Orlando storm & claim resource

Orlando is inland, but Central Florida is where crossing hurricanes converge. The 2004 season put three storms over the metro in six weeks — Charley cut through in August, then Frances and Jeanne. Irma raked the region in 2017, and Ian dumped more than a foot of rain over Orange County in 2022, flooding neighborhoods like Orlo Vista far from any coast. The resulting claims raise the hardest question in Florida property insurance: which storm, and which peril, owes for the damage?

What Orlando claims turn on

Wind is covered, behind a hurricane deductible that is a percentage of the home’s insured value, not the loss. Away from the coast the fights are about roofs, screen enclosures, and rainwater: insurers routinely discount roof claims to repair rather than replace, treat pool cages and screen rooms under low sub-limits, and argue that interior water was wind-driven rain intrusion (often limited) rather than a covered opening. Where creeks and lakes overtop, that rising water is excluded flood needing NFIP coverage — a separate claim from the wind loss on the same house.

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.