Hurricane season in Hollywood: the water-damage calendar

Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, with the sharpest risk for South Florida from mid-August through October. Wind gets the headlines, but for most Hollywood houses the lasting damage from a tropical system is water — rain that overwhelms the drainage, water pushed through canals, and roof leaks that run for hours. Here is the season in three acts, written for the water side of the story.

Before: the quiet weeks of June and July

The best flood work is done when nothing is on the radar. Start with a slow walk around the house after a normal heavy rain — we get plenty — and note where water stands against the foundation, which downspouts dump too close to the wall, and whether the swale at the street actually drains. Photograph every room and the contents you care about, and store the photos somewhere that is not in the house: that set of pictures is the baseline every later insurance conversation leans on.

Then handle the mechanical basics. Know where your main water shutoff is and confirm it turns. Check the water heater and washing machine hoses, since a storm week is a bad week for a hose to let go unnoticed. If your street is one of the low ones near a canal, keep sandbags or a door-barrier system somewhere reachable rather than theoretical, and clear the storm drain in front of the house if it is choked with palm fronds — Broward County asks residents to keep those grates clear for a reason. Our readiness checklist turns all of this into a single pass of boxes to tick.

Finally, read your insurance papers in the calm. Standard homeowners insurance in Florida generally does not cover rising flood water; that requires a separate flood policy, and flood policies typically carry a 30-day waiting period before they take effect. June is exactly when that detail matters.

When a storm is forecast: the 72-hour window

Once Hollywood is in the cone, the jobs shrink to the essentials. Bring in or secure anything outside that can float or fly. Raise what you can in the lowest rooms — rugs rolled and lifted, electronics and boxes off the floor, furniture on blocks if your house has taken water before. Move irreplaceable papers, photos and medicines up high or take them with you. If you use sandbags, place them at door thresholds and the garage seam, the entry points that actually let street water in.

Decide early about the car, the generator and the evacuation question, following Broward County and City of Hollywood instructions rather than habit. If you leave, shut off the water at the main and switch off power to areas you expect could flood if you can do so safely — a house that floods with live circuits and a running water line can take a second, self-inflicted round of damage while you are gone. Tell a neighbor or family member where your shutoffs are.

The September problem: peak season on soaked ground

Statistically, the Atlantic season peaks around mid-September, and locally that timing is treacherous. By September, Hollywood has absorbed three months of wet-season rain; the soil is full, canals run high, and the water table sits close to the surface. A September storm therefore floods with less rain than the same storm would need in June, and flood water recedes more slowly because the drainage system has no spare capacity anywhere. It is also the point in the year when households are most tempted to let preparation slide — the season is half over, nothing has happened yet. September is exactly when the sandbags, the photographs and the shutoff check earn their keep.

One more seasonal wrinkle: king tides. In the fall, the year's highest astronomical tides push extra water into the canal system on perfectly sunny days, and a rain event that lands on a king tide drains against a higher starting line. The combination — peak-season storm, saturated ground, king tide — never makes a headline in advance, but it is the recipe behind several of this area's most memorable street floods.

During the storm: stay out of the water, stay off the roads

While the system passes, the water rules are simple and absolute. Do not drive through flooded streets — Broward's canals make depth impossible to judge, and a stalled car in a flooded underpass is a rescue call. Do not walk in flood water where you can avoid it: it can carry debris, hide open manholes and drains, and — after a surge or canal overflow — be contaminated. If water enters the house during the storm, move people and pets to the highest dry area, avoid any room where water has reached electrical outlets, and wait. Property can be addressed tomorrow; the during-the-storm job is only to be safe.

After: the first days decide the next months

When officials say it is safe, come back in daylight and document before you touch: video the water line on the walls, photograph every room, then start the clock-driven work. The full sequence — safety check, extraction, muck-out, verified drying, sanitizing, rebuild — is laid out in the cleanup guide, and the first-steps page covers the first hours in detail.

Expect the after-storm scramble. Every restoration crew, electrician and roofer in Broward County is booked at once after a named storm, tarps and generators sell out, and the county's debris pickup runs on published schedules rather than your schedule. Two things cut through the scramble: having documented everything, and having started drying — even imperfect DIY drying with fans and a wet vacuum in a mild case — rather than leaving a wet house closed up in the heat. A sealed, wet, un-air-conditioned Hollywood house in September is a mold incubator running at ideal temperature.

And pace yourself. Storm recovery is a season of phone calls, adjuster visits and contractor queues. Keep every receipt, keep one notebook or phone note with dates and names, and take the process step by step. The houses that come back best are rarely the ones that moved fastest on day one — they are the ones that dried properly before anyone closed a wall.

Sources: NOAA National Hurricane Center preparedness guidance; Ready.gov hurricanes and floods pages; Broward County hurricane and flood resources. General information only — always follow official local instructions during an actual storm.