1 flood insurance claims·$12,218 paid·5 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 Franklin 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.
Flash flooding and inland flooding driven by slow-moving frontal systems and tropical storms dominate the flood profile. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database records 8 flash flood events, 5 flood events, and 2 tropical storm events.
Recent history illustrates these seasonal risks. In September 2024, Tropical Storm Helene brought heavy rainfall from a moisture plume interacting with a slow-moving cold front. In February 2020, an extended period of moderate to heavy rainfall dropped 3 to 6 inches across the area, producing intense rain rates and subsequent flash flooding. Tropical Storm Zeta brought damaging winds and downed trees in October 2020.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate historical claims in Zone X, with a single recorded claim averaging $12,218 in payout and an average recorded water depth of 1 inch. Property owners in Zone X and those situated near areas susceptible to heavy rainfall and localized flash flooding should pay the closest attention to these risks.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 1 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.
5 NOAA storm reports from Franklin County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Georgia flood stories →
16 federal disaster declarations since 1976, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 22, 2026 |
| Hurricane Helene | Sep 24, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm Zeta | Oct 29, 2020 |
| Hurricane Irma | Sep 7, 2017 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Feb 15, 2015 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Feb 10, 2014 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 27, 2005 |
| Hurricane Ivan | Sep 14, 2004 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
15 since 1996: 8 flash floods and 5 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Tropical Storm | Sep 27, 2024 | $150,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 29, 2020 | — |
| Flood | Feb 6, 2020 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Feb 6, 2020 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Apr 19, 2019 | $15,000 |
| Flood | Jul 29, 2005 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 7, 2005 | — |
| Flood | Sep 7, 2004 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Tropical Storm · Sep 27, 2024. Tropical Cyclone Helene began organizing over the western Caribbean on the 23rd and 24th of September before rapidly intensifying as it moved north through the eastern Gulf of Mexico on the 25th and 26th. A plume of moisture extending from the intensifying storm interacted with a slow-moving cold front to produce a band of widespread heavy rain showers and embedded scattered thunderstorms over the southern Appalac…
Tropical Storm · Oct 29, 2020. Tropical Storm Zeta moved quickly from near the mouth of the Mississippi River to the southern Appalachians during the night of the 28th into the morning of the 29th. This resulted in frequent wind gusts of 35 to 50 mph, with occasional gusts as high as 60 mph across northeast Georgia throughout the morning. Numerous trees were blown down across the area, with hundreds of downed trees reported in some counties. Mu…
Flood · Feb 6, 2020. Unusually high levels of moisture for early February combined with a slow-moving frontal system to produce an extended period of moderate to heavy rainfall across northeast Georgia from the morning of the 5th until the early morning hours of the 7th. Intense rain rates associated with bands of heavy rain showers and embedded thunderstorms developing along the front during the morning and afternoon of the 7th resul…
Flash Flood · Feb 6, 2020. Unusually high levels of moisture for early February combined with a slow-moving frontal system to produce an extended period of moderate to heavy rainfall across northeast Georgia from the morning of the 5th until the early morning hours of the 7th. Intense rain rates associated with bands of heavy rain showers and embedded thunderstorms developing along the front during the morning and afternoon of the 7th resul…
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 Franklin 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.