Am I Covered for Tornados, Hurricanes, and Floods?

Normally auto, home, and business insurance covers losses due to tornadoes and Hurricanes.  In the case of a homeowners insurance, policy will cover the dwelling, personal property, and loss of use.  In a business insurance, it will cover the building, business personal property, and business income as well.  Business income pays for net income loss while business is not able to run business as usual during the restoration period due to the damage from covered peril.  If applicable, an auto insurance covers damage to the vehicle from a windstorm under the Comprehensive coverage.

There can be an inundation of water from the large tornado and hurricanes.  However, floods that occur due to these weather events are not covered under the home and business insurance. Water damage to a vehicle from a flood can be covered under the Comprehensive coverage.

Due to the large area impacted and the catastrophic amount of damage that they can cause, these perils are excluded from coverage in a homeowner’s policy and business insurance policy.  If they were allowed to be covered, frequent losses will drive up the premium tremendously.  Also areas that are not impacted by floods will also be surcharged for the losses mainly that happens in the flood prone areas.  Therefore dwellings and commercial building in a flood zones, will need to purchase a separate flood policy.

Under certain circumstances, a lender may require a flood policy even though the property may not be in a flood prone area.  Other than that, flood policy is usually become in effect after 30 days of being issued.  This prevents purchasing a policy for impending natural weather event.  Therefore a flood policy is definitely a policy, you must plan and purchase ahead of time.