Miami storm & claim resource

Miami has been hit by the full range of Atlantic hurricanes — the Great Miami Hurricane flattened the young city in 1926, Hurricane King cut straight through downtown in 1950, Betsy raked the coast in 1965, Andrew’s core devastated South Dade in 1992, and Wilma and Irma both battered the metro in 2005 and 2017. When a bayfront home floods and is also wind-damaged, the resulting claims raise the hardest question in Florida property insurance: which storm, and which peril, owes for the damage?

What Miami 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. In Miami-Dade, most of the building stock sits in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, so roof and opening-protection standards are strict and post-storm repair disputes often turn on code-compliance. When a home floods and is also wind-damaged, the wind carrier and the flood carrier each point at the other — and on high-rise and condo losses, the unit-owner policy and the association’s master policy add a third line to the fight.

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.