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Hurricane season is in full impact as Hurricane Francine, a Category 1 hurricane, is anticipated to make landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday.
Hurricanes could cause important property injury; Hurricane Harvey broken greater than 185,000 properties and destroyed 9,000 in 2017, the Texas Department of Public Safety mentioned within the days after the Category 4 storm hit the state. TIME spoke with an skilled about how owners can shield their property in preparation for a storm.
Hurricane season often runs from June via November, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has mentioned that this 12 months’s “atmospheric and oceanic situations have set the stage for an especially energetic hurricane season that might rank among the many busiest on report.” Earlier this summer time, Hurricane Beryl grew to become the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever within the Atlantic Ocean.
Here’s tips on how to put together your private home for hurricanes.
Trim timber, and board up home windows
Tim Temple, the Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance, says it’s greatest observe to start out getting your property prepared for hurricane season forward of time by trimming again timber and tree limbs which can be near your property. He provides that owners ought to be certain they get rid of tree limbs correctly, in any other case it might grow to be particles throughout a storm that might injury their property or surrounding properties. He provides that folks safe out of doors furnishings that might grow to be particles in the course of the storm as properly.
Read More: Why Beryl’s ‘Unprecedented’ Timing Is a Sign of Climate Change’s Impact on Extreme Weather
Any uncovered home windows or doorways must be boarded up with plywood or different materials, Temple says.
“Look at your private home and assume what could possibly be broken by flying particles, after which take applicable measures,” he says.
Take pictures—earlier than and after
Before a hurricane hits, Temple advises that folks take numerous pictures of each the inside and exterior of their properties, together with: furnishings, electronics, clothes, the roof, home windows, doorways, and so forth. He says it’s a wise precaution within the occasion that your private home suffers injury.
“It helps make the [insurance] claims course of smoother for you in case you’re capable of doc what was broken with photos of what it appeared like earlier than,” Temple says.
If folks must evacuate due to a hurricane, they need to wait till authorities clear the world earlier than returning to their property. Once they return, Temple says they need to comparatively shortly survey the injury to their property and make changes to stop any additional injury from occurring.
“We have an obligation to safe our property from extra injury,” he says. “For instance, in case you come again to your private home and also you’ve received a window or a door that’s been blown out, or perhaps you’ve gotten some injury to your roof that might permit water to come back in, safe that.”
He provides folks ought to maintain receipts of any bills they incur securing their dwelling post-storm to incorporate of their insurance coverage declare.
Check your insurance coverage coverage
While most property insurance coverage insurance policies embody protection for wind-related damages, equivalent to hurricanes, how a lot protection is obtainable varies relying in your plan, in accordance with Temple. He advises everybody to learn over their insurance policies fastidiously, name their insurance coverage firm with any questions, and file their claims as shortly as doable.
“Most folks discover it boring; I get it,” Temple says about insurance coverage insurance policies. “But it is crucial. It’s a coverage that’s defending, for lots of people, the most important valued asset that they’ve and so I believe it’s necessary for folks to really perceive, [to the] better of their capacity, what they’re shopping for.”
