When a hurricane hits South Florida, your home can take damage from four directions at once: wind tearing the roof, rain pouring through the ceiling, floodwater rising under the doors, and debris breaking windows and screens. The first hours after the storm are loud, chaotic, and exhausting — and they are also the hours that decide what your repair bill looks like.
This guide is the action plan we wish every Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach homeowner had taped to the inside of their hurricane kit. It walks you from "the storm just passed" through "the contractor finished the final walkthrough," with a clear order of operations so nothing critical gets skipped.
Step 1: Make sure the home is safe before you go inside
Before you do anything else, look up. Power lines down across the yard, soffit hanging by a thread, a section of roof peeled back — those are not problems for tonight. They are reasons to wait outside.
Specifically, do not enter your home if you see:
- Standing water inside that may be touching outlets or appliances
- Sagging ceilings or walls that look bowed
- Strong gas or sewage smells
- Active sparking or downed power lines anywhere on the property
Once you've confirmed the structure is safe to enter, turn off power at the main breaker if there is any water inside. If you cannot reach the breaker without walking through water, call your utility company and wait.
Step 2: Stop new water from entering — fast
Hurricane water damage is rarely "one and done." A roof that leaks during the storm will keep leaking through every afternoon thunderstorm for weeks until it is patched. The single most cost-effective thing you can do in the first 24 hours is dry-in the building envelope.
That looks like:
- Tarping the roof over any missing shingles, exposed decking, or punctures
- Boarding up broken windows or sliders with plywood, even temporarily
- Sealing torn screens, soffit gaps, and door frames with poly sheeting and tape
If you are physically able and the roof pitch is reasonable, a basic tarp-and-strap job is doable. If the damage is at the ridge, near a chimney, or covers a large section, call a restoration company. Every additional rainstorm into an unprotected attic compounds the moisture damage and the mold risk.
Step 3: Document everything before you move it
This is the step homeowners most often regret skipping. Before you throw away soaked drywall, before you drag the ruined sofa to the curb, before you start any cleanup, photograph and video the entire scene.
Walk every room slowly with your phone. Open every cabinet under every sink. Capture:
- Wide shots of each room showing the overall condition
- Close-ups of damaged walls, floors, ceilings, and personal items
- The exterior from every side of the house
- Standing water depth (use a tape measure or a household object for scale)
- Any debris that came in through windows, doors, or roof openings
Save it all to cloud storage that day. Insurance adjusters can take a week or longer to arrive after a major storm, and the longer you wait, the more your evidence degrades.
Step 4: Call your insurance and your restoration company in the same hour
These are parallel calls, not sequential. Your insurance company starts the claims clock. Your restoration company starts mitigating damage to keep the claim from growing.
When you call your insurer, ask three things and write down the answers: what is your claim number, who is your assigned adjuster and their direct contact, and what is your deductible — including whether your policy separates hurricane vs. wind/named storm vs. flood coverage.
Florida policies often separate hurricane deductibles (a percentage of dwelling coverage rather than a flat dollar amount) from regular deductibles, and standard homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage — only wind-driven rain that entered through a wind-created opening. If you have separate flood insurance through NFIP or a private carrier, file that claim too.
When you call a restoration company, ask if they perform emergency mitigation, what their response time is, and whether they bill insurance directly. Reputable South Florida restoration companies will tarp, board, extract water, and start drying within hours of a major storm — and they will document everything in a format your adjuster recognizes.
Step 5: Water extraction and structural drying
Standing water inside the home needs to be out within 24 hours. After 48 hours, drywall, baseboards, cabinets, and flooring crossover from "salvageable" to "category-three contaminated" — a much bigger and more expensive remediation.
Professional water extraction looks like truck-mounted vacuums, then commercial-grade air movers and dehumidifiers running 24/7 for three to five days. You'll see moisture meters pressed against walls and floors throughout. The goal is not "dry to the touch." It's measured moisture content below the safe threshold for the specific material.
Common mistake: turning fans off at night because they are noisy. Don't. Every hour they are off is an hour of moisture re-saturating the studs.
Step 6: Mold prevention is part of restoration, not a separate project
In a South Florida summer, mold can colonize wet drywall in 24 to 48 hours. The line between "this is water damage" and "this is now a mold remediation job" moves fast.
A restoration team should be applying antimicrobial treatment to wet framing, removing wet insulation completely (it cannot be dried in place), and cutting drywall back to the next stud past the highest visible water line. If they are simply blowing fans at wet walls and calling the job done, you are buying yourself a mold remediation in six weeks.
Step 7: Document the meeting with your adjuster
When the adjuster arrives, walk the property with them. Bring your photos, your moisture readings, and your restoration company's mitigation report. Take notes on what they call out as covered vs. excluded. If your restoration company has a project manager, have them present — adjusters and restoration project managers speak the same language and can resolve scope disputes on the spot.
If you disagree with the adjuster's scope or estimate, you have the right to a public adjuster or to invoke appraisal under your policy. Do not sign anything that releases your claim until you and your restoration company agree the scope is complete.
Step 8: Repairs and rebuild
Once mitigation and drying are signed off, the rebuild starts: drywall, paint, flooring, cabinets, trim, sometimes a full kitchen or bath. In South Florida, this is also the moment to consider upgrades that pay you back in the next storm — impact windows, a tied-down roof, a better dehumidifier, a transfer switch for a generator. Insurance often pays "to like and kind" but you can pay the upgrade delta out of pocket and do it once instead of twice.
How long does the whole process take?
For a typical hurricane water-and-wind claim in South Florida, expect:
- Days 0–2: safety, tarping, boarding, water extraction begins
- Days 2–7: structural drying, adjuster visit, scope agreement
- Weeks 2–6: demo, mold treatment, rebuild
- Week 6+: finishes, final walkthrough, claim closeout
A clean, well-documented claim handled by a restoration company that talks directly to your adjuster is usually wrapped in six to ten weeks. A poorly documented one or one with a contested scope can drag past six months.
When to call RestoFlo
If your home has hurricane damage anywhere in South Florida — Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, or Palm Beach — call us first, before you move a single piece of debris. We tarp, board, extract water, and document the scene in the format your adjuster expects, and we manage the project from emergency mitigation through final walkthrough.
24/7 emergency line: (754) 289-4815.
