Florida Hurricane Season Home Prep: A 30-Day Storm-Ready Checklist
Hurricane season in South Florida runs from June 1 to November 30, with the peak running from mid-August through October. The homeowners who come through storms with the least damage and the smallest insurance claims are the ones who prepared in slow, deliberate steps — not the ones who rushed to Home Depot the day before landfall.
This is a 30-day, week-by-week checklist designed to be done at a steady pace. Print it, save it, and work through it over the next month. Once it's done the first time, most of it takes only a few hours each year to refresh.
Week 1: Inspect, Document, and Plan
Day 1–2: Walk your roof from the ground. Use binoculars or your phone camera at maximum zoom. Look for missing or curled shingles, cracked tiles, lifted ridge caps, exposed underlayment, or rust streaks at fasteners. If you can't tell what you're looking at, this is the time to bring in a professional — not after a storm.
Day 3: Inspect your soffits and fascia. Soffits failing under uplift are one of the top causes of attic water damage during hurricanes. Look for separations, sagging, or daylight visible from the attic.
Day 4: Check every window, door, and garage door for fit and seal. Look for gaps, soft wood frames, peeling weatherstripping, and corrosion at hinges and latches. A garage door is often the largest unprotected opening on a home — and a failed garage door usually leads to a failed roof.
Day 5: Photograph and document your home. Walk every room, photograph every wall, every appliance, every piece of furniture, every electronic. Save the photos to cloud storage — not just your phone. Insurance claims after hurricanes often hinge on whether you can prove what was there before.
Day 6–7: Build (or update) your hurricane plan. Decide your evacuation route, your shelter destination, and your communication plan. Confirm where pets go, where important medications travel, and who has copies of your documents.
Week 2: Yard, Trees, and Drainage
Day 8–10: Trim trees and remove dead limbs. Branches within 10 feet of the roof should be trimmed back. Anything dead, leaning, or rubbing the structure should come off. Don't wait for a watch or warning — most counties suspend tree pickup once a storm is in the cone, and arborists fully book out within 48 hours of any threat.
Day 11: Clear gutters and downspouts. Remove leaves, palm fronds, and debris. Confirm downspouts direct water at least three feet from the foundation. Clogged gutters during a hurricane drive water under your roof edge and into your soffits.
Day 12: Walk your yard and identify projectiles. Patio furniture, planters, grills, kayaks, garden sculptures, lawn equipment — anything that can become airborne in 100 mph winds needs a plan. Either it goes inside (garage, shed, lanai), it gets anchored, or it doesn't stay outside during storm season.
Day 13: Inspect your drainage. Walk the property after a hard summer thunderstorm if you can. Look for pooling water near the foundation, slow-draining swales, and clogged catch basins. Flood damage during a hurricane often has nothing to do with surge and everything to do with drainage that was already failing.
Day 14: Check fences and gates. Loose pickets, rotted posts, and rusted hinges become flying debris. Tighten what you can; replace what you can't.
Week 3: Systems and Supplies
Day 15: Service your generator. Run it for 30 minutes under load. Change the oil if it's been a year. Stock fuel safely in approved containers and rotate older fuel through your car. If you've never had a generator, this is the week to research one — popular models sell out the moment a storm enters the Gulf.
Day 16: Check your hurricane shutters and impact protection. Open and close every shutter. Lubricate tracks. Confirm panels and hardware are accounted for and accessible. If you're missing pieces, order replacements now — not the week before a storm.
Day 17: Test smoke and CO detectors and replace batteries. Power outages mean candles, generators, and gas appliances running in compromised conditions. Detectors save lives during the recovery period as much as the storm itself.
Day 18: Stock non-perishable food and water. One gallon of water per person per day for at least seven days. Florida households typically need to plan for longer outages than the famous "three days." Add canned goods, manual can openers, peanut butter, shelf-stable milk, and pet food.
Day 19: Build your go-bag and storm-stay-at-home kit. Flashlights, batteries, weather radio, first-aid kit, prescriptions for two weeks, cash in small bills, charging banks, and copies of identification and insurance documents.
Day 20–21: Review your insurance. Pull out your homeowners, flood, and wind policies. Confirm coverage limits and deductibles. Wind and flood are usually separate policies in Florida — make sure you have both if you need them, and remember most flood policies have a 30-day waiting period before they take effect.
Week 4: Final Hardening and Practice
Day 22: Photograph your hurricane shutters in place. This proves to your insurer that opening protection was deployed. Useful for claims and for wind mitigation credits.
Day 23: Confirm your sump pump or pool pump operations. A pool overflowing during a hurricane is a flood-damage trigger. Lower your pool by one to two feet before the storm arrives — but do not drain it, since groundwater pressure can pop an empty pool out of the ground.
Day 24: Anchor or relocate your propane tanks. Loose tanks become missiles. Confirm they're strapped, valves are protected, and connections are tight.
Day 25: Back up critical documents to a waterproof container and the cloud. Birth certificates, deeds, titles, insurance policies, medical records, photos. Two copies — one physical (in a sealed plastic bin or fireproof safe) and one cloud copy.
Day 26: Identify and label your shut-offs. Water main, gas, and electrical panel. Make sure every adult in the household knows how to operate each.
Day 27: Stock tarps, screws, and a basic repair kit. A blue tarp is the most-used recovery tool in Florida. Keep heavy-duty tarps, 2x4 lumber strips, roofing screws, and a battery drill ready. Most homes that flood after a hurricane do so because temporary roof patches couldn't be installed fast enough.
Day 28: Top off vehicle fuel and prescriptions. Both run out fast in the days before landfall.
Day 29–30: Run a household drill. Walk through your plan. What goes inside? Who deploys shutters? Who evacuates with the pets? Who manages the generator? The first time you walk through this should not be the morning of the storm.
What Most Homeowners Forget
Even careful homeowners miss a few of these every year:
- Photograph your attic before the storm. Roof leaks are easier to claim if you have a baseline.
- Take a video walkthrough of your home, not just photos. Video carries date stamps and reveals corners photos miss.
- Park your car somewhere it won't be hit by trees or flying debris — even if it means moving it across town.
- Note your meter reading before a power outage so you can dispute irregular billing afterward.
- Save your insurance company's claim line in your phone with international dialing format — local lines often jam after major storms.
After the Storm
Once it's safe to return:
- Photograph all damage before touching anything. Move what's dangerous; document everything else first.
- File your claim quickly — Florida insurers prioritize early claims, and adjuster wait times balloon within days of landfall.
- Get a post-storm inspection. Even homes that look fine often have hidden roof, soffit, or moisture issues that show up months later.
- Don't sign anything from door-knocking contractors until you have a written estimate and your insurer has approved scope.
A licensed inspector can document hidden damage on a post-hurricane building safety inspection — strong supporting evidence for any insurance claim.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I deploy hurricane shutters? Most homeowners install shutters when a hurricane warning is issued (36 hours before expected impact) or when a Category 3+ storm enters the cone of uncertainty. Don't wait for a watch — winds make installation dangerous.
Should I drain my pool before a hurricane? No. Lower it by one to two feet to absorb rain runoff, but a fully drained pool can pop out of the ground due to high groundwater pressure. Add an extra dose of chlorine and shut off the pump and heater at the breaker.
Is a generator required for South Florida homeowners? Not legally, but practically — yes. Multi-day outages are routine after major storms. Even a small portable generator that powers a fridge, fans, and a phone charger transforms recovery.
Do hurricane shutters affect my insurance premium? Yes — if they're documented on a current wind mitigation form. See our full guide to wind mitigation insurance savings for the details.
What about modular impact film on my windows — does that count as opening protection? Generally no, unless the product is rated and tested to the ASTM E1996 standard. Always verify the rating and certification before relying on a film for protection.
How early can I get a pre-season home inspection? Anytime — but April through early June is ideal. You have time to address findings before peak season, and inspectors aren't booked solid like they are after storms.
The Bottom Line
Hurricane prep isn't a one-day project. It's a slow, layered process of inspection, hardening, and documentation. The homeowners who fare best in a major storm are usually the ones who treated June and July as the real prep months — not the week the cone shifts toward Florida.
Use this checklist as your annual rhythm. Done once, refreshed each year, it puts you and your home in the strongest possible position when the next storm comes.
Want a pre-season home inspection? Contact Infinity Inspector or call 305-613-8010. We help South Florida homeowners identify and document the issues that most affect storm performance — before the wind ever picks up.
For more storm-related guidance, see our take on hurricane window protection alternatives.