A Tampa homeowner woke up this morning to a clear sky, no rain in the forecast, and water standing in her street high enough to lap at the garage door. Nothing broke. No storm came through. The bay simply rose higher than usual, pushed in through the storm drains, and found every low spot in the neighborhood. That is a king tide, and this week Tampa Bay is seeing the highest ones of the fall.
A king tide is not a different kind of tide. It is the highest end of the normal tidal cycle, the top of a spring tide. Tides follow the moon. When the sun, the moon, and the Earth line up, at the new moon and the full moon, their gravity pulls together and the high tides run higher than average. When that alignment also happens while the moon is closest to the Earth, the pull is stronger still and the tide peaks. Those peaks are what people call king tides.
On the Florida Gulf coast the peak usually lands in the fall. The ocean water is at its warmest after summer, and warm water takes up more room. Seasonal winds and currents in the Gulf pile water toward the shore instead of letting it drain away. Tampa Bay adds its own problem: the bay funnels water into shallow neighborhoods, and in many places the water does not need to come over a seawall at all. It comes up through the storm drains and out of the grates in the street. That is why streets can flood blocks from open water, under a blue sky, with the sun out.
There is a longer trend underneath the yearly one. Sea level around Tampa Bay has risen over the decades, which means each generation of king tides starts from a higher floor. A street that used to flood once in a bad year now floods on a predictable week on the calendar. This week was on the calendar: forecasters called the highest tides of the fall for the days around this morning, with elevated water running through Saturday.
The damage from a king tide looks different from storm damage. There is usually no wind and no single violent moment. Water creeps into garages and ground floors, soaks baseboards and the bottom of drywall, and sits in wall cavities and under flooring. Because much of it is bay water, it carries salt, and salt keeps working after the water dries, corroding wiring, appliances, and anything metal it reached. Cars parked at street level take water into carpets and electronics. For a business, the same water reaches floor level inventory, refrigeration, point of sale equipment, and the stockroom, and a shop that cannot open loses days it cannot bill.
Here is where a king tide catches owners twice. A standard homeowners policy covers many kinds of water damage, but it almost never covers flood, and water that rises from the ground or comes up through drains is flood under these policies. Flood coverage lives in a seperate policy, through the national flood program or a private flood carrier, and many owners learn they never bought it on the day the water arrives. Commercial property policies draw the same line, and business interruption coverage usually only pays when a covered loss caused the closure, which turns the flood question into the whole ballgame.
Expect a fight about labels. Carriers reach for the flood exclusion first, and sometimes reach too far, sweeping in damage that came from a plumbing failure or a roof leak that happened the same week. Owners push the other way and call everything a covered water loss. The claim is usually decided by documentation: when the water arrived, where it entered, and what it touched, proven with photographs and timestamps instead of argued from memory months later.
If a king tide reaches your home, start with safety. Keep power off to anything the water touched until it is checked, because saltwater and wiring do not mix. Then document before you clean. Photograph the water line on walls, in the garage, and out in the street, with the date and time on your shots. Save damaged items instead of throwing them out. Dry what you can reach and get air moving, because moisture trapped in walls can start mold within a day or two. Keep every receipt, from cleanup supplies to a hotel night, and start a simple dated log of what happened and what you did.
For a business, add three habits. Photograph inventory and equipment at the height the water reached, protect your books and records first, and write down every day and hour you were closed or limited, because lost income claims live and die on that record. Whether the claim is a home or a business, check your deadlines early. Flood policies in particular run on strict paperwork clocks, and the time to learn what your policy requires is the week of the loss, not the week an adjuster finally calls.
A king tide will not make the noise a hurricane makes, and it will not get the same attention. It just rises, twice a day, on a schedule anyone can look up, and tests every low home and business in its path. The owners who come out best are not the ones with the strongest opinions about their coverage. They are the ones who learned which policy they actually hold before the water, and who documented like it mattered when it arrived.
About the Author
Louis P. Meyer, Esq. is a Senior Attorney at Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A., where his practice focuses on first party property damage claims and personal injury cases across Florida, including hurricane, wind, water, fire, and mold losses, and car, motorcycle, and truck accidents. He writes the LouisTheLawyer publication on Substack and hosts the podcast Off The Record by Louis Meyer. He practices from the firm’s Tampa and Boca Raton offices. This article is general information about how insurance claims work in Florida. It is not legal advice about any specific claim or policy.
Louis P. Meyer, Esq., Senior Attorney, Kanner & Pintaluga, P.A., 100 S. Ashley Drive, Suite 610, Tampa, FL 33602. Phone: 561-206-2949. Email: lmeyer@kpattorney.com.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Contingency fee cases: the client may be responsible for court costs and litigation expenses regardless of the outcome. Attorney’s fees and costs are computed as set out in the written fee agreement.