453 flood insurance claims·$17.0M paid·13 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 DeSoto 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.
Flooding in DeSoto County is primarily driven by general flooding and tropical systems, with the NOAA Storm Events Database recording 32 flood events, 12 tropical storms, 9 hurricanes, and 6 flash flood events over the last 30 years. Hurricanes have caused 2 deaths and flash floods have caused 1 death during this period.
Recent severe weather events include Hurricane Ian in September 2022, Hurricane Idalia in August 2023, Tropical Storm Debby in August 2024, and Hurricane Milton in October 2024, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Siesta Key with 120 mph winds after peaking as a Category 5 storm.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claim data indicates that property owners in Zone A should pay the most attention to flood risk, accounting for the vast majority of claims with 364 filings, an average payout of $50,691, and an average recorded water depth of 8 inches. Zone X properties recorded 58 claims with an average payout of $33,177 and an average recorded water depth of 25 inches, while Zone UNKNOWN recorded 24 claims with an average payout of $9,188 and an average recorded water depth of 2 inches. Zone V recorded 6 claims with an average payout of $20,079 and an average water depth of 1 inch, and Zone D recorded 1 claim with a $3,029 payout and an average water depth of 0 inches.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
Less than 1% of DeSoto County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
370 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 10 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 150 claims and $10.8M 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.
18 NOAA storm reports from DeSoto County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Florida flood stories →
38 federal disaster declarations since 1977, 13 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Hurricane Milton | Oct 5, 2024 |
| Hurricane 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 |
| Tropical Storm Nicole | Nov 7, 2022 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
59 since 1996: 6 flash floods and 32 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane (Typhoon) | Oct 9, 2024 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 4, 2024 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 30, 2023 | — |
| Hurricane (Typhoon) | Sep 28, 2022 | $1.0M · 1 killed |
| Tropical Storm | Nov 10, 2022 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Jul 7, 2021 | — |
| Flood | Sep 10, 2017 | $1.0M |
| Hurricane (Typhoon) | Sep 10, 2017 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Hurricane (Typhoon) · Oct 9, 2024. Hurricane Milton made landfall along the west-central Florida coast near Siesta Key at 7:30 PM EST on October 9th as a major, Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph and a minimum pressure of 954 mb. 2 days prior to landfall on October 7th, Milton reached its peak intensity as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph and a minimum pressure of 897 mb, making it the 5th mos…
Tropical Storm · Aug 4, 2024. Hurricane Debby made landfall north of the local area along the Big Bend region of Florida near Steinhatchee around 7 AM EST on August 5th as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph and a minimum pressure of 979 mb. Despite Debby���s track west of the Florida peninsula, impacts overspread the area from coastal locations spreading inland.|Storm surge affected the immediate coast from Ft.…
Tropical Storm · Aug 30, 2023. Hurricane Idalia made landfall just to the north of the local area near Keaton Beach, FL in Taylor county in Florida's Big Bend as a category 3 hurricane and brought devastating storm surge and wind impacts all along the west Florida coast, especially in closer vicinity to the landfall area across the Nature Coast. Storm surge flooding reached into homes and businesses as far south as Lee county, and the surge inu…
Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 28, 2022. Hurricane Ian formed in the central Caribbean Sea on September 23 and moved through the western Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Western Atlantic making four separate landfalls. The first landfall was in the Pinar Del Rio Province of Cuba at 0830 UTC on September 27 with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph and a minimum pressure of 952 mb, before emerging into the Gulf of Mexico later that morning. Ian made its se…
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 DeSoto 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.