8 flood insurance claims·$196,684 paid·6 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 Stone 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 severe weather and heavy rainfall dominates the flood risk in Stone County, Arkansas. Over the last 30 years, NOAA records show 35 flash flood events resulting in 1 death, alongside 8 standard floods, 2 tropical storms, and 2 tropical depressions. Recent hazards include a dangerous flash flood on July 17, 2024, driven by a slow-moving cold front that produced 4 to 9 inches of rain, as well as a multi-day severe weather and flash flooding event from April 4 to 9, 2025, which brought half a foot to over a foot of rainfall across the state.
Federal flood insurance claims data highlights that properties outside designated high-risk areas also face significant vulnerability. In Zone X, 5 claims averaged $47,512 in payouts with an average recorded water depth of 42 inches. Meanwhile, 1 claim in Zone A recorded an average payout of $100,000 and an average water depth of 91 inches, while Zone UNKNOWN recorded 2 claims averaging $1,661 and a water depth of 2 inches. Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within high-risk Special Flood Hazard Areas like Zone A, as well as properties in moderate-to-low risk Zone X areas where severe rainfall can still cause damaging inundation.
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 44 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 2008, with 5 claims and $95,023 paid, the year of Severe Storms, Tornadoes, 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.
22 NOAA storm reports from Stone County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Arkansas flood stories →
30 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 6 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 | Mar 14, 2025 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 30, 2023 |
| Hurricane Laura | Aug 26, 2020 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Dec 26, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 30, 2013 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Associated Flooding | Apr 14, 2011 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
47 since 1996: 35 flash floods and 8 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Apr 4, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 17, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 8, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 2, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 3, 2016 | — |
| Flash Flood | Dec 27, 2015 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 31, 2013 | $600,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jan 12, 2013 | $5,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Apr 4, 2025. Severe weather, including widespread flash flooding occurred over a five day period across the entire state. This multiday event featured tornadoes, damaging winds, and very large hail. But by far and large, flash flooding and river flooding were the biggest impacts taken away from this unsettled period of weather due to total rainfall amounts between half a foot to over one foot in many locations.
Flash Flood · Jul 17, 2024. A slow moving cold front, located near the Arkansas and Missouri borders, set the stage for a dangerous flood event to unfold on the night of the 16th into the morning of the 17th across north-central into central portions of Arkansas. Rainfall amounts of 4 to 9 inches were measured. This much rain in a relatively short amount of time lead to flash flooding, some of which was significant.
Flash Flood · Feb 8, 2023. Heavy to excessive rain was in the forecast on February 7th/8th, especially in northern and western Arkansas. This was ahead of a storm system in the southern Plains, and north of a nearly stationary front draped across central sections of the state. South of the front, increasing warmth/moisture set the stage for the possibility of severe thunderstorms toward evening on the 8th.||The placement of the front was ob…
Flash Flood · Sep 2, 2020. On the 1st, several inches of rain dumped from Mena (Polk County) and Waldron (Scott County) to Russellville (Pope County), and Mountain View (Stone County).||The ground was already saturated in parts of the west after more than a foot of precipitation in August. Water had nowhere to go, and flooding became life threatening. At Waldron (Scott County), numerous roads were under water (including Highways 28 and 71),…
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 Stone 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.