Getting Your SW Florida Home Ready for Hurricane Season

Flying debris breaking a window or door is what turns a storm into structural damage — once wind gets inside, it can push the roof off from below. Protecting every opening is the single highest-value thing you can do.

Your options, roughly best to budget:

• Impact-rated (hurricane) windows and doors— permanent, no scramble before a storm, and they often lower your windstorm premium. Look for a Florida Building Code / Miami-Dade approval and a Design Pressure rating suited to our coastal wind zones.
• Accordion or roll-down shutters— fast to deploy solo, good for homeowners who travel.
• Corrugated metal panels— inexpensive and effective, but heavy and slow to install; pre-drill and label them now, not in a warning cone.

Don't forget thegarage door— it's the largest opening on most SW Florida homes and a common failure point. Add a bracing kit or budget for a wind-rated replacement.

Our flat-roof and low-slope tile homes take a beating from UV, heat, and heavy summer rain long before any hurricane. Get a roofer or do a careful ground-level inspection for lifted or cracked tiles, worn sealant around vents and skylights, and soft spots.

Ask specifically about theroof-to-wall connection— hurricane straps or clips. Homes built or re-roofed under updated Florida code have them; older Fort Myers homes may not, and retrofitting can also earn an insurance credit through a wind-mitigation inspection.

Clear gutters and downspouts of that fine sabal-palm debris and pine straw so our sudden downpours drain instead of backing up under the roof edge.

Not all of our plants behave the same in wind.Sabal palms(the state tree) and other natives tend to flex and survive; brittle, fast-growing species likelaurel oak, ficus, and Australian pineshed big limbs or topple. Have a certified arborist thin dense canopies and remove dead or overhanging limbs — well before a storm, since crews book solid once one is forecast.

Skip over-pruning palms into a "hurricane cut"; stripping fronds actually stresses the tree and doesn't help. Move or anchor anything that becomes a projectile: potted plants, patio furniture, grills, and lightweight lanai screens.

Check drainage while you're out there. Make sure swales and yard drains are clear, downspouts carry water away from the slab, and low spots near the foundation are filled. Inland flooding, not just surge, did enormous damage across Lee County.

This is the step people skip and regret. In Florida,flood is almost never covered by standard homeowners insurance— it's a separate policy, usually through the NFIP or a private insurer, and there's typically a30-day waiting period. Buying in September when a storm is already spinning is too late, so confirm coverage now.

Review your windstorm deductible (often a percentage, not a flat dollar amount here) and ask whether a wind-mitigation inspection could lower your premium. Then document your home: walk every room and the exterior with your phone, photographing and videoing contents, serial numbers, and the condition of the roof and windows. Store it in the cloud, keep copies of policies and IDs in a waterproof bag, and note yourLee County evacuation zone(A through E) so you're not deciding under pressure.