Hurricane and percentage deductible calculator

A 2% hurricane deductible is not 2% of the damage. It is 2% of your dwelling coverage, so on a $400,000 limit you pay up to $8,000 before the policy pays a dollar of wind damage. This calculator makes that number concrete.

How to use it

Open your declarations page and find the line for the wind, hurricane, named storm or earthquake deductible. It may show a percentage, a dollar amount, or both. Then:

1. Enter your Coverage A (dwelling) limit.
2. Pick the deductible type: hurricane or named storm, wind and hail, or earthquake.
3. Enter the percentage printed on the declarations page.
4. Enter your regular all other perils deductible for comparison.
5. Enter a sample damage figure, and try several: a damaged roof, a major repair, a near-total loss.

How the math works

Your deductible is Coverage A times the percentage. On a sample loss you pay the smaller of the damage and the deductible. The insurer pays the damage minus the deductible, never less than zero and never more than Coverage A. The tool also shows what the same damage would pay under your regular deductible, and a table of other percentages on the same home: 1%, 2%, 3%, 5% and 10% for hurricane and wind, or 5% to 25% for earthquake.

Say, hypothetically, a $400,000 dwelling limit, a 2% hurricane deductible, a $1,000 regular deductible and $30,000 of wind damage. The deductible is $8,000, eight times the regular one. You pay $8,000 and the insurer pays $22,000. Under the regular deductible the same damage would have paid $29,000. In the table, a 5% deductible ($20,000) would leave the insurer paying $10,000, and a 10% deductible ($40,000) would leave it paying nothing.

What it assumes

The $400,000 limit, 2%, $1,000 and $30,000 are editable examples. The tool applies the percentage to Coverage A only. For context, the Insurance Information Institute (accessed October 2026) says percentage deductibles typically run from 1% to 5% of insured value, with higher figures possible in some high-wind coastal areas, and counts 19 states and the District of Columbia with hurricane deductibles. In Florida, the statute (Fla. Stat. 627.701) requires insurers to offer $500, 2%, 5% and 10% options, with exceptions by dwelling limit, and applies the hurricane deductible on a calendar-year basis. Louisiana's statute likewise applies a named-storm or hurricane deductible once per calendar year. For mortgages on one-to-four-unit homes sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, each required-peril deductible is capped at 5% of the coverage amount, as of 2026.

Where it stops being right

The tool models one loss against one deductible. Policies differ on what the percentage applies to; some earthquake policies apply separate deductibles to the house and its contents. They differ on when a hurricane deductible switches on, too: a named storm, hurricane strength, a watch or warning, with time windows before and after. States set their own rules, and New York, for one, bars applying the hurricane deductible to loss of use, a protection the tool does not model. If a storm hits twice in a year, whether you pay the deductible once or twice depends on your state and policy. The hurricane and named-storm deductibles explained and wind and hail deductibles explained guides explain the triggers.

Flood damage is excluded from a homeowners policy and needs a flood policy. Compare your result with your emergency savings, because a percentage deductible is a bill due before the first repair, and see the homeowners deductible break-even calculator for the everyday deductible.