The 2026 Hurricane Preparation Checklist for Marinas (and How to Run It in 90 Minutes)

If you operate a marina on the US Atlantic, Gulf Coast, or Caribbean, hurricane season isn't a question of "if" — it's a question of how fast you can execute when NOAA escalates a tropical storm watch to a warning. The marinas that lose the fewest boats are the ones with a documented plan and the operational system to run it.

This 18-step checklist is adapted from the Clean Marina program, AMI guidance, and publicly documented lessons from Hurricanes Ian (2022) and Helene (2024). Print it. Adapt it. Or run it as a digital workflow so nothing falls through.

#Before storm season (May–June)

The work that matters most happens before any storm appears on the map. By the time NHC posts an advisory, you don't have time to update insurance records or recruit a tie-down crew.

• Audit your storm plan agreement. Every customer on a wet slip should have a signed current-year storm plan. Marine OS auto-flags expired signatures.
• Verify insurance on every vessel. 31% of marinas after Ian had to fight claims because customer insurance had lapsed. Pull a one-click expiry report.
• Inventory storm gear. Extra lines (3/4" minimum), fenders (10+ per boat), chafe gear, mooring straps. Document it now.
• Identify your mandatory haul-out list. Vessels over a length threshold (typically 35'+) or with insurance riders requiring haul-out should be tagged.
• Pre-assign storm berths. Your sheltered slips on the leeward side go to specific vessels first. Document the assignments.

#When NOAA issues a watch (72 hours out)

The first 12 hours of a hurricane watch are when customer noise peaks. Your dockmaster will get 200+ phone calls. The operations that survive this gracefully are the ones who do mass communication, not 1:1 phone tag.

1. 1Send the cascade. SMS + email + push to all enrolled members. Plain English: "We're activating the storm plan. Action required by you within 24 hours."
2. 2Open the haul-out schedule. Travel-lift slots are first-come for non-mandatory haul-outs. Customers self-book through the boater portal.
3. 3Lock new transient reservations. Auto-block arrivals 48 hours before expected landfall.
4. 4Confirm your storm crew. Who's on dock, who's on phones, who's on the lift. Names, hours, comp arrangement.

#When NOAA escalates to warning (48 hours out)

Now everything you prepared in May has to execute. The lift operator runs 12 hours straight. The dockmaster walks every dock. The bookkeeper isn't answering calls about A/R.

1. 1Execute mandatory haul-outs. Don't wait for owners — your liability is bigger than their inconvenience.
2. 2Move sheltered-slip assignments. Tag every storm-berth vessel as "in storm berth" so you have a roster.
3. 3Run the tie-down checklist. Every vessel staying in water: 3 lines minimum, doubled on the bow, chafe gear on every chock. Photo-document. Marine OS makes this a single mobile form per vessel.
4. 4Secure non-vessel inventory. Pull dinghies. Lash kayaks. Move ship-store outdoor displays inside.
5. 5Shut down fuel dock 24 hours out. EPA SPCC plan compliance — document the shutoff time.

#Landfall – ride it out

Your role here is mostly done. Stay safe. Don't walk the docks. The marinas with the worst injury outcomes are the ones where a dockmaster tried to "fix one more line" during the surge.

#Post-storm (within 24 hours)

Speed matters. Insurance carriers process claims first-come, first-served. The marina that submits photo-documented assessments within 24 hours gets paid before the marina submitting paper claims two weeks later.

1. 1Run the post-storm assessment workflow. Walk each slip. Photo every vessel. Tag damage severity (none / minor / major / total loss).
2. 2Dispatch your surveyor. Marine OS auto-routes assessments to your contracted surveyor with photos pre-attached.
3. 3File insurance claim documentation. The faster you submit, the faster customers get paid.
4. 4Communicate with owners. Mass-update by tier: "Your vessel: No damage" / "Minor damage, surveyor scheduled" / "Major damage — please call."

#The cost of not having a system

After Ian, the marinas that operated on spreadsheets and Dockmaster averaged 23 days to settle insurance claims with customers. The ones running on integrated systems averaged 8. That gap is the difference between customers staying and customers leaving.

#Run your storm plan inside Marine OS

If you'd rather not run your hurricane workflow in a folder of PDFs and an Excel sheet, Marine OS has a purpose-built storm-plan module. Member enrollment, mandatory haul-out lists, storm-berth assignments, the cascade, the tie-down checklists, and the post-storm assessment — all one workflow.

See it in a 30-min demo and walk through how a digital storm-plan workflow compresses a 20-hour manual prep into roughly 90 minutes.