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What to Do if a Hurricane Is Heading Right for Your Vacation Home
How to deal with hurricanes headed straight for your vacation rental home when you live faraway.
While you may not live in hurricane-stricken areas, your second home might be.
- If you have hurricane/wind insurance, pull it out and read it. Contact your insurance company and find out what their process is for claims. If you don't have hurricane/wind insurance, contact your regular insurance company because you can still file a claim, but there are no guarantees anything will be covered. Contact your insurance company's claims department first, and get a claim or case number. If your agent is in your vacation area, they are most likely inaccessible. You may have to call the national claim's number.
- If you have renters scheduled to arrive, I would call them and let them know that you are still waiting on an update. I think it's best to contact anyone who will be renting at least over the next 2 weeks and possibly longer.
- At some point you may need to go there and assess the damages yourself, or you could have a friend, neighbor, or housekeeper assess your property for you.
- Prior to departing for your property's location, be sure that you can even get in. A lot of areas do not allow anyone to enter. This is for your own safety. Check your county's web site to see if they have updates.
- Take your camera with you. If you have any damages, be sure to take photos of everything before you fix it. Insurance adjusters are going to be very busy; and, of course, they will prioritize their claims. If you have water damage, and you cannot wait for the adjusters, use your best judgment on repairing things that need immediate attention. Mold and mildew can do long term damage. Remember, take lots of photos.
- If you plan on going down, bring proof of ownership, such as insurance policy, deed, etc., or you will not be allowed in. Be sure to bring any tools, fans (for drying carpets, etc.) and cleaning apparatuses that you may need to clean up.
- Remember, everyone needs help and contract labor will be scarce. (If you plan to bring anyone to do paid work, they must be licensed, so be careful.)
- If you have to replace your windows immediately, keep in mind that you can't buy regular windows; moreover, to stay up to code, you want to buy high-wind impact windows.
- If you do go down, you will want to get as many supplies from home as possible because the home improvement stores in hurricane stricken areas may have a hard time keeping up with inventory demand. Some things that I would get that come immediately to mind are: a cooler with food and drinks, candles, flashlights, contractor trash bags, fans, shovels, rakes, brooms, hammers, nails screwdrivers, cleaning supplies and paper towels. Also consider bringing a generator, as electricty in the area may be erratic at best.
If you are one of the of the more fortunate owners who had little or no damage, you may want to pop an e-mail to your renters, or add something to your web site stating that you are fine and did not sustain damages.
© Christine Karpinski 2006
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