Winter Weather Addendum

Being Prepared and Protected When Natural Disasters Strike

Natural disasters are dangerous, stressful, and unpredictable. While you can’t prevent them, you can prepare for them. The best things Landlords can do to limit the impact of natural disasters is to make sure:

• Their property is prepared
• Their Tenants are informed and prepared
• All parties have clear directions and a plan of action for any natural disasters that might occur
• Tenants have renters insurance to protect their personal belongings

Identify Natural Disasters Your Rental Property is at Risk of Experiencing

The first step for ensuring you’re ready is to know the types of natural disasters in your region. Obviously, natural disasters are inherently unpredictable, but here are some areas that are at higher risks for certain types of natural disasters:

• Northeast: winter storms with snow and ice; nor’easters - storms with heavy snow, rain, hurricane-force winds, and flooding
• Gulf of Mexico/Atlantic: hurricanes with strong winds, heavy rain, and large waves
• Southeast/Midwest: tornadoes
• Mountain West: wildfires; earthquakes
• West Coast: wildfires; earthquakes

To help better identify the risks in certain areas, scientists and researchers created a list of the states at the highest risk of natural disasters. Here are the top 10 locations from that list and the type of disaster they’re most likely to see.

1. Texas: tornadoes, floods, wildfires, and hurricanes
2. California: earthquakes, wildfires, flooding, severe weather
3. Oklahoma: tornadoes, snow, flooding, wildfires
4. New York: snow, ice, tropical storms
5. Florida: hurricanes
6. Louisiana: hurricanes, flooding
7. Alabama: hurricanes
8. Kentucky: flooding, tornadoes, severe weather
9. Arkansas: heavy rain, snow, ice, tornadoes, flooding
10. Missouri: ice storms, snow, tornadoes, flooding

Have a Plan for Each Type of Natural Disaster

After identifying the natural disasters that their rental properties are most likely to experience, Landlords should next take steps to be prepared for each type of disaster. To make this as EZ as possible, here are documents that you can use to guide you and inform Tenants.

• Hurricane Addendum
• Tornado Addendum
• Earthquake Addendum
• Wildfire Addendum
• Winter Weather Addendum
• Flood Addendum