Hurricane Ian (2022): flood insurance facts
Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida on September 28, 2022. (Source: NHC archive.) This page records the flood insurance mechanics that applied and the federal claim record from that period.
Buying a policy now: the 30-day waiting period
A new NFIP policy generally becomes effective 30 days after purchase. A policy bought while a storm is approaching therefore does not, in the typical case, cover that storm. Federal rules define three exceptions:
- Loan transactions — no waiting period. When the initial purchase of coverage is in connection with making, increasing, extending, or renewing a loan secured by the property (such as a mortgage closing), coverage is effective at the time of the loan closing.
- Map revisions — 1-day waiting period. During the first 13 months after a flood-map revision newly places a building in a Special Flood Hazard Area, the waiting period is one day.
- Post-wildfire flooding — no waiting period (waived). The 30-day waiting period does not apply if a property is affected by flooding on burned federal land as a result of, or exacerbated by, post-wildfire conditions. Whether this exception applies to a given loss is determined by FEMA in the claims process, not at purchase.
Source: FEMA, Answers to Questions About the NFIP and floodsmart.gov . The full conditions are in the NFIP Flood Insurance Manual; the exceptions above are summaries, not the governing text.
The NFIP record in Florida
- Policies in force
- 1,548,838
- Median annual premium
- $813
- Claims since 1978
- 446,882
- Total paid since 1978
- $19,322,365,365
The costliest loss years on record in Florida were 2024 (80,415 claims, $7,865,020,491 paid) , 2022 (50,278 claims, $4,952,986,452 paid) , 2004 (34,716 claims, $1,268,472,340 paid) .
NFIP claims from the Ian period
- Claims (FL)
- 47,632
- Paid (FL)
- $4,872,051,092
Measurement window: all NFIP claims with a date of loss between September 23, 2022 and October 15, 2022 in the state(s) listed, from OpenFEMA claims records. This is a date-window total, not an attribution to a single storm — other flood events in the same window are included and cannot be separated in the data. Figures update as late-filed claims enter the monthly federal data. See how these figures are computed.
Filing a claim: official resources
- How to start an NFIP flood claim — FEMA's official step-by-step guidance.
- NFIP insurance-provider directory — find your carrier's claims contact.
- DisasterAssistance.gov — federal disaster assistance beyond flood insurance.
Reading: how NFIP claims work · the waiting period in detail