14,544 flood insurance claims·$692.1M paid·14 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 Pasco 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 Pasco County is primarily characterized by general floods and tropical systems, supported by the NOAA Storm Events Database record of 49 flood events and 18 tropical storm events over the last 30 years. Recent impacts include street flooding near New Port Richey from late afternoon and early evening storms in August 2025, and major impacts from Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Siesta Key in October 2024 after reaching Category 5 peak intensity two days prior.
Federal insurance claims data demonstrates that risk extends across multiple zones, with the vast majority concentrated in high-risk areas. Properties in Zone A account for 12,820 NFIP claims with an average payout of $60,841 and an average recorded water depth of 6 inches. Zone V properties account for 596 claims with an average payout of $46,391 and an average recorded water depth of 6 inches. Meanwhile, properties in Zone X have logged 694 claims with an average payout of $35,138 and an average recorded water depth of 11 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within Zone A and Zone V, which represent the highest volume of historical flood claims and payouts in the county.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
2% of Pasco County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
13,686 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 6 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 2024, with 4,922 claims and $502.8M paid, the year of Hurricane Debby, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
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.
33 NOAA storm reports from Pasco County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Florida flood stories →
44 federal disaster declarations since 1968, 14 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.
79 since 1996: 6 flash floods, 49 river or area floods and 5 coastal floods or surges.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Aug 8, 2025 | $50,000 |
| Flood | Apr 11, 2024 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 9, 2024 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 4, 2024 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 30, 2023 | — · 1 killed |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 28, 2022 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 28, 2022 | $25,000 |
| Flood | Jul 26, 2022 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Aug 8, 2025. Late afternoon and early evening storms associated with a surface trough over the peninsula coupled with a weakness aloft over the state produce a landspout near Seffner in Hillsborough County and street flooding near New Port Richey in Pasco County.
Flood · Apr 11, 2024. A broken line of thunderstorms ahead of a cold front moving across the eastern Gulf of Mexico produce wind damage in Levy, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, street flooding and a funnel cloud in Pasco County, structural fires due to lightning in Pinellas County, and a severe wind gust in Hillsborough County. Minor coastal flooding was briefly observed in Pinellas County in the wake of the line of thunderstorms.
Tropical Storm · 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.…
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 Pasco 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.