5 flood insurance claims·$100,706 paid·3 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 Calhoun County, Georgia. 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.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 2 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 1998, with 2 claims and $68,022 paid, the year of Severe Storms 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.
12 NOAA storm reports from Calhoun County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Georgia flood stories →
14 federal disaster declarations since 1994, 3 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Hurricane Helene | Sep 24, 2024 |
| Hurricane Michael | Oct 9, 2018 |
| Hurricane Irma | Sep 7, 2017 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jan 21, 2017 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Straight-line Winds | Jan 2, 2017 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Tornadoes, And Straight-line Winds | Mar 26, 2009 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 27, 2005 |
| Tropical Storm Frances | Sep 3, 2004 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
14 since 1996: 3 flash floods and 3 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Tropical Storm | Sep 26, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 12, 2024 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Nov 10, 2022 | $3,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 16, 2021 | $3,000 |
| Flood | Feb 6, 2020 | — |
| Hurricane (Typhoon) | Oct 10, 2018 | $50.0M |
| Flood | Dec 2, 2018 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 10, 2017 | $2.0M |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Tropical Storm · Sep 26, 2024. Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph and a minimum central pressure of 938 mb (27.70 inches) at about 11:10 PM EDT on Thursday, September 26th, in Taylor County Florida just east of the Aucilla River. Helene quickly moved inland across Taylor and Madison Counties before moving into Lowndes County in South Central Georgia. The hurricane produced a devastat…
Flash Flood · Feb 12, 2024. A line of thunderstorms trained across parts of the tri-state area, bringing flash flooding to portions of southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia. Considerable flash flooding occurred across Houston county, Alabama where rainfall amounts near 7 inches were measured in just a few hours. In Georgia, rainfall amounts around 5 inches were observed. For the Florida panhandle, rainfall amounts were not as high, but…
Tropical Storm · Nov 10, 2022. Tropical Storm Nicole moved across the Florida Peninsula and turned northwestward, moving across the Florida Big Bend into southern Georgia. Wind and rain impacts were relatively minimal. No flooding was reported, and wind damage consisted mainly of a few trees down with sporadic power outages.
Tropical Storm · Aug 16, 2021. After moving across the Greater Antilles and weakening, the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred strengthened into a tropical storm once again in the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall near Cape San Blas with maximum sustained winds near 65 mph on August 16th. The storm brought flooding and strong winds to numerous areas of the tri-state region. Rainfall amounts were generally in the 3 to 9 inch range with the highest am…
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 Calhoun 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.