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<IVAN> Hurricane but no flood

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Pappy928

Guest
What is the name of your state? FL

Pensacola --- Inquiring on behalf of a friend. He has two relatives that live in the same park. The area was right off Pensacola Bay (matter of 20 to 30 yards). The wall of water from IVAN inundated both their homes. Both are beyond salvage.

Since they have hurricane coverage they assumed they would be taken care of although endure some hardships (no where to live currently).

HOWEVER, now the Insurance company(ies) (<----unclear to me whether they both have same company) state that since they did not have flood coverage they are not considered covered.

Basically....they lost EVERYTHING.

Any legal grounds or is it plausible that even though water was the actual problem (some wind damage was evident), but wouldn't the main reason be focused on the hurricane?


Pappy
 


carofl93

Member
Did your friends not know that they had no flood insurance? How long had they lived in the area, and did their realtor go over the whole insurance speil with them? We live in Crestview (about a 30 minute drive from Pensacola) and bought supplemental flood insurance even though we don't live in a flood zone. I can't imagine living that close to the water without some sort of flood coverage :(. I do know about the wind damage as we suffered a bit of that with downed trees from Ivan.
 
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Pappy928

Guest
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Wish I could answer that. I believe the answer may be that Hurricane coverage in Florida at one time DID include flood damage. This may have changed in the mid 90's --- the fact that flood waters from hurricanes were no longer covered with Hurricane coverege.


They are not the only ones as many others are in the same boat. All I can say is what they have stated: "we were not informed of the change in policy." ...all I know.

Thanks for replying.
 

rmet4nzkx

Senior Member
Sometimes changes like that to coverage are made, in very small print on disclosure forms included in the bill which one might not notice, especially if insurance is paid via an impound account, sometimes with a more universal change such as that to an entire class of policy holders, is usually public but not all might understand the individual implications to their situations or choose not to opt for the coverage. Water damage of various sorts have become contraversial in recent years.

Living that close to the water and the known increased risk of storm surges, most likely would have resulted in a hefty rider to cover damage, if not specifically covered under hurricane damage. In California, earthquake insurance is such a topic and whether or not one elects to have it, also some aspects of earthquake damage might be covered under other aspects of a policy. This may be the case for your friends, they may have elected not to opt for flood insurance if they had hurrriane coverage assuming the risk from wind damage was greater than flood damage. FEMA may have loan options for your friends, many are frustrated with the repeated storm impacts in FL and the support systems for assisting the public are pretty much maxed out and having to rely on help from friends or family.
 
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tstafford

Guest
They need to ask the insurance company for information in writing and read that portion of their policy. it usually includes tidal waves in the exclusion. and they need to go to fema and apply for assistance. The flood exclusion in my company states "regardless of any other event contributing" or something. If they think they are not being treated fairly, they can turn in a complaint to the Florida insurance commissioner to make sure the claim was handled fairly.
 

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