Power awning if fabric tears

I have not seen this question asked but then again, I may have missed it. When we were on a trip with an older trailer with a manual pull out awning, we were on the road so the awning was retracted when a passer by wanted us to pull over. We did and found the top of the fabric on the awning was tearing and the brackets were starting to fall down on the side of the trailer. I had some plastic tie wraps and good old duct tape and secured the brackets after I cut off all the fabric so we could continue on with our trip.
My question is...on the new power awnings, there are no holes through the support arms so if the fabric holding the awning next to the trailer starts to come apart, how do we secure the arms against the trailer? I know, a lot of words for a simple question but I sure would like to know what to do if this happens.
Much thanks,
Curly