Residents Encouraged to Stay Vigilant and Prepared During Peak Hurricane Season

With September and October rounding out the top active months of the hurricane season, State Farm is sharing the top tips for homeowners and encouraging residents to be prepared for storms. The peak period for storm activity occurs between mid-August and mid-October, as evidenced last year by Hurricanes Helene and Milton impacting numerous states in late September and early October 2024. 

In 2024, five major U.S. hurricanes tore across more than a dozen states, leaving trails of destruction from Texas to Michigan. Over 200,000 hurricane related damage claims were filed with State Farm from the 2024 hurricanes and customers have received over $1.9 Billion from State Farm to help them recover and rebuild. The damage wasn’t isolated to coastal communities, with many inland states seeing flooding, wind damage, and widespread power outages. The two significant back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton resulted in over 166,000 State Farm claims, primarily in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida. 

Given the potential for high impact storms this time of year, State Farm is sharing preparation tips during the top active months of hurricane season:

• Review your insurance coverage. Make sure you have the right amount and type of insurance for your property and to help protect your loved ones. Homeowners are urged to not wait until after disaster strikes to realize that inflation and increasing economic pressures may have impacted the cost to rebuild.
• Protect important insurance documents and policy paperwork by placing them in a protected, waterproof place. And install your insurance app for electronic access to insurance documents.
• Create a home inventory. Make a list of your possessions and their estimated value or use technology to create your digital home inventory.
  • Take pictures with your smart phone. Capture important individual items as well as entire rooms, closets or drawers. Label photos with what's pictured, where you bought it, the make or model and the serial number.
  • Take video. Walk through your house or apartment recording and describing the contents.
  • Use an app. There are many mobile app options that can help you create and store a room-by-room record of your belongings.
• Protect your property. Move all large objects inside the house or garage. Board up windows as appropriate.
• Have an evacuation plan and determine if you will ride out the storm in your home (if local authorities permit you to stay) or establish a safe place inland and plan an escape route. Tell relatives where you will be since communication during and after a natural disaster can be disrupted due to infrastructure damage.
• Bring out or prepare a storm emergency kit. Make sure you have plenty of water, food, first aid supplies, clothing, blankets, and important documents such as printed insurance policies. Store your kit in airtight plastic bags or a plastic storage container with a lid.