As Hurricane Dorian churned north this week, residents along the Atlantic coast were preparing to assess the possible damage to their homes, and to determine what their insurance policies will cover.

Homeowners whose properties were affected by the storm should act as quickly as feasible to take stock of the extent and likely cause of any harm, said Amy Bach, the executive director of United Policyholders, a nonprofit organization that advocates for consumers.

“Focus on figuring out: What happened to your home, and what damage did it cause?” she said.

Generally, people expect that because they have paid for insurance coverage, they will be automatically reimbursed for any disaster-related damage, Ms. Bach said. But after confronting numerous costly disasters in recent years, she noted, insurers have increasingly shifted more risk to policyholders by taking steps like setting higher deductibles, increasing how much customers must pay out of pocket.

And after a major storm, Ms. Bach added, insurers may also hire contractors for help in assessing the large number of claims submitted, and those firms may not have time to do thorough reviews.