SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — Insurance experts are stressing the importance of preparing your financial and insurance documents, so you're ready when the next storm comes to the Tampa Bay area.
We are approaching the peak of hurricane season, and people are still recovering from the damage that Debby left.
Many people in Sarasota told us they were not prepared for the flooding and had to go back inside their flooded homes to find insurance information and financial documents.
“We always stress for every homeowner to own your risk," said Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute.
He said the time is now to start preparing your finances and documentation for the next storm.
“You want to have your insurance contact information, your insurance policy number, the claims filing process,” Friedlander said.
He said to make a copy of those numbers and save them where you can access them in the future.
He also suggests people take videos and photos of everything inside their homes and upload them to the cloud or another online photo storage site.
“Having a detailed home inventory, which outlines all the possessions you have in your home with video or photo, will make the process so much easier if you need to file a claim,” Friedlander said.
His last suggestion is that all Floridians should have flood insurance even if they are not in a flood zone.
“We can’t stress enough: every Florida homeowner is at risk of flooding no matter where you live,” Friedlander said.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.
