You are going to be asked the value of your property before the disaster and after the disaster. The difference will be your casualty loss. For example your entire home including the deck is value at 100K before the storm, but after the storm you have property valued at 93K. Your loss will come from the difference in value before and after the incident, 7K. You don't have to separate the deck value; you can calculate the loss on the entire property.
To compute the deductible casualty loss, taxpayers need to determine: (1) the difference between the fair market value immediately before and immediately after the casualty; and (2) the adjusted basis of the property (usually the cost of the property and improvements). Taxpayers may deduct the smaller of these two amounts minus insurance or any other form of compensation received or expected to be received. One method of determining the decrease in fair market value is an appraisal.
The cost of repairs may, in certain cases, be used to measure the decline in fair market value, but it cannot be used by itself to determine the amount of the loss. When the cost of repairs is determined to be a fair measure of the decline in fair market value, then all you have to do is take the fair market value before the casualty and reduce it by the cost of repairs to arrive at the fair market value after the casualty. The above comes from - FAQs for Disaster Victims - Casualty Loss (Valuations and Sections 165 (i))
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