Texas weather: Winter preparation tips for your home ahead of arctic blast
AUSTIN, Texas - The Insurance Council of Texas is offering winter preparation tips for your home ahead of the artic blast expected this weekend. They said being prepared is crucial to minimize risks and ensure adequate insurance coverage.
As the temperature drops, the risk for damage to homes rises.
Here are some tips to prevent it:
- Insulate and weatherize by sealing any gaps in windows or doors.
"So, when you have that heater blasting, it’s not going outside," Insurance Council of Texas Rich Johnson said.
- Protect pipes.
"Take a towel, some duct tape, get them around those faucets that are outside," Johnson said.
- Put together an emergency kit.
"With maybe some food, water, some medicine, and a couple of safety supplies, maybe a battery-operated radio," Johnson said.
- Take a home inventory by either writing down the items in your home, or, even easier, take a video of your home.
"Go ahead and take your smartphone, do 360 views of every single room with your smartphone and email it to yourself that way you’re documenting what kind of electronics you might have, what kind of books, what kind of flooring you have, what kind of wall coverings you might have, all those things really help if you do have damage down the road just to show what type of things are in your home," Johnson said.
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If damage does occur to your home, take pictures, and make a claim with your insurance company.
"If you have a frozen pipe that bursts, typically most home insurance policies cover that," Johnson said.
Look over your insurance policy and make sure there aren’t any exclusions.
The Texas Insurance Department said the average loss during the major freeze in 2021 was almost $18,000 for residential property policies and reporting insurers said they paid more than $11 billion to insured Texas.
If you don’t have home insurance, it’s not too late to sign up before the artic front hits.
"If you were to sign up for insurance tonight or right now, usually you’d have a policy at midnight the following day," Johnson said.
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