Checked against the named sources on 22 August 2026
Work this out before you need it. It takes two minutes and one piece of paper, and it is the number that decides whether a storm claim is worth filing at all. Nobody can look it up for you, because it is a fact about your policy rather than about your state.
Why there are two deductibles
An ordinary homeowners deductible is a flat figure. A separate hurricane, named storm or windstorm deductible is common on coastal policies and works differently: it is normally set as a percentage of the dwelling limit, which is the Coverage A figure on your policy, rather than as an amount of money. When a qualifying storm causes the damage, that percentage deductible applies instead of the flat one.
The percentage varies by carrier, by state and by how close to the water you are. The point of this page is not to tell you which percentage you have. It is to tell you that a percentage is what you are looking for, because that is the part most people do not know until a storm has already happened.
The arithmetic
Take the dwelling limit and multiply it by the percentage. That is the money that comes out of your pocket before the policy pays anything.
- A 2 percent deductible on a $400,000 dwelling limit is $8,000.
- A 5 percent deductible on the same house is $20,000.
Note what the percentage is taken from. It is the insured value of the structure, not what you paid for the house, not the land, and not the size of the claim. A small claim can be worth less than the deductible, which is a thing worth knowing on the day rather than three weeks later.
Where to find yours
- Pull your declarations page. It is the summary page at the front of the policy, and your agent or your insurer's website will send it to you the same day.
- Find Coverage A, the dwelling limit. That is the number the percentage is taken from.
- Find the deductible section and read it for a second entry: a hurricane, named storm or windstorm deductible shown as a percentage. If there is one, multiply.
- Ask what triggers it. This is the part people get wrong. Policies differ on what sets the percentage deductible off: a named storm, a declared hurricane, or wind damage generally, and sometimes on when the trigger period starts and ends. Your policy defines it, and your agent can read you the definition.
Why it is worth knowing in April rather than September
Three things change once the figure is in front of you. You find out whether your emergency savings actually cover it. You find out whether raising or lowering the percentage is worth discussing with your agent while there is nothing in the Gulf. And the value of a roof grant stops being abstract: if a stronger roof earns a wind mitigation credit and the state pays toward the roof itself, the arithmetic is against a number you can now name.
Who to ask
Your agent first, because the answer is in your policy. If the answer you get does not match the policy, or you want to check what a carrier is allowed to do in your state, your insurance department is free and is not on the carrier's side of the table:
- Mississippi Insurance Department
- Alabama Department of Insurance
- Louisiana Department of Insurance, consumers
- Florida Department of Financial Services, consumer services
- Texas Department of Insurance, consumer help
- Storm season, start to claim · the three numbers to find while the map is empty, and what to photograph after.
- Wind mitigation discounts · the credit a stronger roof earns, state by state.
- The roof grant programs · four Gulf states pay toward the roof that earns it.
What this page is not
This site is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any insurance department, wind pool, licensing board or standards body named above. Their rules are theirs, they change, and their pages always win over this one. Nothing here is insurance, legal or financial advice: it is a map, drawn on the date stamped at the top.