What is covered under hurricane insurance?

Homeowners insurance helps pay for additional living expenses if you move temporarily after a covered loss, such as a hurricane. Your policy may reimburse you for the cost of hotel and food expenses while your home is being repaired. The coverage limit for additional living expenses is sometimes a predetermined amount set by the insurance company, but you may have the option to increase the limits for more protection. There is no type of insurance that is specifically called “hurricane insurance.” Most home insurance policies cover damage caused by wind and rain caused by wind.

If you live in a place, hurricane area or not, that has a lot of flooding, you should consider buying flood insurance. Home insurers generally don't cover flood damage, so a separate flood insurance policy will be needed. Standard home insurance covers the structure of your home in the event of disasters such as hurricanes and windstorms, along with a number of other disasters. Flood and wind damage to your car is covered as long as you have comprehensive insurance in your auto policy.

And hopefully, you've purchased insurance to cover every realistic problem imaginable that a hurricane could bring. When it comes to hurricane protection, insurance policies for renters are just as important as policies for homeowners, but in two different circumstances. Learn about all the exclusions in your policy and talk to your insurance professional about purchasing coverage separately, or be prepared to pay out of pocket for damages that are excluded from your policy. According to the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), many insurers offer personal property coverage of 50 to 70% of the insured value of your home.

Unlike the standard “dollar deductible” of a homeowners policy, the deductible for hurricanes or windstorms is generally expressed as a percentage, usually 1 to 5 percent of the insured value of your home structure. Most renters policies don't cover damage caused by floods to your property, whether it's a hurricane or other storm. Home insurance doesn't cover damage caused by floods, so you'll need flood insurance to cover your home against storm surges. We provide a list of the 19 states and the District of Columbia where insurers require hurricane deductibles, along with links to state associations that offer a special hurricane coverage form for people who can't afford it or can't buy it anywhere else.

However, if your policy has a hurricane deductible, you'll have to pay that amount separately in a claim related to wind damage caused by hurricanes. Some coastal homeowners will need to add wind coverage in addition to flood and homeowner insurance to be fully covered against a hurricane, and this can be expensive. Your home insurance policy doesn't cover flood damage caused by hurricanes, but it may offer an endorsement of flood coverage that you can add to your policy.