Hurricane Preparedness Week

Hurricane Preparedness Week is a seven-day nationwide campaign dedicated to – as the name suggests – preparing for the hurricane season. In Florida, that means having your property, your family, and yourself ready and secured for when the season starts in June.

As part of our social duty, we at Pinnacle Claim Services, Inc. would like to do our part and share information to help you prepare for the storms to come.

Florida Hurricane Preparedness

Florida has had to deal with more hurricanes in the last 150 years than any other state in the country. Roughly 40% of all hurricanes that make landfall in the US affect Florida, with an average of three storms per year taking Floridian lives and damaging property.

Because of this, it’s important for Floridians to take the right steps to protect themselves from foul weather, from physically securing their home with canvas and supplies to financially securing their family with insurance. There is no such thing as being too prepared.

Hurricane Information Is Hurricane Preparedness

To prepare for a hurricane, you need to be aware of what they are, how they behave, and what they can do. Listen to weather forecasts, and be aware of all the different ways a hurricane can deal damage.

You can only be ready for something if you know what that something is, so stock up on information as much as any other supplies. Keep your household informed of hurricane warning areas, and be sure you have a disaster plan ready for when the storm hits.

If you can, try to keep the information stream running for as long as possible during the storm. Battery-powered radios can keep you updated even during power outages, as can cellular phones, at least as long as service remains uninterrupted.

Prepare for Property Damage

Do a thorough sweep of the entire property, and when possible, reinforce anything you can. This means repairing any loose tiles on your roof, replacing any leaking seals on your doors and windows, and securing your air-conditioning system to protect it from water.

Do you have a yard? It might be time to move small ornaments inside a garage or storage room, or if that isn’t possible, fasten them down with canvas and strong ropes.

Last-minute preparations are a great way to minimize damage your property suffers throughout the season. Coincidentally, this due diligence is also a way to secure your interests if things do get damaged and you need to make an insurance claim afterward.

Stock up on Supplies

This is tricky because, on the one hand, you want to have up to seven days’ worth of supplies in your cupboards ready by the time each storm begins. On the other, having too many perishable goods in an emergency scenario is seen as hoarding and is also wasteful.

Again, this is a game of logistics and information. You need to know how much food and water your household will consume in a certain period of time and plan accordingly, so make a checklist and run it by your household twice to make sure you aren’t forgetting anything.

You will also want to stock up ahead of time, long before the last-minute panic-buying begins. The COVID pandemic has increased peoples’ awareness of contagious diseases, so be sure to grab some first-aid and basic medical supplies as well.

Create a Disaster Plan

Sometimes, no matter how well you secure your home, nature will win out. Water can get in, wind can knock down doors, and debris might shatter windows.

A disaster plan allows members of the household to keep calm when these worst-case scenarios happen and even potentially allows you to relocate to a backup safe location.

A good disaster plan should cover escape routes and strategies, emergency contacts and safety measures, and any insurance and healthcare policies for everyone involved.

Different templates are available for creating a disaster plan. However, as plans are ideally tailored to the needs of each household, it is advisable to go over templates and modify them accordingly, or better yet, write your own.

Contact a Florida Public Adjuster for Hurricane Damage Assistance

With each hurricane the season brings, you will see some form of damage. Sometimes, it’s minor enough to fix with some basic household skills, but other times, the damage can be catastrophic enough to warrant filing an insurance claim.

Unfortunately, you’re probably not going to be the only one who needs to file a claim.

Insurance providers are often overwhelmed with a backlog of millions of claims at a time every hurricane season. This means their private adjusters tend to rush their reports and forget to include damages that insurance should cover.

This leaves claimants at a disadvantage since insurance companies have no incentive to do a double-take with the chance that they would shell out more money. But that is where Florida public adjusters come in.

Public adjusters in Deerfield Beach and throughout Florida represent you and not the insurance agency; your fair and just settlement is our priority. We have the skills and tools needed to reach that goal.

We will work to report a complete and accurate assessment of damages to maximize the amount you can claim.

We at Pinnacle Claim Services, Inc., are ready to provide you with our services this hurricane season. When the weather deals a harsh blow to you and your property, Contact us online or call us at 877-70-CLAIM and let us help you in your journey to recover what is yours.