Colorado · A tornado is wind, until the water is flood
A tornado that tears the roof is usually a wind claim on the homeowners form. Water that comes in from outside afterward can still be flood, which the homeowners form excludes. This page will not quote a tornado count.
Eastern Colorado sees tornadoes. The mountains are not the whole state. NOAA publishes the storm record. This article does not copy a year or a total out of it. On a typical homeowners policy, windstorm, including a tornado, is a covered peril for the dwelling. The deductible that applies is the one on the declarations. If that deductible is a wind or hail percent of Coverage A, it applies to this loss too. Two percent of $450,000 is $9,000. That is an example, not a tornado deductible the state set. Colorado does not set a homeowners dollar minimum the way it sets an auto floor.
The hole the wind made and the flood that followed are different claims. Damage from the wind itself, and rain that enters because the wind opened the house, is the kind of loss a wind peril is built for. Water that runs in over the ground is flood, and flood is not a homeowners peril. Loss of use pays extra living costs if a covered peril makes the home unfit to live in. It does not pay the mortgage, and it does not pay for an evacuation with no covered damage unless the form says so. Debris removal of a tree on the house is not a new tree. Coverage A is still rebuild cost, not the sale price.
The policy: Colorado homeowners and loss of use. The water the wind policy does not buy: Colorado flood.
Read whether your wind deductible is a percent of Coverage A before storm season, not after the roof is in the yard. Ask an agent or get a quote.
