10,758 flood insurance claims·$72.2M paid·16 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 Palm Beach 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.
Palm Beach County experiences a flood risk profile dominated by floods, flash floods, and tropical systems. Over the last 30 years, NOAA records show 52 flood events, 47 flash flood events resulting in 2 deaths, 34 tropical storm events resulting in 5 deaths, 34 coastal flood events, 28 tropical depression events, 13 hurricane events resulting in 2 deaths, and 7 storm surge or tide events. Flash flooding is exemplified by events such as the excessive rainfall driven by a retreating frontal boundary and tropical moisture on October 26, 2025, which caused flooding across Southeast Florida.
Federal Emergency Management Agency National Flood Insurance Program records indicate varying impacts across flood zones. Zone A accounts for 5,138 claims with an average payout of $17,901 and an average recorded water depth of 4 inches. Zone X_SHADED records 2,359 claims with an average payout of $10,404 and an average water depth of 2 inches. Zone X has 1,845 claims with an average payout of $21,664 and an average water depth of 11 inches. Zone X_UNSHADED shows 1,009 claims with an average payout of $10,009 and an average water depth of 3 inches, while Zone UNKNOWN lists 318 claims averaging $2,205 with an average water depth of 1 inch.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties in Zone A, which has the highest volume of claims, and Zone X properties, which recorded the highest average water depth of 11 inches and the highest average payouts.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
39% of Palm Beach County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
8,581 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 4 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 2004, with 1,926 claims and $16.5M paid, the year of Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Frances, Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Jeanne.
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.
118 NOAA storm reports from Palm Beach County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Florida flood stories →
41 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 16 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Hurricane Milton | Oct 5, 2024 |
| Hurricane Nicole | Nov 7, 2022 |
| Tropical Storm Nicole | Nov 7, 2022 |
| Hurricane Ian | Sep 23, 2022 |
| Tropical Storm Ian | Sep 23, 2022 |
| Hurricane Isaias | Jul 31, 2020 |
| Hurricane Dorian | Aug 28, 2019 |
| Hurricane Irma | Sep 4, 2017 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
215 since 1996: 47 flash floods, 52 river or area floods and 41 coastal floods or surges.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Oct 26, 2025 | $35,000 |
| Flash Flood | Oct 26, 2025 | $15,000 |
| Flash Flood | Oct 26, 2025 | $2,000 |
| Flash Flood | Oct 26, 2025 | $20,000 |
| Flash Flood | Oct 26, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Sep 21, 2025 | — |
| Coastal Flood | Oct 11, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Oct 9, 2025 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Oct 26, 2025. A frontal boundary retreating across South Florida and ample low-level tropical moisture allowed for showers and thunderstorms to produce excessive rainfall on the evening of October 26 into the early overnight of October 27 which led to flooding over portions of Southeast Florida.
Flood · Sep 21, 2025. Ample moisture, a surface boundary north of the area, and diurnal heating combined to support thunderstorms that produced heavy rainfall over Southeast Florida on the 21st of September.
Coastal Flood · Oct 11, 2025. Localized coastal flooding and hazardous beach conditions occurred along the coast of South Florida due to astronomically higher-than-normal high tides and swell in the Atlantic in mid October 2025.
Flood · Oct 9, 2025. A frontal boundary slowly moving across the region, sufficient low-level moisture, and astronomically higher-than-normal high tides combined to create a scenario where localized flooding emerged on the evening of October 9th into the 10th over portions of Southeast Florida.
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 Palm Beach 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.