14,773 flood insurance claims·$1.1B paid·18 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 Collier County, Florida. 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.
Collier County experiences a flood risk profile dominated by standard floods and tropical systems, supported by the NOAA Storm Events Database recording 29 flood events, 14 tropical storms, 12 flash floods, 11 storm surge or tide events, 11 coastal floods, 10 tropical depressions, and 10 hurricanes over the last 30 years. Storm surge and tide events caused 8 deaths, while hurricanes resulted in 3 deaths.
Recent events illustrate these atmospheric drivers, including heavy rainfall from stationary surface boundaries and troughs producing floods on September 8 and 9, 2025, and localized coastal flooding along the South Florida coast from astronomically higher-than-normal high tides on October 4, 2025. Additional heavy rainfall occurred June 11 through 15, 2024, driven by tropical moisture plumes, stationary boundaries, and weak tropical disturbances.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data demonstrate that risk extends across multiple zones, with Zone A recording 13,180 claims averaging $109,631 in payouts and an average recorded water depth of 10 inches. Zone X recorded 1,048 claims averaging $93,151 with an average recorded water depth of 26 inches, and Zone V recorded 513 claims averaging $127,960 with an average recorded water depth of 8 inches. Zone X_SHADED recorded 13 claims averaging $12,941 with an average recorded water depth of 2 inches, and Zone UNKNOWN recorded 16 claims averaging $3,673 with an average recorded water depth of 1 inch. Coastal property owners, as well as residents in Zone A, Zone X, and Zone V, should pay the closest attention to these hazards.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
Less than 1% of Collier County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
13,706 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 11 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 2022, with 7,903 claims and $921.5M paid, the year of Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole.
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.
58 NOAA storm reports from Collier County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Florida flood stories →
54 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 18 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Hurricane Milton | Oct 5, 2024 |
| Hurricane Helene | Sep 23, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm Helene | Sep 23, 2024 |
| Hurricane Debby | Aug 1, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm Debby | Aug 1, 2024 |
| Hurricane Idalia | Aug 27, 2023 |
| Tropical Storm Idalia | Aug 27, 2023 |
| Hurricane Nicole | Nov 7, 2022 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
97 since 1996: 12 flash floods, 29 river or area floods and 22 coastal floods or surges.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Sep 9, 2025 | — |
| Coastal Flood | Oct 4, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Jun 30, 2024 | — |
| Storm Surge/Tide | Sep 26, 2024 | $1.2M |
| Tropical Depression | Sep 26, 2024 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 26, 2024 | $20,000 |
| Coastal Flood | Aug 20, 2024 | — |
| Flood | May 16, 2024 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Sep 9, 2025. A stationary surface boundary over South Florida with influence from a deep mid and upper level trough over the eastern United States led to diurnal showers and thunderstorms which produced heavy rainfall on the 8th and 9th of September.
Coastal Flood · Oct 4, 2025. Localized coastal flooding occurred along the coast of South Florida due to astronomically higher-than-normal high tides in early October 2025.
Flood · Jun 30, 2024. In addition to a mid-level disturbance, deep tropical moisture continued to filter into the southern Florida Peninsula on June 30. With plentiful instability and around peak diurnal heating led to showers and thunderstorms across southwestern Florida. With light steering flow, storm motions were slow, which when combined with heavy downpours, resulted in localized flooding across portions of western Collier County.
Storm Surge/Tide · Sep 26, 2024. The center of Hurricane Helene passed about 200 miles west of Naples as a Category 3 hurricane moving N-NE over the eastern Gulf of Mexico around midday on Thursday, September 26th, then made landfall later that evening in the Florida Big Bend as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph and lowest central pressure of 938 mb. The large wind field around Helene brought tropical storm force wind…
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 Collier 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.