410 flood insurance claims·$7.9M paid·5 federal flood & hurricane disasters
Share of the whole county outline, rivers and lakes included; parts FEMA hasn’t mapped count as zero.
Shaded areas are FEMA’s mapped flood hazard zones in and around Craighead County, Arkansas. Zoomed out they are simplified; at street level the map switches to FEMA’s exact layer. Tap anywhere to check that spot, or search an address above.
Flash flooding from heavy rainfall dominates the flood risk profile in Craighead County, accounting for 82 of the last 30 years of NOAA-recorded flood events and resulting in 3 deaths, alongside 10 general flood events and 1 tropical storm event. Recent events include a stalled front causing localized flash flooding in the Jonesboro area on February 8, 2023, and a low-pressure system producing two to four inches of rain and flash flooding on January 30, 2025. Additional flash flooding occurred on August 5, 2022, due to a slow-moving shortwave trough, and on March 17, 2021, from a slow-moving warm front.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data shows high vulnerability across designated hazard zones. Properties in Zone A experienced 296 claims with an average payout of $22,545 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. Meanwhile, properties in Zone X recorded 77 claims with a higher average payout of $40,043 and an average recorded water depth of 8 inches. Smaller claim totals occurred in Zone UNKNOWN, Zone X_UNSHADED, and Zone X_SHADED. Homeowners and real estate agents in Zone A and Zone X should pay the most attention to this flood risk, given the high volume of claims and significant average water depths associated with these areas.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
5% of Craighead County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
312 NFIP claims with a recorded rated flood zone, 1978 to date. The zone is the one FEMA used to rate that policy, which may not match today’s map. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 5 inches.
Drawn to scale against an 80-inch door. Even a few inches soaks flooring, the bottom of the drywall and anything plugged in near the floor.
Average of the depths reported on claims (zero and implausible values left out); FEMA’s record doesn’t say exactly where each depth was measured. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
The worst year was 2016, with 73 claims and $3.2M paid.
Bar height is scaled by square root so ordinary years stay visible next to the worst one. NFIP claims by year of loss. Source: OpenFEMA.
14 NOAA storm reports from Craighead County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Arkansas flood stories →
28 federal disaster declarations since 1968, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Apr 2, 2025 |
| Severe Storms And Tornadoes | Dec 10, 2021 |
| Hurricane Laura | Aug 26, 2020 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Straight-line Winds | Mar 28, 2020 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Apr 26, 2017 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Associated Flooding | Apr 14, 2011 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Dec 23, 2009 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
93 since 1996: 82 flash floods and 10 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jan 30, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 8, 2023 | $200,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 5, 2022 | $20,000 |
| Flash Flood | Mar 17, 2021 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Mar 17, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Mar 17, 2021 | $50,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 13, 2021 | $20,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jan 11, 2020 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jan 30, 2025. A low-pressure system and associated cold front resulted in heavy rainfall and flash flooding across parts of east Arkansas. Ample moisture provided the fuel for training storms which produced two to four inches of rain during the early afternoon along and west of the Mississippi River. The heavy rainfall axis then shifted east over a less saturated surface and the flooding threat diminished.
Flash Flood · Feb 8, 2023. A stalled front resulted in widespread showers and thunderstorms across northeast Arkansas during the late morning and early afternoon of February 8, 2023. Locally heavy rainfall in the Jonesboro area resulted in isolated flash flooding. Later in the day, the stalled front lifted north as a warm front. In the warm sector, south of the warm front and ahead of an approaching cold front, a cluster of thunderstorms de…
Flash Flood · Aug 5, 2022. A shortwave trough moved south from Missouri over parts of the Mid-South. Showers and thunderstorms slowly moved over the area, causing heavy rainfall resulting in flash flooding.
Flash Flood · Mar 17, 2021. A slow-moving warm front lifted north into the Mid-South during the morning hours of March 17th with numerous showers and thunderstorms. Heavy rain produced some flash flooding and there were a couple of severe weather reports along with a couple of damaging lightning strikes. The front stalled across the area during the day with southern parts of the Mid-South, especially northeast Mississippi, becoming quite uns…
National Weather Service narratives, lightly trimmed. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Every colour on the map above is a place on this drawing: where the ground sits relative to the flood FEMA plans for.
If a building in Craighead County is in a high-risk zone (A or V) and its mortgage comes from a federally regulated or insured lender, or is federally backed, flood insurance is required.
Outside those zones it is optional, and often worth having: from 2014 to 2024 nearly one-third of NFIP claims came from outside the high-risk Special Flood Hazard Area. Since Risk Rating 2.0, NFIP premiums are set for each building, so the only reliable price is a quote: FloodSmart.gov or a local agent.