Hurricane preparation for Palm Beach County homes

The work that decides how a storm goes happens in May, months before a name is on the map. We inventory the shutters and hang-test the panels, because a track that binds is discovered on a calm Tuesday or during a warning, and only one of those is survivable. Hardware gets lubricated, missing panels get fabricated, and the labels are checked so a crew working in wind is not guessing which panel belongs to which opening.

Generators get run against the actual panel under load, not idled for five minutes. We confirm the transfer switch, top off fuel or verify propane, change filters if the hours call for it, and note the runtime you can honestly expect. We also photograph the house end to end: roof, elevations, interiors, contents, and art, timestamped and filed, so the condition of the property before the season is documented rather than argued about later.

The last piece is the written plan. Before June, every property under our care has a plan on file that states who reports to the house, what point in the forecast sends them, and what authority we hold if you are unreachable: closing shutters, cutting water and non-essential power, and hiring emergency labor to a dollar limit you set. You approve it once, in May.

We return as soon as officials reopen access, usually the same day, and walk the property inside and out. Small water intrusion becomes a structural problem in about seventy-two hours in Florida humidity, so the first inspection is about finding it while it is still cheap: ceiling stains, window and door seals, soffits, the roof line, the pool cage, and any tree contact with the house or a service disconnect.

Everything affected is photographed and described in writing, with time and location data intact, and logged the day of the visit. Tarping, board-up, and extraction crews come from vendors we already work with, engaged immediately rather than whoever is still answering a phone a week later. Power, water, and A/C restoration get chased until the house is actually dry and cool again.

The output is a file your adjuster can work from without a second request: before-and-after photographs, dated visit logs, and vendor invoices in one place. That record is the reason the May photography matters, and it is usually what separates a paid claim from a disputed one.