Tornado Season is Here – Get Your Home Ready with Tips from Foremost Insurance

Inside Your Home

• Be sure your water heater and furnace are secured.
• Purchase sturdy “L-brackets” from the hardware store and use them to anchor your major appliances to the walls or countertops of your home. Watch out for electrical hazards. If necessary, hire a professional.
• Put child safety locks on all your cupboards to keep contents in.
• Use “V-hooks” to mount pictures and wall hangings instead of nails. These hooks let pictures shift without falling from the wall.
• Learn how to quickly disconnect breakers in the service box for your water, gas and electric.  If there’s time, turn off these utilities before the tornado hits.
• Create a personal property inventory that lists all of your household goods and personal items before a claim occurs. If things are damaged due to a tornado, this will give your insurance company a record of what items were in your home and greatly improve the accuracy of your settlement.

 Outside Your Home

• Consider replacing older windows with modern, impact-resistant glass.
• Inspect roofing material and secure any loose shingles on your roof with a black plastic roof mastic commonly found in home improvement stores or lumber yards.
• Recoat metal roofs as needed. Metal roof coating is available at lumber yards and hardware stores.
• Repair exterior siding, awnings, gutters, downspouts and brackets if loose, damaged or dangling. On a manufactured home, make sure skirting is properly vented.
• Don’t store flammable, caustic, hazardous material, newspapers or grass clippings underneath your manufactured home.
• Have a trained professional install proper tie-downs on your manufactured home and sheds.
• Keep your yard free of poles, shovels, bikes and other loose articles. These can become hazardous flying objects during severe windstorms.