Fort Lauderdale storm & claim resource

Fort Lauderdale’s name is on one of the twentieth century’s worst storms: the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane flooded most of Broward for weeks. Betsy raked the coast in 1965, Wilma tore through in 2005, Matthew paralleled the beach in 2016, and Irma forced a countywide evacuation in 2017. On a city built of finger isles, barrier beach, and the New River, the resulting claims raise the hardest question in Florida property insurance: which storm, and which peril, owes for the damage?

What Fort Lauderdale claims turn on

Surge is flood, and flood is excluded from every homeowners policy — it needs NFIP or private flood coverage. Wind is covered, behind a hurricane deductible that is a percentage of the home’s insured value, not the loss. Much of Fort Lauderdale’s value sits on waterfront lots that flood from the Intracoastal, the New River, and rising tides, so a single storm can trigger both a wind claim and a flood claim on the same house — and the two carriers each point at the other. On the barrier-island condos, the unit-owner policy and the association master policy add a third line to the dispute.

The law here

Florida gives you one year from the date of loss to give notice of a hurricane claim and 18 months for a supplemental claim (§ 627.70132, as amended by SB 2-A in 2023), and the carrier must pay or deny within 60 days of a complete proof of loss (§ 627.70131). For storms that are already years past, those notice windows have generally closed — but a claim you already filed that was denied or underpaid can still have options, and the deadline to sue on a filed claim is longer. These are general figures — confirm the current statutes and your own dates with counsel before relying on them.