Property Damage & Injury Lawyer Serving South Miami, Florida

Property damage & insurance claims

Flash flooding and repetitive loss in a city with its own flood file

South Miami has published its own analysis of properties that flooded repeatedly, and it names the storms and the drainage problems behind those losses.

The city's repetitive loss analysis says South Miami sits about 1.5 miles inland from Biscayne Bay and drains to the bay through the C-2 Snapper Creek Canal. It describes overbank flooding after prolonged rain and flash flooding when heavy rain outpaces the drainage system or debris blocks it. It adds that tidal influence can make things worse: if heavy rain falls during high tide, the canal system drains more slowly. The analysis ties flood insurance claims to Hurricane Irene in 1999, Tropical Storm Leslie in 2000 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and names Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 as the last storm with a major flooding impact on the city as of that report. It says flash flooding has damaged residential and commercial buildings and closed streets when water overtopped the road.

The same document gives a snapshot as of March 30, 2017: 859 flood insurance policies covering more than $254 million, and 88 paid losses totaling $1,222,364.14. Eight repetitive loss properties were unmitigated as of January 2017, and the city noted two had since been demolished. The city entered the Community Rating System on May 1, 2013, and the report describes it as Class 7. These are dated figures, not current ones. For a claim today, what matters is your own policy and how the loss happened. Florida generally requires notice of a new hurricane or windstorm claim within one year of the date of loss, and we can review your paperwork against that clock.

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