Stuart storm & claim resource

Stuart’s geography puts water on three sides — the St. Lucie River, the Indian River Lagoon, and the ocean at the St. Lucie Inlet. In September 2004 that exposure was tested twice in three weeks: Frances came ashore at Sewall’s Point on September 5, and Jeanne made landfall in almost the same spot on September 26. Many homes were hit by both, and the resulting claims raise the hardest question in Florida property insurance: which storm, and which peril, owes for the damage?

What Stuart claims turn on

Surge and river flooding are 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. When a home floods and is also wind-damaged, the wind carrier and the flood carrier each point at the other. On back-to-back storms like Frances and Jeanne — or the 2022 Nicole landfall up the coast — insurers also argue over which storm caused what, an allocation fight that can close a claim without full 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.