Hurricane claims are won or lost largely on evidence that has to exist before the storm ever forms. The National Hurricane Center's official Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, and if you wait until a storm is named and tracking toward you to start documenting your home, you have already lost your best evidence: proof of what your home looked like before any damage occurred. Preparing now, while skies are clear, is the single highest-leverage thing you can do for a future claim.
Build your pre-season documentation now
Walk every room of your house and the full exterior with your phone camera, recording continuous video and narrating as you go, room by room, closet by closet, then the roof, siding, fence, deck, and any detached structures. Make sure the date stamp is visible or use an app that embeds it automatically. This single video, done properly, is the strongest evidence you can have of your home's pre-storm condition, because it makes it far harder for an insurer to argue that damage you are claiming already existed or never happened.
Do not just leave this video on your phone. Upload it to cloud storage, email it to yourself, or store it with a family member out of the storm's path. Phones get lost, damaged, or left behind during evacuations, and a phone sitting in floodwater does you no good when you need that footage six weeks later.
Know what your policy actually covers, and what it does not
Before hurricane season, pull your declarations page and actually read it, not just the cover letter. Two coverages matter most in a hurricane claim and both are frequently misunderstood:
- Named storm or hurricane deductible. In roughly nineteen coastal and Gulf states plus Washington, D.C., homeowner policies carry a separate, percentage-based deductible that applies only when damage comes from an officially named storm, distinct from your regular deductible. It typically runs 1% to 10% of your home's insured value, meaning a modest-sounding percentage can translate into a five-figure out-of-pocket cost on an average home.
- Additional living expense (ALE) coverage. If your home becomes unlivable, ALE reimburses the difference between your normal living costs and what you are spending temporarily on a hotel, rental, or meals out. Standard ALE limits run around 20% of your dwelling coverage, sometimes higher, and are capped by both a dollar amount and a time period.
Keep a physical or offline digital copy of your declarations page accessible without internet access; cell service and home Wi-Fi are often the first things to go in a hurricane.
