3 flood insurance claims·$81,504 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 Little River 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 driven by heavy rainfall and slow-moving thunderstorms dominates the flood risk profile in Little River County, Arkansas. Over a recent 30-year period, NOAA records indicate 30 flash flood events, alongside 3 general floods resulting in 2 deaths and 1 tropical storm event.
Severe weather events have frequently impacted the region under conditions involving stalled warm fronts and upper-level low pressure systems. For example, a prolonged period of heavy rainfall caused flash flooding on October 4, 2023, as showers and thunderstorms with rainfall rates of one to three inches per hour trained across extreme Southwest Arkansas. Similarly, slow-moving storms produced heavy rainfall on August 12, 2020, following the development of a weak inverted surface trough along the Red River Valley.
Federal Emergency Management Agency records show that flood insurance claims have occurred in Zone X, averaging 3 inches of recorded water depth with an average payout of $40,752. Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay attention to properties located within Zone X and areas vulnerable to sudden, intense rainfall accumulation where localized flash flooding occurs.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 3 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.
18 NOAA storm reports from Little River County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Arkansas flood stories →
23 federal disaster declarations since 1972, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Apr 2, 2025 |
| Hurricane Laura | Aug 26, 2020 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Dec 26, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 7, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Apr 27, 2009 |
| Tropical Storm Ike | Sep 13, 2008 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Mar 18, 2008 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
34 since 1996: 30 flash floods and 3 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Oct 4, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Jun 8, 2021 | $2,000 · 1 killed |
| Flash Flood | May 16, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 12, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Mar 1, 2018 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 5, 2017 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 29, 2016 | — |
| Flash Flood | Nov 28, 2015 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Oct 4, 2023. A prolonged period of heavy rainfall occurred on October 4th across parts of extreme Southwest Arkansas. Showers and thunderstorms with 1-3 inch per hour rainfall rates trained in the vicinity of a warm front, which was draped across the Ark-La-Tex and in adjacent portions of Southeast Oklahoma and Northeast Louisiana. Deep convergence of moisture along the boundary resulted as the core of the low-level jet and as…
Flood · Jun 8, 2021. An upper low pressure system drifted north over Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas during the early morning hours of June 7th, with an upper level disturbance beneath the attendant trough enhancing an area of showers and thunderstorms over Southwest Arkansas. A moist and unstable air mass was in place, with weak steering also present which resulted in slow-moving storms producing locally heavy rainfall. Rainf…
Flash Flood · May 16, 2020. A slow moving upper level low pressure system drifted east across Central and Eastern Texas during the daytime hours of May 16th. Meanwhile, the attendant surface low pressure system over East Central Texas drifted east into Northeast Texas during the afternoon, with a southerly low level jet allowing for a warm front to mix north into East Texas, extreme Northern Louisiana, into Southern Arkansas through the even…
Flash Flood · Aug 12, 2020. An upper level trough shifted southeast across Eastern Oklahoma and much of Arkansas during the early morning hours of August 12th, which helped to ignite scattered showers and thunderstorms over these areas. A weak inverted surface trough had developed along the Red River Valley of Southeast Oklahoma and extreme Northeast Texas, with a 25-30 kt southwesterly low level jet feeding near and atop this boundary along…
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 Little River 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.