4 flood insurance claims·$52,263 paid
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 Effingham County, Illinois. 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 from summer thunderstorms dominates the flood history of Effingham County, accounting for 59 of the 74 total recorded flood events over the last 30 years, alongside 15 standard flood events.
Recent events illustrate this pattern. In June 2025, a slow-moving cold front interacted with a moist, unstable airmass to produce 1 to 3.5 inches of rain along and southeast of the I-70 corridor, causing flash flooding that persisted into the early morning hours of July 1st, 2025. Another event on July 20th, 2025, driven by an outflow boundary and a moist airmass, produced flash flooding south of the Shelbyville to Marshall line.
National Flood Insurance Program records show limited claims history, split between Zone A and unshaded Zone X areas. Zone A properties recorded 2 claims with an average payout of $24,503 and an average recorded water depth of 1 inch. Unshaded Zone X properties also recorded 2 claims, with an average payout of $3,257 and an average recorded water depth of 0 inches. Homeowners and real estate agents in Zone A face the highest financial risk from standing water and should pay the closest attention to local flood mapping and mitigation.
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.
The worst year was 1993, with 1 claims and $48,000 paid.
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.
35 NOAA storm reports from Effingham County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Illinois flood stories →
7 federal disaster declarations since 1996.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Dec 10, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm | Jan 31, 2011 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes And Flooding | Apr 21, 2002 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Apr 28, 1996 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
74 since 1996: 59 flash floods and 15 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jun 30, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 20, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 2, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 1, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 6, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 17, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 17, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 3, 2022 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jun 30, 2025. A slow-moving cold front progressed across Illinois during the afternoon and evening of June 30th, 2025, interacting with a very moist, unstable airmass and resulting in clusters of thunderstorms. Eventually, these clusters of storms grew into a slow-moving complex that produced heavy rain along and southeast of the I-70 corridor, with rainfall amounts ranging from 1 to 3.5 inches. This resulted in a few instances…
Flash Flood · Jul 20, 2025. An outflow boundary interacting with a very moist airmass characterized by surface dewpoints in the middle to upper 70s triggered clusters of strong to severe thunderstorms across south-central Illinois during the afternoon and evening of July 20th. Scattered wind damage and flash flooding occurred...mainly south of a Shelbyville to Marshall line.
Flash Flood · Apr 2, 2025. An area of low pressure tracked from southeastern Nebraska during the morning of April 2nd to western Wisconsin by evening, triggering two rounds of convection across central Illinois.||Round 1 occurred during the morning when a line of thunderstorms along the trailing cold front pushed into the Illinois River Valley. These storms were generally sub-severe, but one cell produced a downburst with estimated winds i…
Flash Flood · Jul 1, 2025. A slow-moving cold front interacted with a very moist, unstable airmass during the afternoon and evening of June 30th, 2025, resulting in a cluster of thunderstorms that produced heavy rainfall along and south of I-70 late that evening. Rainfall amounts of 1 to 3.5 inches occurred, which resulted in a few instances of flooding beginning on June 30th and lingering into the early morning hours of July 1st.
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 Effingham 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.