Rule one: shoot before you touch
Before you move, clean, tarp, or toss one thing, walk the home with your phone. Film the harm just as the storm left it. Insurers pay from proof. "It was worse" means nothing without pictures.
The checklist
Outside: roof from the ground, siding, gutters, windows, doors, fences, sheds, yard. Fallen trees. Water lines on the base. Trash piles. Shoot the street too, for context.
Inside, each hurt room: one wide shot from each door. Then close-ups of each hurt spot: stains, warped floors, cracked walls, broken glass. Open closets in wet rooms. Shoot the attic if safe.
Water lines: floods leave lines on walls and goods. Photo them with a ruler in frame, so the height is clear.
Belongings: photo each hurt item plus its brand tag if you can see it. For big items, note price and age if you know them.
Video tour: end with one slow narrated walk of the home. State the date and address. One long take beats fifty short clips.
Make it stick
Turn on time and place stamps on your phone. Or hold up today's paper in the first shot. Back it all up that day: upload to the cloud or email it to yourself. Phones get lost in the same storms that hurt homes. Keep a short list too: room, item, harm, value.
Keep it or toss it?
Do not toss hurt goods until your insurer says so. The adjuster may want to see them. If it is a health risk (soaked bed, bad food), photo it well first, then toss it and note that you did. Keep bits of hurt floors or walls if asked.
One set of photos, three uses
Good proof feeds your insurance claim, any FEMA bid, and repair quotes. One good set serves all three. That is why doing it right once counts.