Hurricane Season Is Here: What Every Traveler Needs to Know About Insurance
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The scoring formula takes into account the type of card being reviewed (such as cash back, travel or balance transfer) and the card's rates, fees, rewards and other features.Rewards rate2x-10xEarn unlimited 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel and 5X miles on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel, Earn unlimited 2X miles on all other purchases.MilesIntro offer75,000Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.MilesSee more cardsAs a Floridian, I know my travel plans during hurricane season might be affected. But wherever you live, a hurricane could have an impact on your planned travel, so it’s a good idea to know how your travel insurance plan will cover you if it does. Here are a few things to know when buying travel insurance for trips during hurricane season. When talking about hurricane season, most people are referring to the Atlantic hurricane season, which is June 1 through November 30, with the peak being mid-August to mid-October. When storms reach a certain threshold in sustained windspeed, they get a name, mostly to make them easier to talk about. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) rotates through six lists of names, using 21 of the 26 letters in the alphabet as the first letter of each name. Before the season starts, predictions about the season come out from experts like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service. The forecast changes each year because of a variety of weather phenomena like El Niño or La Niña. An average hurricane season has 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes. For 2026, NOAA has predicted a below-normal season with eight to 14 named storms, three to six hurricanes and one to three major hurricanes, mostly because of a very strong El Niño. Storms can form and intensify just about anywhere but often come off the coast of Africa and travel across the Atlantic or form and intensify in the Gulf. This means anywhere in the Caribbean or along the Atlantic coast or Gulf coast is in the potential path of a storm. Even though a less active season is predicted for 2026, all it takes is one storm to alter or ruin travel plans. Many comprehensive travel insurance policies (that include more than medical coverage) cover natural disasters and severe weather. In this case, a hurricane would trigger coverage for things like cancellation, interruption, delay, missed connections and other unexpected events. But the storm must be significant enough to be a natural disaster or cause major closures or destruction in order for coverage to kick in. A regular rainstorm might not apply. For example, my annual policy with Allianz includes hurricanes in its definitions both of a natural disaster and severe weather. To help you find a policy that includes hurricane coverage, insurance aggregator SquareMouth has a filter that will only show policies that include that coverage. SquareMouth does not work with all travel insurance policies, so additional companies might offer policies that are not listed. If you’re traveling to a place that might be in the path of a hurricane and want travel insurance coverage, it’s important to buy it in a timely fashion.Once a storm is named, it’s too late to buy coverage since a named storm is a foreseeable event and is eliminated from coverage because travel insurance is mainly to cover unforeseen and unexpected events.So, travel insurance coverage must be in place at least 24 hours before the storm is named, meaning if you’re heading out for a Caribbean island getaway in a few days, and a storm has already been named and is heading toward the islands, any travel insurance you buy won’t cover your imminent trip.If you bought your insurance plan when you made the deposit for the trip, before the storm formed, you’d likely get back at least some of the money you paid.However, don’t decline travel insurance completely just because there is a named storm lurking. Any policy you’d buy at the last minute would still cover medical needs and other emergencies. If you have travel insurance in place and a named storm changes or cancels your plans, you might not lose everything you paid. Most insurance plans that include travel cancellation or delay cover severe weather and natural disasters. Your plan might also pay for you to rebook travel if you can get to your destination another way, like from an alternate airport. Nerdy tip: Travel insurance isn’t just for coverage at the destination. A storm warning at your origination point could prevent you from getting to a destination far outside a storm zone. For example, a storm heading for Florida might lead to airport closures in the entire state, keeping people from flying to a destination away from the storm. In order to receive reimbursement for prepaid expenses, your delay or cancellation must meet certain criteria, such as a specific amount of time for a travel delay, your home or destination being uninhabitable, your destination being under a hurricane warning or being in a mandatory evacuation zone. This might seem like obvious advice, but keep an eye on the weather if you're traveling during hurricane season. The National Hurricane Center has a weekly outlook, monitoring tropical weather for the next seven days and reporting storm development probability. The Weather Channel and AccuWeather also monitor storm development. Knowing the forecast could help you decide whether to adjust your travel route or whether to start your journey slightly early to get ahead of a storm. For example, if your itinerary has you flying through Miami to get somewhere, and Miami is in the path of a named storm, you might be able to change your flight and travel earlier or connect through another airport that won’t be affected. Travel insurance might cover the costs to make these changes, such as adding more nights to a hotel stay. On the other hand, an airline might issue a weather waiver in advance of a storm, allowing you to change or cancel your plans without a penalty, in which case you won’t have to use your travel insurance. If you bought travel insurance before a storm was named, and that storm destroys the hotel where you have booked a future trip, your policy will likely cover you. For example, looking at travel insurance plans from Faye, if your destination is uninhabitable and remains uninhabitable due to a natural disaster such as a hurricane, that is a covered reason for cancellation. The size of hurricanes and named storms vary, and cruise lines will often alter the itinerary when possible to keep a ship out of harm’s way rather than cancel a cruise. Many regular travel insurance policies won’t reimburse you if you choose to cancel because of an itinerary change, and they won’t compensate you for the itinerary change either. Specific cruise plans or add-ons might pay for these types of occurrences. For example, some of Tin Leg’s cruise-specific insurance will pay for your travel inconvenience if your ship misses a scheduled port of call because of a natural disaster or adverse weather. It will also reimburse you for any prepaid and nonrefundable excursions you might have booked. If you are stuck in a location when a storm hits, nonmedical evacuation coverage in your travel insurance policy could pay for repatriation back to your home if the place where you are is uninhabitable after a natural disaster like a hurricane. If you live in an area where a named storm hits, and it damages your home to the point where you can’t live in it, a travel insurance policy in place before that storm would likely allow you to cancel your trip and get paid back for any nonrefundable prepayments. Similar coverage would apply if your home is damaged by a named storm and becomes uninhabitable while you are away on a covered trip. Trip interruption coverage would kick in and likely pay for you to get home and for the unused portion of your trip. It’s always smart to keep receipts for prepaid and nonrefundable items related to your travel. With hurricanes and named storms, it’s also important to keep documentation related to storm watches, warnings, cancellations or evacuations, and to properly document property damage. You’ll need this information to file a claim. You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are some of the best travel credit cards of 2026:
Source: NerdWallet
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