How to keep your home safe during hurricane season

David Sampson, CEO of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, shares his tips for keeping your home safe during hurricane season.

Transcript

00:00So, hurricane season has already kicked off.

00:03How can homeowners best prepare for severe weather?

00:08Well, first of all,

00:09they need to heed all of the local warnings.

00:12If there's an evacuation alert,

00:14the most important thing is protecting life.

00:17That comes before anything.

00:19But before the storm hits, you know,

00:21we always encourage people to make sure

00:24that they've got a good video inventory of their home

00:28in case the worst happens,

00:30to make sure that any external materials outside,

00:35like patio furniture, gets taken inside

00:39so it doesn't blow through windows.

00:42Once the hurricane is barreling down on you,

00:47other than that, there's very little that you can do.

00:50Most of the work needs to be done well in advance

00:53to prepare your homes for severe weather.

00:58So talk to me a little bit about that video inventory.

01:01What's the purpose of that?

01:04Well, the purpose of that is, if the worst happens,

01:07to expedite the claims handling process,

01:11to make sure that you've got a good contemporaneous record

01:15of the furnishings in the house,

01:17so that when you call your insurance agent

01:20or you call the claims office of your insurance company,

01:25you can send that to them

01:26and that will greatly expedite the claims handling process

01:30and get you a check and help you begin

01:33to get your life back in order after the storm hits.