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 Most of us in Oklahoma City think of winter weather as a January problem. Then October 2020 happened. From October 26 to 28 that year, freezing rain coated central Oklahoma. The National Weather Service recorded more than half an inch of ice across a wide stretch from Ponca City through Oklahoma City down to Lawton, and an inch and a half or more in parts of the state. OG&E reported more than 400,000 outages at the peak, the most it had ever seen from a single storm. More than 1,300 power poles were damaged or destroyed. Some families in the metro went 11 days without power. It is fall again. The trees in your yard still have their leaves, and that detail matters more than most people realize. Why a Fall Ice Storm Does More DamageOklahoma City's emergency management director said at the time that the 2020 storm did more damage than the December 2007 ice storm for one main reason. The trees were still fully leafed out, so they caught and held far more ice. OG&E said damage in residential backyards ran about 40 percent higher than a normal winter storm. Bare branches let a lot of ice slide off. Leaves hold it. That is how a healthy-looking elm or Bradford pear ends up in the middle of your roof or across your back fence before anyone has put up a Christmas light. The insurance side of that is simple, but it hinges on what you do before the storm, not after. Your Policy Pays for Sudden, Not for NeglectHomeowners insurance is built to cover sudden and accidental damage. A healthy tree that breaks under the weight of ice and lands on your house is generally a covered loss. A dead limb you have been meaning to deal with for two years is a different conversation with an adjuster. The same idea runs through almost every winter claim. Frozen pipes are usually covered if you kept the house reasonably heated. Water damage from a roof is usually covered if it happened suddenly, not if it has been seeping in for months. Fall is the season when you can still fix the things that turn a covered claim into a denied one. Look Up Before the Leaves Come DownRight now is actually a good time to spot trouble in your trees. A dead limb is easy to see when everything around it is still green. Once the leaves drop, it all looks the same. Walk your yard and look for bare branches, cracks where large limbs meet the trunk, and anything hanging over your roof, driveway, or your neighbor's fence. If a tree service tells you something needs to come down, get it in writing and act on it. I covered how carriers sort out whose policy pays and when debris removal is included in our post on falling tree damage and home insurance in Oklahoma City. Clean Gutters Are Roof ProtectionLeaves in your gutters are more than a chore. When ice and snow sit on a roof with clogged gutters, meltwater has nowhere to go. It backs up under the shingles and finds its way into your attic and ceilings. That is an ice dam, and it is one of the more common winter roof claims we see after a freeze. We walked through when that damage is covered in our post on ice dams and winter roof damage in Oklahoma City. If you already have a stain on the ceiling from a spring storm, deal with it now. A slow leak that turns into a big winter leak raises the exact questions I laid out in our post on water damage from a leaky roof. Winterize the Water Before the First Hard FreezePull the hoses off your outside faucets and cover them. Drain and shut down your sprinkler system. If you have plumbing in a crawlspace or on an outside wall, find out now whether it is insulated. Your policy expects reasonable care. Oklahoma Insurance Department guidance notes that frozen pipe damage may not be covered if it comes from negligence, like failing to keep the house heated when you were able to. That matters most if you travel over Thanksgiving or leave a property empty for part of the winter. We explained how pipe breaks are handled in our post on broken water pipes and Oklahoma City home insurance. Plan for a Week Without PowerThe 2020 storm taught a lot of Oklahoma families what a long outage really costs. Food spoils. Houses get cold. People end up in hotels. Here is what surprises most homeowners. Coverage for spoiled food is often limited, and on many policies it depends on where the outage started or whether you added it. A hotel stay because your power is out is not automatically covered either. We broke down the details, including appliances and HVAC damage, in our post on winter power outages and home insurance. If you are thinking about a generator, have it installed properly and let us know. A standby generator can change how a carrier looks at your home, and a portable one run in the garage is a safety problem no policy fixes. Check Your Policy Form, Not Just Your PremiumDo you know whether your policy covers damage from the weight of ice at all? Most HO-3 homeowners policies do. According to the Oklahoma Insurance Department, some more limited policy forms, like the HO-2, may not include weight of ice or snow as a covered peril. Plenty of homeowners have no idea which form they have until they file a claim. While you are looking, find your deductible and know which one applies to a winter claim. Many Oklahoma policies carry a separate wind and hail deductible, and your adjuster will decide which one fits the loss. It is better to understand that in October than to learn it from a claim letter in January. If you want a bigger picture review, our list of insurance things every Oklahoma City homeowner should check this fall covers the rest of the seasonal checkup. We Would Rather Talk Now Than After a StormWe are a local, independent agency located right here in Oklahoma City. We were here in October 2020 and we helped a lot of families sort through tree, roof, and fence claims that winter. The ones who had the smoothest time were the ones who knew what their policy said before the ice showed up. If you are anywhere in the metro, from Moore to Edmond to right here in Oklahoma City, we are glad to look over your coverage and your deductibles with you. Let's make sure your policy is ready for winter while the weather is still nice. We look forward to serving your insurance needs today and in the future.
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