Sarasota storm & claim resource

Sarasota has been on the front line twice in three years. Ian sideswiped the county in 2022 with major surge and wind after coming ashore just to the south, and Milton made landfall directly at Siesta Key in October 2024. Between them, Helene pushed Gulf water across the barrier keys. Homes on Siesta, Lido, and the bayfront took surge below and wind above, and the resulting claims raise the hardest question in Florida property insurance: which storm, and which peril, owes for the damage?

What Sarasota 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. On the keys a single home often has a flood claim and a wind claim running at once, and each carrier points at the other. Where two storms hit the same property, insurers also argue over which one caused what — an allocation fight that can close a claim without payment.

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.