Mount Pleasant storm & claim resource

Mount Pleasant faces Charleston Harbor and backs up to the Wando and Cooper rivers, with tidal creeks threading through the older neighborhoods. Hugo’s eyewall passed just to the south in 1989 and put the harbor’s surge into these streets; every storm since has pushed water up Shem Creek and the Wando on a bad tide. The claims that follow raise the hardest question in South Carolina property insurance: was it wind or was it water?

What Mount Pleasant claims turn on

A homeowners policy covers wind but excludes rising water, so after every storm the carrier and the NFIP argue over which peril did the damage on the same house. Harbor surge and creek flooding are flood, needing NFIP or private flood coverage; wind is covered behind a named-storm deductible set as a percentage of insured value. Wind-driven rain through a breached roof is covered even when the surge below is not — that causation line is where the fight lives. In the waterfront and newer resort-style developments, condo and HOA master-policy allocation adds a second layer to sort out.

The law here

South Carolina has no matching statute, so a demand to match undamaged roof, siding, or tile turns on the policy’s “like kind and quality” language and, often, appraisal. Bad-faith conduct is governed by S.C. Code § 38-59, and § 38-59-40 shifts attorney’s fees when an insurer refuses to pay a covered loss without reasonable cause. Every deadline and figure on this page is general information — confirm your policy, your dates, and the current statutes with counsel before relying on them.