What to document and grab before a hurricane or wildfire

When is the right time to prepare?

Before there is a warning. Ready.gov gives the Atlantic hurricane season as June 1 to November 30 and the eastern Pacific season as May 15 to November 30. For wildfire it says you may have to evacuate quickly, and advises learning your routes and your destination in advance. When local officials order an evacuation, Ready.gov says to leave immediately. Everything below is meant to be done earlier, not during.

What documents should you have ready to take?

FEMA's guide to safeguarding documents says the first step is to take an inventory of your household documents, contacts and valuables, and to think about the priceless personal items you would want to protect or take if you had to evacuate suddenly. Its checklist and Ready.gov's pages name these groups. Gather them ahead of time. If an order comes before you have, leave without them.

• Identification: photo ID, passport, Social Security card, and vital records such as birth and marriage certificates. Pet ownership papers and ID tags too, if you have pets.
• Housing: a lease or rental agreement, mortgage papers or the deed.
• Insurance: your policies (homeowners, renters, auto, life and flood), plus appraisals, photos and lists of valuable items.
• Medical: health insurance information, a list of medications and your doctors' contact details. Ready.gov's hurricane page also says to include medication, disinfectant supplies and pet supplies in your go bag or car trunk.
• Contacts: your bank, your insurance agent and your health providers, as Ready.gov's financial preparedness page lists them.
• Cash: Ready.gov says to keep small bills on hand, because ATMs and credit cards may not work during a disaster.

Where should the copies live?

Not only in the house. Ready.gov suggests storing important documents in a safe deposit box, on an external drive or in the cloud so they are easy to reach in a disaster. Its wildfire and hurricane pages say to make copies of insurance policies and ID and keep them in a secure, password-protected digital space. The NAIC suggests copies of personal documents in a waterproof container, and a copy of your inventory somewhere besides your home, such as with a family member or your insurance agent.

Does your insurance cover the hazard?

Check now, not afterwards. Ready.gov says not all policies are the same and asks you to confirm that your coverage amounts and types meet the requirements for the hazards you face. On flood in particular, Ready.gov says homeowners insurance does not typically cover flooding, the NAIC says a standard homeowners or renter's policy does not cover flood damage, and Triple-I says most renters policies do not cover floods or earthquakes. Flood coverage is available through the National Flood Insurance Program and a few private insurers.

FEMA says there is typically a 30-day waiting period before a new National Flood Insurance Program policy goes into effect, with exceptions such as coverage a government-backed lender requires. Buy well before a storm is forecast.

What about photographing your belongings?

The sources differ in emphasis on timing. Ready.gov's wildfire and hurricane pages mention photographs only after the event: document property damage and contact your insurer, and the wildfire page adds taking an inventory. Its financial preparedness page says to document and insure your property now, and FEMA's checklist includes photos and lists of valuable items among the records to keep with your insurance policies. The NAIC is the most specific: make a home inventory ahead of a disaster, keep it somewhere other than your home, and if you are short on time, quickly videotape or photograph every room.

So the practical order is to build the inventory well ahead, as in how to make a home inventory for an insurance claim. If you have a few minutes before any evacuation warning or order, a quick video of each room is worth having. Once officials issue a warning or an order, skip it and go. An evacuation order comes before anything on this page.

What do you do when you can go back?

Go back only when officials say it is safe. Ready.gov's wildfire page says not to return home until authorities say it is safe, and warns about hot ash, charred trees, smoldering debris and live embers, and about heat pockets in the ground. After a hurricane, Ready.gov says not to touch electrical equipment that is wet or while you are standing in water, and that downed power lines can electrically charge floodwater.

Once you can get in, Ready.gov's advice after a wildfire or a hurricane is to document property damage with photographs and contact your insurance company, and the wildfire page adds an inventory. Photograph before you clean up or throw anything away. What an adjuster asks for covers the proof a claim needs.

Questions

Sources

• Ready.gov: Wildfires
• Ready.gov: Hurricanes
• Ready.gov: Financial preparedness
• FEMA P-1096: Safeguard critical documents and valuables (July 2018)
• FEMA: Flood insurance
• NAIC: Disaster preparedness (May 2014)
• Triple-I: Your renters insurance guide

Last reviewed November 3, 2026. General information, not insurance or legal advice — your policy's wording decides what is covered and how it is valued.