Hurricane season in New Orleans runs from June 1 through November 30, but the storms that matter tend to arrive in August and September. By the time a named storm enters the Gulf, supply stores are picked clean and contractors are booked out. The homeowners who fare best are the ones who prepared in the quiet weeks before.
Every New Orleans construction type has its own failure mode. Raised shotgun and camelback homes flood at the sill line when streets fill, and wind-driven rain finds gaps around their tall windows and doors. Slab homes in Lakeview, Gentilly, and Metairie take water straight across the floor. Creole cottages with brick-between-post walls wick moisture upward for weeks after a storm. Walk your property now and identify the low entry points: door thresholds, weep holes, low windows, and garage openings.
Clear gutters and downspouts, and make sure downspouts discharge away from the foundation. Test your sump pump if you have one, and consider a battery backup — power loss and flooding arrive together. Photograph every room and your major appliances for insurance documentation, and store the photos off your phone. Know where your main water shutoff is, and make sure every adult in the house can find and turn it.
Confirm whether you carry flood insurance — most standard homeowner policies in Louisiana do not cover rising water, only wind-driven rain. Keep your policy numbers, your agent’s line, and a restoration company’s number in your phone before you need them. After a major storm, restoration demand spikes citywide within hours, and the order in which you call determines the order in which you get dried.
Document everything before you touch anything: photos and video of the flood line, damaged materials, and standing water. Then start mitigation immediately — extraction within 24 hours is the difference between drying a house and gutting it. Category 3 floodwater from streets and surge is contaminated; leave the deep cleaning to crews with protective equipment and antimicrobial treatment.
