South Carolina homeowners know that hurricanes can be devastating. Even the highest-rated home insurance won’t cover every kind of hurricane damage. Understanding what your homeowners insurance will and won’t cover is essential to ensuring you have the proper financial protection, which may involve purchasing additional insurance coverages. The team at Chichester Insurance Agency is here to help you learn more about hurricane coverage and obtain the appropriate insurance.

What Protection Does Hurricane Insurance Provide?

There isn’t one specific hurricane insurance that provides all the protection you may need. Instead, you can purchase separate policies to protect yourself against hurricane damage. For instance, your standard homeowners insurance policy won’t cover flooding. Still, you may be able to purchase flood insurance separately through the National Flood Insurance Program or your home insurance agent. Additionally, in South Carolina, you may need to purchase separate windstorm insurance to help gain coverage for damage caused by any strong wind, including hurricanes.

Supplemental Coverage Can Be Beneficial

Numerous homeowners combine home insurance, flood insurance and other endorsements, such as sewer backup and windstorm coverage. Whichever insurance you choose, be sure you have enough insurance to cover rebuilding your home and replacing your belongings.

Some common types of insurance that can help you recover from a damaging storm or hurricane include:

·       Homeowners insurance—Protect your home’s structure from hurricane, wind, or lightning damage with this coverage. There are exclusions, and our team at Chichester Insurance can discuss these with you in more detail.

o   Additional living expense (ALE) coverage—If a covered risk destroys your home, you’ll need to live somewhere else temporarily. Fortunately, homeowners, renters and condo insurance policies usually include coverage for other living expenses, which is essential. If you experience significant hurricane loss, you may need more than standard ALE coverage.

·       Flood insurance—Standard home insurance doesn’t typically cover costs related to flooding, storm surge and wind-driven water. Flood insurance offers this protection, even if you rent your home.

·       Sewer backup—Sewer backups are common with hurricanes, yet most home insurance policies exclude this protection. We can add this as an endorsement to your homeowners policy if you don’t already have it.

Is Hurricane Coverage Expensive?

The cost of your insurance policy depends on many factors, including the coverage you choose, if you live in a high-risk flood area and the value of your home and assets. If you select additional endorsements, this will be reflected in the cost of your homeowners policy.

How Can I Get Hurricane Coverage?

Don’t chance your coverage, as waiting to buy policies until you need them is often not an option. Usually, once a hurricane warning is in effect, it’s too late to purchase last-minute coverage, which could be financially devastating. Insurance is your financial safeguard, helping you get back to normal once the storm has passed.