Hurricanes and home insurance: How hurricane insurance works

Protecting your home from a hurricane takes more than one policy, because no single product covers everything a storm does. You need homeowners insurance for wind and wind-driven rain, a separate flood policy for storm surge and rising water, and in the highest-risk coastal areas a dedicated windstorm policy. There is no standalone hurricane insurance you can buy, only this combination of coverages working together. The most expensive mistake is assuming your homeowners policy covers flooding — it never does.

There’s more to plan for than the policies themselves. Coastal homeowners policies usually carry a separate hurricane deductible, a percentage of your home’s insured value rather than a flat dollar amount, which means a larger share of the repair bill falls on you before coverage pays out. Figure out which of these three policies you need, understand what your deductible would cost you, and confirm everything is in place before a storm forms.

What does hurricane coverage actually include?

The three policies that together cover wind, wind-driven rain, storm surge, flooding, and sometimes sewer backup. Each type of damage is handled by a different policy, and the most important split is wind versus water. Homeowners covers wind, flood insurance covers rising water, and neither one covers the other.

Here’s how coverage divides across the three policies.

*In the highest-risk coastal zones, wind is excluded from the homeowners policy and must be covered separately.

Why does hurricane damage need more than one policy?

Hurricane damage needs more than one policy because wind and flooding are covered by two separate systems that were never combined. Private insurers cover wind through your homeowners policy, while the federal government covers flooding through the National Flood Insurance Program. Storm surge and rising water are never part of a homeowners policy, so you need both.

That divide dates to 1968, when Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program because private insurers wouldn’t cover flood risk. Wind coverage fractured later. After Hurricane Andrew caused $15.5 billion in insured losses in 1992, insurers realized coastal wind was far riskier than they had priced, and many began pulling back, pushing that risk onto homeowners and state programs. As stronger storms drive more insurers out of coastal markets, some states now run their own insurer of last resort for wind.

Does homeowners insurance cover hurricane damage?

Standard homeowners insurance covers hurricane wind and wind-driven rain in most of the country, but it never covers flooding, and in some high-risk coastal areas it won’t cover wind either. Water that blows in through a wind-damaged roof or window is generally covered, because the cause was wind. Water that rises from the ground is not.

However, if you live on the coast, you may not be covered. In higher-risk parts of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, hurricane wind may be excluded from a standard homeowners policy unless you add separate coverage. That means the storm’s most obvious damage, a torn-off roof or shattered windows, could be exactly what you’re not protected against. If that’s your situation, the fix is a separate windstorm policy.

What to do if your homeowners policy won’t cover hurricane wind

If your homeowners policy won’t cover wind, buy a separate windstorm policy to fill the gap, and confirm it’s active before hurricane season starts. Coastal insurers often strip wind out of standard policies, which leaves you exposed to the exact damage a hurricane does best, ripping off roofs and blowing out windows.

Start by checking your declarations page for a wind or hurricane exclusion. If you find one, here’s how to get covered.

• Ask your insurer to add wind back as an endorsement first, since that’s usually the easiest route.
• If they say no, shop private carriers that write standalone windstorm coverage where you live.
• If no private carrier will take you, go to your state’s insurer of last resort. Texas runs the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association for wind and hail on eligible coastal homes, and Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corporation does the same job.

Lock in the policy before hurricane season starts. Once a storm approaches, windstorm coverage can carry its own waiting period and binding restrictions that leave you unable to buy in time.

Does flood insurance cover hurricane damage?

A separate flood policy covers storm surge and any water that rises from the ground during a hurricane. Your homeowners policy won’t touch flood damage, so coastal homeowners almost always need both.

Most people buy through the NFIP, but a growing private market gives you another option. Before you pick one, know what a standard NFIP policy does and doesn’t do.

• It caps payouts at $250,000 for your home’s structure and $100,000 for your contents. Private insurers often sell higher limits.
• It won’t pay for additional living expenses, most basement improvements, decks, pools, or landscaping.
• It includes Increased Cost of Compliance coverage, which adds up to $30,000 to help you elevate or rebuild a home that floods badly or repeatedly.
• It takes effect 30 days after you buy it, with narrow exceptions, so you can’t grab a policy as a storm approaches.

How Risk Rating 2.0 changed flood premiums

FEMA rebuilt how it prices flood insurance. Risk Rating 2.0, fully in place since April 2023, is the biggest change to NFIP pricing since 1968, and it now prices each home on its own risk instead of its flood zone. That shift did two things to your bill.

• Rates climbed for many homeowners as FEMA started spotting risk even outside mapped flood zones, though the law caps most increases at 18% a year.
• The average NFIP policy runs about $926 a year as of mid-2025, but what you pay depends entirely on your property.

How much does it cost to insure against a hurricane?

The average homeowners policy costs about $2,601 a year nationwide, but hurricane risk drives that much higher on the coast. Rates range from $613 in Hawaii to $5,858 in Oklahoma, and in Florida and Louisiana, adding hurricane coverage alone costs roughly $4,500 more a year.

Where you live decides the size of that jump. In high-risk parts of Florida and Louisiana, a standard policy excludes hurricane damage, so you pay extra to add it back. In lower-risk areas where coverage is already built in, taking on more of the risk yourself can trim the bill slightly. The table shows both, based on $300,000 in dwelling coverage.

Florida homeowners pay the most in the country. At about $7,136 a year, a Florida policy runs more than ten times what a homeowner pays in Hawaii.

Your flood and windstorm policies cost extra on top of this. Windstorm coverage through the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association averages about $2,877 a year, while flood premiums have no single national price because FEMA now rates each home on its own risk rather than a flood-zone average.

When should you buy coverage before a hurricane?

You should buy hurricane coverage before June 1, the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. Two rules make last-minute coverage impossible:

• Once the government issues a tropical storm or hurricane watch, insurers stop writing new policies until the threat passes.
• Most flood policies don’t take effect for 30 days, so buying as a storm looms won’t help for that storm.

Even if there’s a calm forecast, you should still have coverage in place. The third quarter of 2025 was mild, with hurricane claims down about 95% from the year before, yet a single landfall can reverse that in a day.

How do you protect your home before a hurricane?

Your coverage applies whether you stay or evacuate, but taking reasonable steps to limit damage protects both your home and your claim. Before a storm hits, work through this list.

• Put up storm shutters or board windows with plywood
• Bring in loose outdoor items like furniture, grills, and trash cans
• Unplug appliances and turn off the electricity and main water valve
• Photograph or film every room to build a home inventory
• Take your insurance documents with you and tell someone outside the area where you’re going

How do you file a claim after a hurricane?

Document everything, contact your insurers right away, and expect to file separate claims for wind and flood damage. When a hurricane both damages your roof and floods your home, you file two claims with two insurers.

1. Photograph the damage before you move or repair anything
2. Contact each insurer, since homeowners, flood, and windstorm may be three different companies
3. Make temporary repairs to prevent further damage, and keep the receipts
4. Keep detailed records of every adjuster, call, and estimate, and don’t discard damaged property until it’s inspected
5. Negotiate if an offer seems low, or bring in a licensed public adjuster or your state regulator

Related Articles