Does homeowners insurance cover hurricane damage?

Standard homeowners policies generally cover wind damage from a hurricane, but they exclude flood and storm surge. Flood coverage requires a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) or a private flood insurer. After a hurricane, insurers scrutinize whether each item of damage was caused by wind (covered) or rising water (excluded), which is why pre-storm documentation of your home's condition matters so much.

What is a hurricane deductible?

In many coastal states, policies carry a separate hurricane or named-storm deductible calculated as a percentage of your dwelling coverage (commonly 1% to 10%) rather than a flat dollar amount. On a $400,000 home, a 2% hurricane deductible is $8,000. Check your declarations page now so the number doesn't surprise you after a loss.

What should I photograph before a hurricane?

Photograph your roof from multiple angles, all four exterior elevations, fencing, outbuildings, HVAC equipment, and every room inside — plus a narrated video walkthrough opening closets, cabinets, and drawers. Capture model and serial numbers of major appliances and electronics, and store everything in the cloud so it survives even if your home and phone do not.

What if the storm is coming and I never documented my home?

Do an abbreviated version now: one continuous narrated video walkthrough of every room and the exterior takes under 20 minutes and is dramatically better than nothing. Even after a loss, you can still support your claim with receipts, bank and credit card records, photos from social media or old listings, and witness statements — but contemporaneous documentation is always stronger.

Document Your Home Before the Storm: A Property Adjuster’s Pre-Hurricane Checklist | DeniedClaims.net

Hurricane Season · Before the Storm

Document Your Home Before the Storm: A Property Adjuster’s Pre-Hurricane Checklist

The photos and video you capture this week — before the first outer band arrives — will decide more about your claim payout than almost anything you do after the storm.

Why listen to us: this checklist was written from the adjuster’s side of the table — over a decade of nationwide property adjusting and thousands of Xactimate estimates on residential and large commercial losses. We know exactly what documentation makes a claim easy to pay, because we’ve been the ones deciding.

Here is something most homeowners never hear until it’s too late: when a hurricane claim gets underpaid or denied, the fight is almost never about whether the storm happened. It’s about what your home was like before it hit. Was the roof already worn? Did that fence already lean? Did you really own a 75-inch television, a standing freezer full of food, three closets of clothing? After the storm, the burden of proving all of that falls on one person — you. And the single most powerful evidence you can hold is documentation created before the loss, when no claim existed and no one had any reason to exaggerate.

The good news: complete pre-storm documentation takes one afternoon. Here is the checklist, in priority order — if a storm is already in the forecast and you only have an hour, do steps 1 through 3 and put everything in the cloud.

The Checklist

Record a narrated video walkthrough of every room

One continuous video, walking slowly through the entire home, narrating as you go. Open every closet, every cabinet, every drawer. Pan across bookshelves, electronics, tools, clothing. Say the date out loud at the start. Include the garage, attic storage, and any outbuildings.

Walk slowly — fast panning makes contents unidentifiable later.
Narrate brands and details: “Samsung refrigerator, purchased 2023.”
Don’t forget under sinks, the pantry, and the junk drawer — contents claims are built from exactly this kind of ordinary stuff.

From the adjuster’s deskA ten-minute walkthrough video settles contents disputes that otherwise drag on for months. When a homeowner produces pre-loss video, the contents negotiation is essentially over.

Photograph the roof and all four exterior elevations

The roof is where hurricane claims are won and lost. Insurers routinely attribute storm damage to pre-existing “wear and tear” — which is excluded. Your defense is a dated photo showing the roof’s condition before the storm.

Photograph the roof from the ground on all sides; from a second-story window or with a drone if you safely can. Never climb the roof yourself.
Shoot all four elevations (front, back, both sides) of the house, straight on.
Include fencing, gates, screen enclosures, sheds, gutters, and the AC condenser.
If you have recent roof work, photograph the invoice and permit too.

From the adjuster’s deskThe phrase you’re pre-empting is “pre-existing condition.” A dated photo of an intact roof taken two weeks before landfall is nearly impossible for a carrier to argue around.

Save your policy documents — and read your hurricane deductible now

Photograph or download your full policy and, most importantly, the declarations page. In coastal states, your policy likely carries a separate hurricane or named-storm deductible calculated as a percentage of your dwelling coverage — commonly 1% to 10% — not a flat dollar amount. On a $400,000 home, a 2% hurricane deductible is $8,000 out of pocket. Know that number before the storm, not after.

Save the declarations page, the full policy form, and any endorsements.
Note your carrier’s claims phone number and your policy number somewhere accessible without power or internet.

Capture model and serial numbers of big-ticket items

Photograph the data plates on appliances, HVAC equipment, water heaters, TVs, computers, and power tools. Photograph receipts for anything major you still have them for — and pull up purchase records in your email or store accounts and screenshot them.

From the adjuster’s deskSerial numbers move an item from “alleged” to “verified” instantly, and they let the estimate price the exact model you owned instead of a cheaper generic equivalent.

Build a simple contents inventory

A spreadsheet, a notes-app list, or a home-inventory app — the format doesn’t matter. Room by room, list items with approximate purchase year and value. Pair it with your walkthrough video and you’ve built the contents claim before the loss even exists. High-value items (jewelry, firearms, collectibles, instruments) deserve individual photos and, if you have them, appraisals — and check whether your policy’s special limits on those categories mean you need a scheduled endorsement.

Put everything in the cloud — tonight

Documentation stored only on your phone or a home computer can be destroyed by the same storm that destroys the house. Upload everything — video, photos, inventory, policy documents — to Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox, or email it to yourself. Off-site storage is the difference between evidence and a story about evidence.

Know your first moves after landfall

Pre-storm preparation includes knowing what you’ll do the day after. Three things, in order:

Photograph all damage before touching anything. Wide shots of each room and elevation first, then close-ups.
Then mitigate. Your policy requires you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage — tarp the roof, extract standing water, move undamaged contents. Keep every receipt; reasonable mitigation costs are generally reimbursable.
Log everything. Dates, times, names of everyone you speak with, and daily conditions. Our guide to keeping a water damage mitigation log walks through exactly how — the same log format works for any hurricane loss.

The wind vs. flood trap — read this even if you skip everything else

Standard homeowners policies cover wind damage from a hurricane. They exclude flood and storm surge — rising water requires a separate flood policy through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood carrier, and NFIP policies typically carry a 30-day waiting period, so this decision has to be made well before a storm is named.

After landfall, carriers dissect every item of damage into “wind” (covered) or “flood” (excluded) — and when a home took both, that line decides tens of thousands of dollars. Your pre-storm photos help here too: documentation of your home’s elevation, and post-storm photos showing water lines versus wind-driven openings, become the evidence that keeps covered wind damage from being written off as excluded flood.

If you’re in a surge zone and don’t know whether you carry flood coverage, checking that is more important than anything else on this page.

After the storm, everyone has a story. The homeowner with pre-loss documentation has a case.

If the storm is 48 hours out and you’ve done none of this

Don’t try to do it all. Do this: one continuous narrated video walkthrough, inside and out — twenty minutes. Photograph the roof from the ground and all four elevations — ten minutes. Photograph your declarations page — two minutes. Upload all of it to the cloud — five minutes. That’s under forty minutes, and it puts you ahead of the vast majority of policyholders your adjuster will meet after this storm.

Why insurers respect this documentation

It’s not sentiment — it’s evidence quality. Pre-loss documentation is created at a time when you had no claim and no motive, which makes it close to unimpeachable. It establishes the pre-storm condition of the roof and exterior, defeating wear-and-tear arguments. It proves ownership and condition of contents, defeating depreciation lowballs. And it signals to the carrier, from the first phone call, that this is a policyholder who documents — which, from the adjuster’s side of the table, changes how carefully a file gets handled.

Already dealing with a claim?

If a storm has already hit and you’re facing a slow, underpaid, or denied claim, our free AI claims assistant — built on real adjusting and Xactimate experience — can help you understand your estimate, your rights, and your next step.

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This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice, insurance advice, or a substitute for reading your own policy. Coverage terms, deductibles, and requirements vary by state, carrier, and policy form. Consult your policy documents and, where appropriate, a licensed professional in your state.