Storm coming or just hit? Start here.

Before landfall

1. Photograph the house while it is whole

   Walk every room and every outside wall with your phone. Wide shot of each room, then closer shots of anything valuable. Roof from the ground, fence, shed, screens. Twenty minutes today is the evidence that settles arguments later. The full room-by-room routine is in the documentation guide.

2. Photograph your papers

   The declarations page of your insurance policy, your agent's card, recent receipts for big purchases. Photos in your phone survive a flooded filing cabinet.

3. Know your two numbers

   Your hurricane deductible (a percentage of your home's coverage, explained in plain English here) and your insurer's claims phone number. Write both on paper; paper works without power.

The first 72 hours after

1. Safety, then photos, then tarps

   Photograph damage before anything is moved, tarped, or thrown out. Then protect the house from getting worse and keep every receipt; that protection is called mitigation and the insurer pays the reasonable costs of it. The complete hour-by-hour list: the first 72 hours checklist.

2. Report the claim early

   You do not need to know the full damage to report; you can add to the claim later. Come away with a claim number. The deadlines guide shows the legal clocks and calculates your dates.

3. Sign nothing in the driveway

   Not an assignment of benefits, not a contract from a truck that followed the storm in. Run the 3-minute license check on anyone who quotes you, and read the one paper you should not sign.

The two weeks after

1. Keep a claim diary

   One page, dated lines: who called, what they said, what they promised. Adjusters rotate after big storms; your diary is the memory the file loses.

2. Learn the words before you need them

   Depreciation holdback, proof of loss, supplemental claim: the plain-English dictionary translates every term on the paperwork, también en español.

3. Put your deadlines on the calendar

   One year to report, eighteen months to ask for more, both from the day of the storm. The calculator turns your storm date into calendar entries in one click.

Who to call

• Emergencies: 911. Nothing on this page comes before that.
• Insurance questions: the Florida Department of Financial Services free consumer helpline, 1-877-693-5236, English and Spanish.
• Price gouging: Florida Attorney General's hotline, 1-866-966-7226, active during declared emergencies.
• Claim-ready photos of your damage: that is the one thing we do commercially. Storm damage documentation, Cape Coral and all of Southwest Florida.