Does homeowners insurance cover wind damage from a hurricane?

Wind vs water

After a hurricane, the homeowners insurer pays for wind, and a flood policy, if you have one, pays for rising water. When both hit the same house, every damaged item gets assigned to one cause or the other. Roof damage is almost always wind. Damage below a water line on walls, floors and lower cabinets is usually flood.

What anti-concurrent causation means

Many homeowners policies say that when an excluded cause, such as flood, combines with a covered cause, such as wind, to produce a loss, the loss is excluded regardless of the order. In practice this pushes insurers to argue that damage near the water line was flood. The best answer is clear evidence of what wind did before or apart from the water.

Evidence of wind damage

• Missing and creased shingles, lifted ridge caps, torn flashing.
• Broken windows and doors from wind pressure or debris.
• Trees blown onto the roof.
• Ceiling damage from rain through roof openings, well above any flood line.
• Photos of the water line inside, so the adjuster can see what is above it.

If you have flood insurance too

Expect two adjusters and two claims. Give each one the same complete photo set, and do not let wind damage be lumped into the flood claim, where it may not be covered, or flood damage into the wind claim, where it will be denied.

Inland Georgia

For most North Georgia homes, hurricane remnants mean wind and fallen trees, not flooding, which keeps the claim squarely with the homeowners policy.

More: wind damage claims and date of loss.