Everything You Need Handled Before the Cone Points at You
Preparation is a series of small tasks completed in calm weather, not a scramble in the 48 hours before landfall.
Here is the hurricane preparedness checklist at a glance:
- Review your insurance policies early, since flood coverage carries a 30-day waiting period
- Build an emergency supply kit with water, food, extra batteries, and medications
- Store important documents in a waterproof container or airtight plastic bags
- Write an emergency plan that covers every family member, including pets
- Clear gutters, trim trees, and secure anything that can become a projectile in high winds
- Evaluate your roof, the single largest surface a hurricane will attack
- Prepare for a power outage before the lights go out
- Document damage carefully once local officials say it is safe to return
Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, which gives homeowners a long window to prepare and a short window to react. This checklist walks through what to do at each stage and explains why each step matters.
Start With Homeowners Insurance
Review your insurance policies at the start of hurricane season, not when a tropical storm is named. Standard homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage, and National Flood Insurance Program policies typically take 30 days to go into effect. Buying coverage as a storm approaches leaves you unprotected.
Work through these items:
- Confirm whether your policy has a separate hurricane or named-storm deductible, which is often a percentage of your home’s insured value rather than a flat dollar amount
- Add flood coverage if you do not have it, keeping in mind that FEMA estimates a single inch of floodwater can cause roughly $25,000 in damage
- Photograph or video every room, including inside closets and cabinets, and store the files in cloud storage
- Save your agent’s contact information somewhere you can reach without power
- Ask whether your carrier offers a discount for a FORTIFIED roof, since many do
Homeowners who upgrade to a FORTIFIED Roof frequently qualify for premium reductions in coastal states, which turns a preparedness decision into a recurring savings.
Build an Emergency Supply Kit
Assemble a disaster supply kit that keeps your household running for at least three days without outside help, and stretch it to two weeks if you can. FEMA recommends one gallon of clean water per person per day. Gather supplies once, store them in a single place, and check expiration dates every spring.
Your emergency supply kit should include:
- One gallon of water per person per day, plus extra for pets
- Non-perishable food, a manual can opener, paper cups, and paper towels
- Flashlights and extra batteries, plus a battery-powered or hand-crank radio for emergency alerts
- A first aid kit, prescription medications, and backup power for any medical devices
- Hand sanitizer, soap, toilet paper, and garbage bags with ties for sanitation
- Cash in small bills, since card readers fail during a power outage
- Rain gear, sturdy shoes, and a change of clothes for each family member
- Duct tape, a multi-tool, and work gloves
Add a portable charger and a paper list of emergency contacts. Phone batteries drain fast when cell towers are overloaded, and most people cannot recite a single phone number from memory.
Protect Important Documents From Water and Wind
Place original copies of your important documents in a waterproof container, and keep a second set in airtight plastic bags inside your go-bag. Water intrusion destroys paper faster than wind does, and replacing a lost record after a natural disaster can take months.
Gather these in one place:
- Birth certificates, passports, and Social Security cards
- Deeds, titles, mortgage paperwork, and insurance policies
- Medical records, immunization records, and a current medication list
- Recent bank statements and tax returns
- Pet vaccination records, which many a pet-friendly shelter will require at intake
Scan everything and store encrypted copies in the cloud. A digital backup survives what a safe place in your closet may not.
Write an Emergency Plan Every Family Member Knows
Build a written emergency plan that answers three questions: where you will go, how you will communicate, and who is responsible for what. Ready.gov offers free templates. Practice the plan once before hurricane season so nobody is improvising when a hurricane strikes.
Cover these points:
- Your evacuation zone and two separate routes out
- An out-of-state contact person, since local lines often jam before long-distance ones do
- A meeting location if the household is separated
- Arrangements for anyone with mobility needs or medical devices requiring power
- A pet plan, including which nearby shelters accept animals
- Who monitors emergency alerts and local officials on social media channels
If you live in a mobile home, plan to evacuate every time. Manufactured housing is not built to withstand hurricane-force high winds, regardless of tie-down quality.
Secure the Outside of Your Home
Walk your property and remove anything a 100 mph gust can pick up. Loose objects become projectiles that break windows, and once wind enters a home it pressurizes the interior and pushes upward on the roof deck. Most catastrophic residential failures start with a single breached opening.
Complete this list 48 to 72 hours before landfall:
- Bring in patio furniture, grills, planters, trash cans, and yard décor
- Trim dead branches and limbs that overhang the roof or power lines
- Clean gutters and downspouts so heavy rain drains instead of backing up under the eaves
- Install storm shutters or pre-cut plywood over windows and glass doors
- Anchor or reinforce fence panels and gates
- Turn your refrigerator and freezer to the coldest setting so food stays safe longer during a power outage
- Fill vehicle gas tanks and refill prescriptions
Steel gutters and metal fencing handle wind and water loads better than vinyl equivalents, and they do not warp or split when debris hits them.
Your Roof Is the Real Hurricane Preparedness Project
The roof takes the largest share of hurricane force, and once it fails, everything below it is exposed to heavy rain. Preparing your home for a storm surge or high winds means very little if the covering above your head is a 20-year-old asphalt system with lifted tabs and exposed nail heads.
Asphalt shingles fail progressively. Wind lifts one tab, then the neighboring tab loses its seal, and the pattern unzips across a slope in minutes. Interlocking steel roofing behaves differently because each tile is mechanically fastened to the deck and locked to the tiles around it.
| Performance Factor | Standard Asphalt Shingles | Worthouse Steel Roofing Tiles |
|---|---|---|
| Wind performance | Commonly rated 60 to 130 mph | Class 90 wind rating, warranty coverage to 200 mph |
| Impact resistance | Class 3 or lower on most products | Class 4, the highest rating available |
| Fire rating | Varies by assembly | Class A |
| Hail coverage | Often excluded or depreciated | Covered, including 2-inch hail and golf ball impact |
| Expected service life | 15 to 25 years | Up to five times longer than asphalt |
| Weight | Heavy, adds load to the structure | Lightweight modular panels |
Worthouse builds a complete system rather than a single product. Hip cones, ridge vents, chimney flashing, and roof accessories are engineered to work with the tiles, which removes the mismatched-component leaks that show up when parts are sourced from three different manufacturers. The Noble Matte coating adds corrosion resistance, which matters in salt air where storms come ashore. The system is designed with thermal expansion in mind, so seasonal movement does not loosen the assembly over time.
Profiles include Supre, Dura, Ulta, and Como, giving homeowners the look of tile, slate, or dimensional shingle with steel underneath. Details on ratings and coverage are on the protection and warranty page.
What to Do During and After the Storm
Stay in an interior room away from windows until local officials issue an all clear. Use flashlights instead of candles, since open flames cause house fires during outages. Never touch downed power lines, and treat every line as energized.
Once it is safe:
- Keep the refrigerator closed. Food stays safe about four hours in a refrigerator and 48 hours in a full freezer without power
- Photograph all damage before moving or removing anything
- Contact your insurer promptly, since claim volume spikes within hours of landfall
- Avoid standing water, which can hide live wiring and contamination
- Watch for roofers who show up unsolicited and pressure you to sign on the spot
Preparedness You Only Have to Do Once
Most items on this checklist have to be repeated every hurricane season. Supplies expire, documents change, and plans need updating as your household does. Your roof is the exception. Replace it with a system engineered for 200 mph winds and Class 4 impact, and that line item stays checked off for decades instead of months.
Get a Roof That Handles the Next One
Worthouse steel roofing tiles are tested against fire, hail, corrosion, and high winds, and backed by a warranty covering named storms, 200 mph winds, 2-inch hail, and golf ball impact damage. Browse the Worthouse shop to see the full system, request a sample to handle the material yourself, or get a free estimate and find a certified installer in your area before the next storm forms.
