This year the forecasters are calling for a slow season. NOAA’s 2026 Atlantic outlook, released in May, puts the odds of a below-normal season at 55 percent (roughly 8 to 14 named storms, 3 to 6 hurricanes), largely because an El Niño pattern is expected to strengthen over the summer and suppress storm formation. If history is any guide, that headline is already working its way through board meetings across Florida as a reason to relax.
Resist it. A seasonal forecast says nothing about whether one of those storms crosses your property. The 1992 season produced just six named storms. One of them was Andrew. Even NOAA attached its usual warning to this year’s outlook: it only takes one storm to make for a very bad season. For a coastal association, “below normal” is a statistic; a single landfall is a balance sheet event. And quiet forecasts have a cost of their own: they are precisely when roof work gets deferred another year, vendor agreements lapse, and owner contact lists go stale.
Florida law gives association boards unusually broad authority during a declared state of emergency: Section 718.1265 of the Condominium Act and its HOA counterpart, Section 720.316. Once a state of emergency is declared for your area, the board may, among other things: conduct meetings by phone or video and cancel or reschedule them as needed; determine that portions of the property are unavailable for entry to protect health and safety; contract for debris removal, the removal of wet drywall and carpet, and other mold-prevention measures; implement a disaster plan, including shutting down elevators and utilities; levy special assessments without an owner vote; and borrow money, pledging association assets as collateral, to fund emergency repairs. These powers last only as long as reasonably necessary to protect the community and mitigate damage, but in the chaotic first weeks after a storm, they are the difference between acting and waiting.
They only help, though, if your board knows it has them and has decided in advance who does what. A one-page activation plan (who confirms the declaration, who calls the vendors, who communicates with owners, how decisions get documented for the record) turns a statute into an actual capability. Writing that plan in October, by flashlight, is not a plan.
Post-storm financial pain rarely comes from having no insurance. It comes from two numbers boards never looked at closely.
First, the hurricane deductible. Florida wind and hurricane deductibles are typically written as a percentage of insured value, not a flat dollar amount. On a building insured for $25 million, a 3 percent hurricane deductible is $750,000, money the association must produce before the first dollar of coverage arrives. If your reserves, credit line, or special-assessment plan can’t absorb that number, you don’t fully have the coverage you think you have.
Second, the line between the master policy and owners’ HO-6 policies. Under Section 718.111(11)(f), the association’s policy generally covers the building itself, while each owner is responsible for what’s inside their unit boundary: floor, wall, and ceiling coverings, cabinets and countertops, appliances, water heaters, electrical fixtures, and personal property. Every post-storm dispute we see lives on that line: owners who assumed the association would rebuild their kitchen, associations that assumed owners carried adequate HO-6 and loss-assessment coverage. Confirm the split with your agent now, put it in writing, and tell owners plainly what they need to insure themselves.
The associations that come through storms well are the ones whose managers treated readiness as routine: policies reviewed on a calendar, vendors under agreement, records backed up, boards briefed on their authority before they needed it. As a future-focused partner for Florida’s associations, Aurora builds that discipline into everyday management, so a quiet forecast stays what it should be: good news, not a trap.
Want a second set of eyes on your association’s storm readiness (insurance, reserves, vendors, and board authority) before the season peaks?
Talk to Aurora →This article is general information for Florida community associations, current as of July 2026. It is not legal or insurance advice and is not a substitute for guidance from your association’s licensed Florida attorney and insurance professional. Statutes, forecasts, and policy forms change. Confirm specifics with your advisors before acting.