What Is Covered Under Hurricane Insurance?

If you already live on the East or Gulf Coast, you are well aware of when hurricane season starts and ends. For those of you who are doing some research before you move, here’s the skinny: hurricane season runs from June to October, and peak season is from August to October.

Homes inland from the coasts can experience high winds but typically not flooding, which is taken into account by insurance companies when they assess you for a quote. So, you don’t need to know the wind patterns for your area, but you do need to know that your insurance company will know this data, and it will affect the price of your premiums. 

It is also important to know when hurricane season occurs. Most insurance brokers will not issue hurricane insurance if a storm is imminent, which is the case for most of the hurricane season. This is why it’s important to be proactive and get your hurricane insurance in place before the storms set in. 

You may be surprised to realize that your hurricane insurance does not cover wind damage. Every policy is different, but generally, if you have a coastline home, your hurricane insurance won’t cover wind damage caused by a hurricane. This is definitely a drawback for homeowners but from an insurer’s perspective, it’s a decision that’s absolutely necessary to stay in business. Otherwise, insurance companies that offer hurricane insurance would not be able to stay in business.

Inland homes often have wind damage rolled into their hurricane coverage, however. 

Check whether your policy has “pooled” flood and hurricane coverage, a common practice that is more affordable than paying for each separately.

As with wind damage, it is entirely possible that flood damage is not covered by your hurricane insurance. If you live in a hurricane zone, flooding is common even if your house has not been directly hit by the hurricane. Just one inch of water can cause an average of $8,000 in damage to your home, so it’s worth investigating whether your insurance has pooled hurricane, wind, and flood damage coverage.

Almost certainly not. Insurance companies do not cover you for earthquakes, and mudslides are considered to be in the same category of events, which is an “earth movement.” However, if mud didn’t fall onto your house and instead was flowing into your home, it’s called a “mudflow” and is likely covered under your flood insurance. 

Probably not, unfortunately. You could lose a great deal of food in a power outage, and you can have leak damage from your freezer (if you are not on site during the event). You could also have damage related to a basement sump pump not operating in the event of power outage. None of these circumstances are covered under hurricane Insurance, even if the power outage was caused by a named hurricane.

As you can see, insurance companies split hairs when it comes to your coverage. This is why it’s important to be working with a trained professional when you are assessing different types of policies.