Tropical Storm Insurance for Homeowners

Tropical storms are common in the southeast, with storms hitting as far north as Maine and as far inland as Illinois. The storm has the status of any other severe storm in most places, and a standard homeowners policy will cover most damages. However, the occasional strong tropical storm has the potential to bring severe flooding, and that is an area where the average homeowners' policy will leave you without recourse.

A tropical storm is covered under a basic homeowners policy as another windstorm phenomenon in most situations. Still, some or all of the consequences of a tropical storm may be excluded, and the flooding that often accompanies such storms is never included in a typical package.

Flood insurance is typically only accessible through high-risk insurers or special pools overseen by state authorities, such as the FAIR plan. In those cases, all companies that sell home insurance in the state are required to contribute to the plan so that instead of one company taking extremely high losses when such an event occurs, the costs are distributed evenly across all insurers, limiting the impact on individual companies and making required coverage available to everyone, usually at a higher cost than usual.

Other than flooding, check your coverage for exclusions like lightning or hail damage. If your policy has such exclusions, call your insurance company and inquire about rider plans to fill in the gaps in your coverage; if your company does not offer such coverage, look for another. Apart from flood coverage, you should be able to receive the coverage you need from your insurance company without having to pay a lot of money, and if yours doesn't, it's a good idea to compare quotes from other companies to find one that does. You can get coverage for any disaster no matter where you reside, and most tropical storm damage should be reasonably straightforward to avoid.