Storm Watch

We're tracking 2 named storms right now. Here's what it could mean for your home.

Storm tracks come from the National Hurricane Center and weather warnings from the National Weather Service. What a storm actually costs you comes from your own policy: whether your hurricane deductible is a percentage of your home's value instead of a flat amount, whether wind and hail carry a separate deductible, and whether your roof gets paid for new or paid for its age.

  • Live tracks and warnings
  • Check your ZIP
  • Your own deductible quoted
Poli the clay macaw in a raincoat with an umbrella pointing at a clay storm-track map

Loading live storm positions…

Cones and forecast points come from the National Hurricane Center; shaded outlines are active National Weather Service warnings — tornado, thunderstorm, flood, winter. A cone shows where a centre may track; damage regularly happens well outside it.

Check a ZIP

Is your ZIP in the cone?

Type a five-digit ZIP. We measure it against the active forecast tracks and pull the current National Weather Service watches and warnings for that spot. The ZIP is used for the answer and then dropped — nothing is stored.

PoliVision

Photograph the house while the sky is still clear

Dated pre-storm photos are the cheapest claim evidence you will ever collect. Point your phone at each room and elevation and Poli writes the inventory — items, brands, replacement bands, condition notes. Photos are read once and never stored.

Start my inventory

Before landfall

Six things worth doing while the power is still on

Take photos of every room and all four sides of the house

Photos taken before the storm are the cheapest proof you will ever have.

Find out what your hurricane deductible is in dollars

If it's a percentage of your home's value, it's a much bigger number than the flat one beside it.

Check whether you have flood coverage at all

Homeowners policies usually leave out flooding, and a new flood policy takes about a month to start.

Save your policy number and your carrier's claim phone number on your phone

Take a screenshot so you still have them if the power and signal go out.

Start keeping receipts before you leave

If your policy helps with staying somewhere else, it pays you back for what you actually spent.

Find the water, gas and breaker shutoffs

Turning the water off fast is the difference between a wet floor and a ruined first floor.

Not a hurricane. Still a claim.

Derechos, hail swaths, tornado outbreaks and hard freezes are written under different clauses

A storm does not need a name to take a roof off. When nothing was named, the hurricane deductible usually never engages — a separate wind and hail deductible, a cosmetic damage endorsement, or a freeze condition does the work instead.

A derecho is a wind loss, not a named storm

Straight-line winds in a derecho or bow-echo squall regularly run 80 to 100 mph across hundreds of miles without a name attached. Because no storm was named, the hurricane deductible usually never engages and the ordinary all-other-perils or wind/hail deductible applies instead — which can cut either way depending on which number is larger.

Ask Poli: “Which deductible applies to wind damage from a storm that was never named?”

Many inland policies carry a separate wind/hail deductible

Across the plains, the Midwest, and the Southeast, wind and hail are frequently written with their own deductible — a flat $2,500 or $5,000, or 1% to 2% of the dwelling limit — sitting beside a much smaller all-other-perils figure. It is a different line on the declarations page than the hurricane deductible.

Ask Poli: “Is there a separate wind and hail deductible, and what is it in dollars?”

A cosmetic damage exclusion can turn a dented roof into nothing

Cosmetic-damage endorsements generally exclude hail dents to metal roofing, siding, gutters, and vents where the material still keeps water out. The damage is real and visible; the endorsement is what decides whether the form treats it as a loss.

Ask Poli: “Does this policy have a cosmetic damage exclusion, and what does it apply to?”

Roof age schedules apply to hail the same way they apply to hurricanes

Roof surfacing schedules and actual-cash-value roof endorsements pay a depreciated amount based on the roof's age, regardless of what caused the damage. On a fifteen-year-old shingle roof after a hail swath, the schedule can matter more than the coverage limit.

Ask Poli: “Is my roof paid at replacement cost or actual cash value, and is there an age schedule?”

Tornado damage is usually read as windstorm, then split by what water did

Homeowners forms typically cover tornado damage under windstorm rather than as its own peril. The split that follows a tornado is the same one that follows a hurricane: wind and wind-driven rain through a covered opening on one side, ground water and flooding on the other.

Ask Poli: “How does this policy handle wind-driven rain that entered through storm damage?”

Frozen pipes are often covered only if the heat was maintained

Freeze wording commonly excludes water damage from burst pipes when the dwelling was vacant or unoccupied and reasonable care was not taken to maintain heat or shut off and drain the system. Winter-storm losses turn on that condition more than on the temperature outside.

Ask Poli: “What does this policy require of me for a frozen-pipe loss to be covered?”

Weight of ice, snow, or sleet is separate from water backing up

Many forms cover collapse or damage from the weight of ice and snow, while damage from water that backed up under shingles or through an ice dam can be limited or excluded. Two clauses, two answers, one winter storm.

Ask Poli: “Does this policy cover weight of ice and snow, and how does it treat ice dams?”

A multi-day outage raises a sublimit, not the dwelling limit

Refrigerated-property or spoilage coverage, where it exists, is usually a small sublimit such as $500, and some forms only respond when the interruption happened on the premises. Ice-storm outages are frequently off-premises utility failures.

Ask Poli: “Is spoilage from a power outage covered, and does an off-premises failure count?”

Smoke damage and evacuation are different clauses

Fire forms generally cover smoke damage to the interior, while an evacuation order with no damage to the house usually falls under civil-authority-prohibits-use wording, which is time-limited and often a percentage of the loss-of-use limit.

Ask Poli: “What does this policy pay for smoke damage, and what does civil authority coverage cover?”

Inland flash flooding is still flood

A stalled thunderstorm complex or an atmospheric river can put water in a house hundreds of miles from any coast. Homeowners forms generally exclude surface water and rising water no matter what produced it, which is why inland flood policies exist at all.

Ask Poli: “Does this policy exclude surface water or rising water, and do I carry a flood policy?”

How storm clauses generally read

What filed forms usually say — and the question only your policy answers

Your hurricane deductible is often a percentage of your home's value

Near the coast, most policies charge a separate deductible for hurricanes — often 1%, 2% or 5% of the amount your house is insured for. On a $400,000 house, 2% means paying $8,000 yourself before the policy pays anything. That can be many times the flat deductible printed right beside it.

Ask Poli: “What is my hurricane deductible in dollars, and when does it apply instead of my regular one?”

Wind and water are two different policies

Homeowners insurance usually pays for wind damage but not for flooding — and that includes water pushed in from the ocean or rising up from the ground. Flood coverage is a separate policy, and a new one normally takes about a month to start, so it can't be added once a storm has a name.

Ask Poli: “Does this policy cover flooding or storm surge, and where does it say so?”

Some coastal policies don't cover wind at all

In parts of Texas, Florida and along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, wind is left out of the homeowners policy and bought separately from a state plan or a specialty company. That means two policies, two deductibles and two numbers to call.

Ask Poli: “Does this policy cover wind and hail, or is that on a separate policy?”

Spoiled food is usually covered only up to a small amount

If your policy helps with food that spoils when the power goes out, the limit is normally small — often around $500. And some policies only help when the power failed at your house, not when the outage happened out on the utility lines.

Ask Poli: “Does my policy pay for spoiled food after a power outage, and how much?”

Leaving before the storm and being unable to come home are two different things

Most policies help with the extra cost of living elsewhere once storm damage makes the house unlivable, and some also help when officials won't let you return home for a while. Leaving on your own before the storm arrives often isn't covered by either.

Ask Poli: “If we evacuate and can't come home, what does my policy pay toward staying somewhere else, and for how long?”

What a fallen tree costs you depends on what it landed on

Most policies only pay to haul a tree away if it damaged something they cover, and the amount for removal is often capped at $500 or $1,000. Fences, sheds and detached garages usually come out of a separate, smaller pot of money than the house itself.

Ask Poli: “A tree came down on the house and the fence — what does my policy pay to remove it and rebuild?”

Some policies pay for a new roof, others pay what your old one was worth

Plenty of coastal policies subtract for the age of your roof, so a fifteen-year-old roof is paid at what it was worth today rather than what a new one costs. That's usually decided on one of the extra pages attached to your policy, not in the main booklet.

Ask Poli: “Does my policy pay the full cost of a new roof, or subtract for its age?”

Ten minutes of photos before the storm is free proof

Walk through every room, then walk around all four sides of the house, and photograph the roof from the ground plus the labels on your big appliances. Photos taken before the storm settle the argument about what was already damaged — which is what a lot of denied wind claims come down to.

Ask Poli: “What does my policy require me to document or prove after damage?”

Every policy has a clock on it

Policies generally ask you to report damage quickly, make the urgent repairs that stop things getting worse, and leave the damage where it is until someone has looked at it. Some states also set a hard deadline for reporting a hurricane claim at all.

Ask Poli: “What am I required to do after damage, and how long do I have to report a hurricane claim?”

Rebuilding to today's building rules can cost more than your policy pays

After a big storm, today's building rules often require straps, thicker sheathing or a higher foundation your house never had. Some policies set aside extra money for that, usually a share of what the house is insured for. Without it, those upgrades come out of your pocket.

Ask Poli: “Does my policy pay extra for rebuilding to current building codes, and how much?”

By state

Coastal states where wind and flood are written differently

Prepare in Texas

Much of the coast carries windstorm on a separate policy, often through the state pool.

Prepare in Louisiana

Named-storm deductibles are commonly percentage-based, and flood sits in a separate policy.

Prepare in Mississippi

Coastal counties frequently see wind and hail written out of the homeowners form.

Prepare in Alabama

Wind mitigation credits and separate wind deductibles are both common along the Gulf.

Prepare in Florida

Hurricane deductibles run 2% to 5% of the dwelling limit, and roof payment basis varies by endorsement.

Prepare in Georgia

Coastal counties often carry a separate named-storm deductible inland of the barrier islands.

Prepare in South Carolina

Wind pool coverage and percentage hurricane deductibles are both widespread on the coast.

Prepare in North Carolina

Beach Plan wind coverage and separate named-storm deductibles are common east of I-95.

Prepare in Virginia

Hurricane deductibles are typically triggered by a named storm reaching the state.

Prepare in New York

Downstate policies often carry a hurricane deductible triggered by wind speed thresholds.

Prepare in New Jersey

Shore counties commonly carry percentage hurricane deductibles and separate flood policies.

Prepare in Hawaii

Hurricane coverage is usually a separate policy from the homeowners form.

Poli the macaw holding a wand

Storm tracks are public. Your deductible isn't.

Upload your policy and Poli quotes the wind, hail and hurricane wording in your own document.

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