2026-03-18 6 min read
Eastern North Carolina doesn't get a pass on severe weather. Grifton and the surrounding Pitt County area have lived through some of the worst storms on record. Floyd in 1999, Matthew in 2016, Florence in 2018. These weren't distant events. Grifton's low-lying terrain along Contentnea Creek puts it in a legitimate flood-risk zone, and the town knows firsthand what it means to deal with the aftermath. The supermarket here was forced to close after flood damage from Hurricane Florence and didn't reopen until a new grocery came to town in 2023.
After a serious storm. whether it's a named hurricane, a tropical system dumping rain for days, or a fast-moving line of severe thunderstorms. your garage door is one of the first things worth checking. It takes a beating that most homeowners don't think about until it stops working.
A garage door is the largest moving part on your home. It's also one of the most exposed. High winds can bow panels, bend tracks, or knock a door completely off its horizontal rails. Heavy rain drives water under and around the bottom seal, soaking the bottom panels and hardware. Flooding. even a few inches pooling in the driveway. can saturate the weatherstripping, corrode the bottom brackets, and leave debris jammed in the tracks.
There's also a less obvious risk: power surges during and after storms can damage the circuit board inside your garage door opener. If your power flickered multiple times during the storm, your opener may have taken a hit even if the door itself looks fine. Before you run your opener after a storm, it's worth doing a visual inspection first.
For a broader look at how to prepare your system before storm season, our post on preparing your garage door for storm season covers pre-storm steps in detail. This post is about what to do after.
Don't rush to hit the wall button the moment power comes back on. A damaged track or bent panel can cause a door to jump the rails, which creates a dangerous situation fast. Take five minutes to walk through this checklist first.
Stand back and look at both vertical and horizontal tracks from the side. You're looking for bends, gaps between the track and the wall bracket, or sections that have pulled away from their mounting hardware. Even a small bend in a vertical track can cause the door to bind or derail.
The bottom panel and bottom seal take the most direct abuse from wind-driven rain and debris. Check for: - Cracked or splintered panel sections (common on older steel doors with surface rust) - A torn, curled, or dislodged bottom weather seal - Debris packed into the gap between the door and the floor, Water staining or warping on wood-composite doors
Torsion springs sit above the door on a horizontal bar; extension springs run parallel to the horizontal tracks on each side. After a storm, look for springs that appear stretched unevenly, cables that are frayed or have jumped off their drum, or a door that sits visibly lower on one side than the other. Do not attempt to adjust springs or cables yourself. these components are under extreme tension and require professional tools to work on safely.
Before you run the door up and down repeatedly, test your safety sensors. Place a 2x4 flat on the floor in the path of the door and send it down. It should reverse immediately on contact. If it doesn't, your sensor alignment may have shifted during the storm. Our guide on auto-reverse sensors and family safety explains how these systems work and how to spot a misaligned sensor.
If everything looks clear visually, open the door manually first using the red emergency release cord. Lift it by hand to feel for resistance, binding, or unusual sounds. If it moves smoothly, reconnect the opener and run it on power at slow speed while watching the door through its full range of travel.
Be honest with yourself about what you're looking at. Some storm damage is straightforward. a torn seal, a mud-packed track, a sensor that shifted two inches. These are manageable. Other damage is not.
Call a professional when you see: - Any track that is bent, separated from the wall, or visibly out of alignment, A spring that appears broken, stretched, or unwound, Panels that are severely dented or cracked in a way that affects the door's structure, A door that won't move manually even after releasing the emergency cord, An opener that makes noise but doesn't move the door
Homeowners closer to Kinston or out toward Greenville deal with similar post-storm scenarios, and the same rule applies: if you're not sure, it's cheaper to have someone look at it than to force a damaged system and turn a repair into a replacement. Garage Door Grifton handles post-storm assessments. contact us to get on the schedule after a significant weather event, especially during active storm seasons.
The FAQ page has answers to common questions about wind-rated doors and what options exist for homes in flood-prone areas. If your door took real structural damage from a recent storm and you're looking at replacement rather than repair, the size measurement guide will help you get accurate dimensions before you start shopping. getting those numbers right avoids costly ordering mistakes.
Grifton is a resilient community. Storms come through, people clean up, and life continues. Having a clear plan for your garage door after severe weather is just part of being prepared in Eastern North Carolina.
My power is back on but my garage door opener won't respond to the remote or wall button. Is it storm damage? Possibly. Power surges during storms can damage the logic board inside the opener unit. First, check that the opener is still plugged in and that any outlet GFCI hasn't tripped. Try unplugging the opener for 30 seconds and plugging it back in to reset it. If it still doesn't respond, the control board may need to be replaced. that's a repair a technician can diagnose quickly.
There's a small bend in my garage door track after the storm. Can I just bend it back? For very minor cosmetic bends in the flat back section of a track, careful use of pliers sometimes works. But if the bend is near a roller path or has caused the track to pull away from its wall bracket, leave it alone. Forcing a door through a misaligned track risks derailing the door entirely, which is both dangerous and more expensive to fix.
How much flooding does it take to damage a garage door? Even a few inches of standing water is enough to soak the bottom seal, corrode the lower brackets, and leave grit in the track that accelerates wear. If your garage had significant water intrusion, rinse the tracks, dry the bottom of the door thoroughly, and check the weatherstripping. If the floodwater was deep enough to reach the opener motor unit mounted on the ceiling track, that unit needs to be inspected before use.