19 flood insurance claims·$773,771 paid·3 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 Sevier 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 frontal systems dominates the flood history of Sevier County. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database records 31 flash flood events, alongside 4 general floods and 1 tropical storm. Recent documented events include a flash flood on January 30, 2025, driven by a warm front and an upper-level low pressure system, and heavy rainfall events on December 16, 2024, and February 8, 2023, caused by advancing cold fronts and stalled boundaries interacting with deep Gulf and Pacific moisture.
National Flood Insurance Program records reflect claims across multiple zones. Zone A properties account for 16 claims with an average payout of $48,564 and an average recorded water depth of 14 inches. Two claims in unknown zones averaged $50,830 with an average water depth of 1 inch, while a single claim in Zone X recorded an average payout of $89,344 and an average water depth of 44 inches. Homeholders and real estate agents working with properties located in designated Zone A, as well as those in Zone X who may face unexpected high-water events during severe convective storms, should pay the closest attention to flood risk and mitigation.
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 14 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 2015, with 7 claims and $245,472 paid, the year of Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, and Flooding.
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.
21 NOAA storm reports from Sevier County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Arkansas flood stories →
18 federal disaster declarations since 1968, 3 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 And Tornadoes | Apr 9, 2009 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | May 30, 2004 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
36 since 1996: 31 flash floods and 4 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jan 30, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Dec 16, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 8, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Feb 8, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Mar 9, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 11, 2017 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 29, 2016 | — |
| Flash Flood | Nov 28, 2015 | $5,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jan 30, 2025. A closed upper level low pressure system shifted east from Southeast Colorado into the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandles into Western Oklahoma on January 30th, with an increased southerly low level flow allowing warm, humid, and very moist air to return back north across Northeast Texas, Southeast Oklahoma, and Southwest Arkansas with the passage of a warm front. Strong forcing near and north of the warm front ahead of th…
Flash Flood · Dec 16, 2024. A slowly advancing cold front across Southern Arkansas continued moving southward late into the evening on December 16th. Concurrently, warm sector southerly flow provided weak but sufficient surface convergence just ahead of the cold front. Strong convection with some weak QLCS features generally trained along the boundary/deep-layer moisture interface and was fed upstream by a sector of 1000-1250 J/kg of MUCAPE.…
Flash Flood · Feb 8, 2023. A surface low was accompanied by a stalled frontal boundary that extended near and along the Interstate 30 corridor of Southwest Arkansas, Southeast Oklahoma, and far Northeast Texas. Aloft, a closed low was positioned across eastern New Mexico into the Texas Panhandle with a trailing trough well south into northern and central Mexico. This pattern allowed for plentiful Pacific moisture to combine with Gulf of Mex…
Flood · Feb 8, 2023. A surface low was accompanied by a stalled frontal boundary that extended near and along the Interstate 30 corridor of Southwest Arkansas, Southeast Oklahoma, and far Northeast Texas. Aloft, a closed low was positioned across eastern New Mexico into the Texas Panhandle with a trailing trough well south into northern and central Mexico. This pattern allowed for plentiful Pacific moisture to combine with Gulf of Mex…
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 Sevier 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.