More than two years have passed since a sinkhole opened in Seffner, swallowing a portion of a house and killing a 37-year-old man. The victim’s body was never found. In time, the house was demolished, the sinkhole was filled and stabilized — or so authorities believed. The hole opened again in August.
This did not happen in Florida, but it shows just how quirky, even ridiculous insurance laws can be.
Florida has escaped Hurricane Joaquin, but the category 4 storm has contributed to an historic amount of flood damage. As the rain and the flooding continue, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has said her state is living through a 1,000-year flood. It could be weeks before power is returned to some affected areas. And, with so many historic buildings in Charleston, insurance companies are expecting an enormously expensive cleanup.
With Labor Day behind us, we are nearing the end of the 10th anniversary of one of the most destructive hurricane seasons in American history. Much of the media coverage was devoted to Hurricane Katrina, perhaps rightfully so. Still, by the time Katrina hit in August, Florida had already been through Hurricane Dennis, a mere category 3 storm by the time it had finished with Cuba. In September, Hurricane Ophelia blew by, followed by Hurricane Rita. October started with Tropical Storm Tammy, with Hurricane Wilma following close on Tammy’s heels. It was a busy year.
The Tampa Tribune published an op-ed recently that ties in nicely with the Weather Channel’s warnings about the remnants of Tropical Storm Erika. Tampa was beset by heavy rainstorms earlier this month, and the flooding and increased risk of flooding are clearly still on the community’s mind. While Erika is no longer a tropical storm, the system is expected to drop a lot of rain on Florida early this week. It makes sense, then, that the subject of flood insurance would come up.
Our firm has been representing home insurance policy-holders in disputes with their insurers for more than two decades, and we have seen far too many examples of insurers that try to get away with paying homeowners less than they are entitled to.
In April, various meteorological organizations started to release their analyses and predictions of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season. As every Florida resident knows, the season runs from June to November. For the most part.
Before we return to our discussion of the Legislature’s flood insurance bill, we thought we would share some facts about Florida and flood insurance terminology.
Florida has been so lucky for the past few years. We have, for the most part, been ignored by the Atlantic hurricane seasons, and we have yet to see the massive annual snowfalls that the Northeast has put up with this year. Don’t laugh — the weather has been weird enough lately that anything seems possible. Next week we may see frogs falling from the sky.
You have homeowner’s insurance on your property to help pay for the unexpected. When your home is damaged, you would assume your insurance provider would help pay for at least some the expenses associated with the damages and repairs.
