There are affordable, DIY steps you can take to harden your property against tornadoes and hail, and IOA offers insurance to help if damage occurs anyway. 

When you live in the Huntsville suburbs or elsewhere in Alabama, you can expect to have your home and auto affected by a tornado at some point. With 72 tornadoes landing in Alabama during 2025 and Limestone County falling in the top 10 locales for tornadoes nationwide, residents and vehicle owners need to be prepared for significant wind events. Here are some insurance coverages and safety steps you can take to minimize your risk of loss. 

Protecting your home against tornadoes

Spring is the most active season for tornadoes in Alabama and southern Tennessee, with November and December also seeing an elevated occurrence. Most tornadoes in this region form out of supercell thunderstorms and are accompanied by heavy rains, which can cause water intrusion damage to homes that don’t have enhanced protection against wind events. 

Tornadoes are measured on the Fujita scale or Enhanced Fujita scale, hence the names F or EF 0-5, with 5 being the most devastating. An EF1 tornado (winds from 86 to 111 mph) is the most common in Alabama and can damage your home by tearing off shingles or even flipping a mobile home. An EF2 direct hit can rip off roofs, doors, and siding. And an EF3 or above (more than 135 mph) can tear apart a home or lift it off its foundation. 

While completely protecting your home against a massive wind event is impossible, you can take steps to mitigate damage from direct hits by EF2 or weaker tornadoes and the indirect effects of twisters of greater intensity. Here are some ideas. 

Roofing improvements 

When it’s time for a new roof or new shingles, use Class F/Class H rated shingles and make sure the company you hire can properly install them to resist high winds. If you are redoing the entire roof, insist that your installer uses 7/16-inch sheathing and 8d common nails or 8d ring shank nails. Keep copies of your contract and all specifications. FortifiedHome.org offers a convenient roofing checklist. Following those guidelines and keeping records of those efforts can help you keep home insurance premiums under control. 

These upgrades to your roof can also improve performance when hailstorms hit, so you get added value out of your investment. 

Properly connecting your roof to your walls with metal straps (sold at most home centers) can also help and can be done without reroofing. You can even do this yourself. You can reinforce trusses, too, thereby strengthening joists against wind pressure. 

Windows and doors meant to resist wind damage 

You may need a professional and some investment money for this project, but it could be well worth the effort. Storm shutters are an affordable way to protect windows from breakage and block flying debris from entering your home. (By the way, glass breakage and materials carried by high winds are significant causes of property damage and human injury.) You should also evaluate the quality of your garage door. Kits are sold to reinforce doors so they resist wind loads and protect garage contents. 

If your budget prevents major improvements at this time, you can take very inexpensive measures, such as installing heavy-duty exterior doors or even heavy-duty door bolts to prevent door blow-ins during high winds. And for windows, if you cannot afford storm shutters, you can at least put up protective film to reduce injuries from shattering. 

Strong walls protect what’s inside 

If you are buying a new home in Alabama, see if you can get insulated concrete form walls, which can stay standing even in winds of 250 mph. 

For existing walls that weren’t built to such strength, you can improve what you have. Some actions require substantial work, such as removing drywall, but they can have a major protective impact. If you are getting new siding, that’s a great time to make the upgrades. Your load-bearing walls are probably already anchored to the foundation, but in some older houses they are not and partition walls are often just screwed into the concrete. You can find retrofit foundation anchors on commercial websites and either hire someone to add these reinforcements or do it yourself if you’re handy. 

Safe rooms are a life-saving investment 

Building a safe room that your family and pets can easily access can save lives. According to homeguide.com, a steel safe-room addition to an existing home runs between $150 and $350 per square foot, while concrete safe rooms run a bit less. Safe rooms are typically prefabricated inserts, though they can also be built outside either above or below ground. A 5’x7’ space can hold about 10 people and would run about $7,500, depending on where you live, the company you buy from, and whether it’s an interior, exterior above ground, or exterior in-ground structure. You can keep your vital records in there too, so you have birth certificates, car titles and insurance documents available after a storm. Not all are made for tornadoes, so choose carefully. 

Protecting your car or truck during a tornado

The first thing that must be said is a car or pickup is NOT a safe place to be during a tornado. Seek shelter in a strong building if you are caught on the road. If you bring your car inside a structure, especially a garage, during a tornado, you are less likely to experience damage from hail or flying debris. If you have hardened your garage with heavy-duty doors, wind-resistant, anchored walls, window shutters, and strapped roofing, your vehicle might escape a tornado with no damage. Any kind of soft structure, such as a canopy, will offer little protection and may, itself, become a hazard. If it’s possible to take such structures down and store them safely when there is a severe convective storm, that is a good idea. 

Car and home insurance for tornadoes

Most homeowners insurance policies cover wind damage, but it’s important to check for any sublimits (which prescribe lower dollar payouts for specific perils) or other restrictions on tornadoes. Some insurers have special provisions when it comes to high-risk areas. Houses that have been upgraded to resist wind damage may be eligible for better rates, so be sure to provide records on any betterments you or previous owners have made. 

For car, pickup truck, and motorcycle insurance to cover damage from tornadoes, you have to elect comprehensive coverage. If you didn’t when you bought your policy, you can always add it. This insures against non-collision damage, which includes flying or falling debris as well as hail. 

Talk to an IOA insurance agent to discover your options for tornado insurance for home and auto in Alabama. We are happy to help you understand your current policy and look for ways you can get better protection. 

SOURCE: 

NOAA: https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/clouds/ten-basic-clouds 

Shingle ratings: https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_improving-windstorm-resilience-fact-sheet_022023.pdf?lv=true 

FortifiedHome.org: https://fortifiedhome.org/wp-content/uploads/re-roofing-checklist_high-wind-hail-2020.pdf?v=1666898416992 

Homeguide.com: https://homeguide.com/costs/safe-room-cost