How to Prepare Your House for a Tornado or Severe Storm

Before storm season, trim limbs over the house, pick a shelter room on the lowest floor away from windows, and photograph every room for insurance. When a watch is issued, bring in or tie down anything that can blow around, charge your devices, and be ready to move to your shelter the moment a warning is issued.

Before storm season

Most of this happens once a year. In much of the South and Midwest that means late winter, before spring storms start. If you live where fall storms are common, run through it again in October.

• Pick your shelter room. The safest spot is the lowest floor, in an interior room with no windows: a basement if you have one, otherwise an interior bathroom, closet, or hallway. Keep it clear enough that everyone in the house can get in fast, and put shoes, a flashlight, and helmets or pillows in it.

• Deal with the trees. Look for dead limbs, branches hanging over the roof, and trees leaning toward the house. Small limbs you can reach from the ground are a DIY job. Anything large, high, or near power lines is a job for a tree service. Never cut near a power line yourself.

• Build or restock the kit. Water, a few days of food that needs no cooking, flashlights, a battery or hand-crank weather radio, spare batteries, a charged power bank, a first aid kit, and any medications. Check it twice a year and swap out anything expired.

• Turn on emergency alerts. Make sure wireless emergency alerts are on in your phone settings, and set any weather app to alert even when the phone is on silent. Many tornadoes happen at night, and an outdoor siren may not wake you up indoors.

• Photograph the house. Walk through every room with your phone recording video, opening closets and cabinets. Do the exterior too, including the roof from the ground. Save it somewhere off your phone. It makes an insurance claim much faster and harder to dispute.

• Read your insurance policy. Check your wind and hail deductible, which is sometimes a percentage of the home value rather than a flat amount. Standard homeowners policies usually do not cover flooding, so if you are in a flood-prone area, ask about separate flood coverage well before you need it, since it often has a waiting period.

• Know your shutoffs. Find the main water shutoff, the electrical panel, and the gas shutoff if you have gas service. If the house is damaged and you smell gas, you leave first and call the gas company from outside.

• Test the sump pump (if you have one). Pour a bucket of water into the pit and confirm the pump turns on and drains it. If your area loses power during storms, a battery backup or water-powered backup pump is worth pricing.

• Test the generator (if you have one). Start it, run it under a load for a few minutes, and check that you have fresh fuel and a heavy-duty extension cord. Never run a generator in a garage, basement, or near open windows. Carbon monoxide from generators kills people after storms every year.

When a watch is issued

A watch means conditions are right for severe storms or tornadoes in your area. A warning means one is happening or about to, and it is time to take shelter. A watch is your window to get the house ready.

• Bring in or tie down loose items. Patio furniture, grills, trash cans, planters, and kids toys become projectiles in high wind. Put what you can in the garage or shed, and lay the rest flat or strap it down.

• Park cars in the garage if you can. Hail and falling limbs are hard on cars, and a car in the garage helps brace a garage door against wind.

• Charge everything. Phones, power banks, and flashlights. Fill a few jugs of water in case service is interrupted.

• Clear the path to your shelter. Make sure the shelter room is open and stocked, and that everyone knows where to go, including pets.

After the storm

• Check for hazards first. Look for downed power lines, the smell of gas, and structural damage before going back inside or walking the yard. Treat every downed line as live.

• Document everything before you clean up. Take photos and video of all damage, inside and out, before moving anything. Then call your insurer to start the claim.

• Prevent more damage. Most policies expect you to take reasonable steps to stop further damage, like tarping a hole in the roof or boarding a broken window. Keep receipts. If the roof is steep or wet, hire it out. Falls after storms are a real risk.

• Be careful with storm-chasing contractors. After big storms, out-of-town crews knock on doors offering fast repairs. Get more than one quote, check for a local address and license, never pay the full amount up front, and do not sign anything that assigns your insurance benefits to the contractor before talking with your insurer.

• Check gutters, downspouts, and drainage. Storm debris clogs gutters fast. If you have gutters, clear them and make sure water is draining away from the foundation before the next rain.

Storm prep fits into the regular seasonal routine. The spring checklist and fall checklist both include a storm section so it stays on the calendar.