345 flood insurance claims·$1.9M 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 Tazewell 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 driven by summer thunderstorms dominates the flood risk profile in Tazewell County, Illinois, accounting for 36 out of 46 recorded flood events over the last 30 years alongside 10 standard flood events.
Recent weather patterns illustrate this seasonal threat. On August 11, 2023, overnight thunderstorms dropped over one inch of rain, resulting in minor urban flooding. Later that summer on August 20, 2022, supercells produced heavy rainfall amounts of four to five inches and isolated flash flooding in the county.
Property owners and real estate professionals should pay the closest attention to locations in FEMA Zone A, which accounts for the highest volume of National Flood Insurance Program claims in the county with 175 claims averaging a payout of $7,222 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. Properties in Zone X, while recording fewer claims, experienced the highest average water depth at 22 inches and an average claim payout of $13,396. Additional claims are distributed across unshaded Zone X_UNSHADED, shaded Zone X_SHADED, and Zone UNKNOWN.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
28% of Tazewell County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
243 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 1982, with 90 claims and $303,063 paid, the year of Severe Storms, Tornadoes & 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.
21 NOAA storm reports from Tazewell County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Illinois flood stories →
15 federal disaster declarations since 1973, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Nov 17, 2013 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Apr 16, 2013 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm | Jan 31, 2011 |
| Snow | Nov 30, 2006 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 6, 2003 |
| Winter Storm 1/1/99 | Jan 1, 1999 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes & Flooding | May 15, 1990 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
46 since 1996: 36 flash floods and 10 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | May 4, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Aug 11, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 20, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 2, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Oct 7, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 25, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 15, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 9, 2020 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · May 4, 2024. A cold front tracked across Illinois during the late afternoon and evening, resulting in scattered thunderstorm development. The storms stayed below severe thunderstorm limits, but one storm did produce nickel sized hail and isolated flooding in Tazewell County.
Flood · Aug 11, 2023. Thunderstorms developed overnight across Iowa, ahead of a cold front, in an environment characterized by moderate instability and shear. The storms congealed into a line that swept across central Illinois during the early morning hours of August 11, producing scattered damaging winds before weakening after moving east of I-55. The thunderstorms produced locally heavy rainfall over 1 inch, which led to minor floodi…
Flash Flood · Aug 20, 2022. Supercells formed in the early afternoon near Peoria, to the southeast of a surface low over eastern Iowa and out ahead of its associated cold front. Storms produced large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain leading to isolated flash flooding. The strongest storm impacted Tazewell County, producing hail as large as three inches in diameter and rainfall amounts of four to five inches. Into the evening, storms tran…
Flash Flood · Aug 2, 2022. A persistent frontal boundary draped across central Illinois continued to be the focus for strong to severe thunderstorm development during the morning of August 2nd. A low-level jet interacting with the boundary triggered the first cluster of storms across portions of Sangamon and Logan counties during the pre-dawn hours, with additional cells forming from Galesburg to near Lawrenceville as the morning progresse…
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 Tazewell 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.