard. Storms—like we talked about—we can usually see coming. We get warned. A fire, you may look up and all of a sudden you were cooking and there’s a fire in the oven.
You open the door, it gives it oxygen, it spreads. Now it’s in your countertops or cabinets. You’re trying to figure out what to do, and you panic. You might have a grease fire and throw water on it—which makes it worse.
So if you’re not prepared, you don’t think about suffocating it with a towel, or using baking soda, or having the right fire extinguisher.
Daniel: Exactly. Fires catch you off guard, and they usually happen at the least expected time. So number one: fire extinguisher.
But fire extinguishers are different. Some are designed for cooking fires, some for wood, some for metal, some for chemicals. There’s a chart that explains what type you need.
They also make combination fire extinguishers, which are great for residential use so you don’t need five different ones. Those are easy to keep in a pantry or under the sink. You want to be able to get to one within 30 seconds or less.
You also need to know what it does when you pull the trigger. You pull the pin, aim at the base of the fire, press the handle, and sweep left to right like you’re painting. Cover the whole area. Don’t try to be delicate.
Yes, it’s messy. But it’s better than losing your house.
And you can test one in the backyard. They’re not expensive. You can pick one up for $25, $30, $40. There’s nothing wrong with practicing so you know what it does—because a fire won’t wait while you read instructions.
Dan: I think that’s huge. Fire won’t wait for you to read the label. Practice so you can move fast.
And I want to thank you because I didn’t realize there were different types of fire extinguishers. All I knew is they’re red. I knew how to use one because I’ve used one, but I didn’t know there were different types. So thank you.
Daniel: That’s not just you. That’s why we’re doing this podcast. We want educated homeowners—new homeowners, longtime homeowners, people who’ve never heard this stuff.
Fire extinguishers are important. But also—if you have a two-story home, people ask, “Why do I need one upstairs? I’m not cooking up there.”
But what if a fire comes from the attic? What if lightning hits your home and the fire starts near a walk-in attic by a bedroom, which is common? What if it blocks you from getting out?
So fire extinguishers upstairs matter. And I’ve read studies suggesting centralized placement near exits, near the stairs. Some even say one in each bedroom closet. That might feel excessive, but there’s nothing wrong with being prepared. You can’t put a price on your kids or your family.
So: fire extinguishers, fire blankets, emergency ladders if you have a two- or three-story home. Anything else?
Dan: Anything we missed for fire protection?
Daniel: Yeah—bonus one. A lot of people overlook smoke detectors. And another that many don’t have: a carbon monoxide detector. Carbon monoxide is dangerous because you can’t smell it. It’s an invisible killer. People pass away in the middle of the night from a CO leak. So yes, you must have detectors in your home.
Dan: Carbon monoxide—that’s the bonus from Know Your Home and Daniel Cook.
So we’ve covered storms, we’ve covered fire, now water. Water and floods do not like houses. Non-weather related water damage can lead to major damage and mold problems, with an average insurance claim of $15,400 from 2019 to 2023.
And keep in mind: standard home insurance doesn’t cover flood damage typically. That requires a separate policy.
Okay. So Daniel—when it comes to water and flooding, what can I do to protect my home from water emergencies?
Daniel: Water is very scary, especially when large quantities come down.
We all saw what happened in the Hill Country this last summer around July 4th. A lot of people perished because they didn’t have the alarm systems they needed, and it happened early in the morning. Nobody saw it coming.
Natural disaster flooding goes back to having an alert system—phone alerts, a NOAA radio if you’re camping, things like that. If you live in a flood-prone area, you need to be prepared. It doesn’t mean it’ll flood every year. Some places hadn’t flooded in over a hundred years. But it’s possible—that’s why it’s a flood plain.
Be knowledgeable about where you live or where you’re visiting. Because once floods start, they don’t stop. They can rise quickly. It’s scary.
You see homes near rivers and lakes—people climbing onto roofs waiting for rescue. You need an action plan for any event that could happen.
And beyond natural disasters, you have everyday water emergencies: pipes breaking, toilets overflowing, dishwashers leaking.
We had that massive freeze in 2021, freezing pipes and sprinkler lines. Homes flooded because people didn’t know where the water shutoff was or didn’t have the key to turn it off.
You need to know your shutoff. You need to have the tool. If a valve breaks under a sink or toilet, and you don’t know how to stop the water, it’s going to be really bad—water ruins floors, baseboards, wood, and it happens fast.
A lot of water failures come from small valves wearing out over time—plastic parts. You might want to replace them every five years to stay ahead of it.
Dan: I’ve been there. In 2021 my home froze, we were staying at a hotel a few miles away, and we saw on our cameras there was a river flowing through our living room from our kitchen.
We came home trying to turn the water off, but it was my first house. I didn’t know where the shutoff was. So I’m shoveling water out the front door, and it’s still coming. I was stuck in that loop for about an hour until the city could come out—because they needed a special key to shut it off and I didn’t have it.
And I don’t even know if Home Depot sells that, and even if they did, they weren’t open at 1:00 a.m.
Once the city shut it off, I kept shoveling and it finally made a difference—but the damage was already done.
Daniel: Oh yeah.
Dan: Floors ruined. Baseboards. They had to do what I now know is a flood cut—18 inches up the wall where water hit. It had to be completely torn out and redone. It was an absolute mess. Water is no joke.
Daniel: Um—
Dan: Not only is it dangerous, but it’s also so damaging. [laughter]
Daniel: Yeah. And it can wreak havoc on your home.
These are just three of the top threats. We’re just—pardon the pun—dipping our toe in the water when it comes to knowing your home, protecting it, and keeping your family safe.
And you pointed out earlier—one more time—in 2025 the United States suffered a billion dollar disaster every 10 days. That’s why it’s so important to know your home.
We’ll see you next time.
About Cook DFW Roofing & Restoration
Cook DFW Roofing & Restoration helps educate homeowners across Dallas–Fort Worth on protecting, repairing, and restoring their homes. With decades of combined hands-on experience in roofing, construction, and insurance-related restoration, the Cook DFW team focuses on education, transparency, and long-term protection—not quick fixes.