43 flood insurance claims·$1.0M paid·4 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 Lawrence County, Indiana. 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 severe weather events dominates the flood history of Lawrence County, Indiana. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database recorded 63 floods resulting in 1 death, alongside 30 flash flood events driven by severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall systems. Recent historical events illustrate this pattern, including a flash flood on April 4, 2025, caused by heavy rainfall totals of 2 to 4.5 inches that exacerbated ongoing creek and river flooding. Another significant event occurred on August 4, 2025, when slow-moving thunderstorms dropped 3 to 5 inches of rain, resulting in two major roads flooding in the county.
NFIP claim history demonstrates that flood risks extend across multiple zones. Properties located in Zone A experienced the highest volume of claims with 26 filings, averaging $23,161 per payout and an average recorded water depth of 19 inches. Meanwhile, properties in Zone X recorded 9 claims with a higher average payout of $42,737 and an average recorded water depth of 8 inches. Zone UNKNOWN recorded 6 claims with an average payout of $4,267 and an average water depth of 2 inches, while Zone X_UNSHADED logged 2 claims averaging $17,229 with an average water depth of 1 inch. Homeowners in Zone A and Zone X should pay the most attention to these risks, given their history of substantial claim payouts and recorded water depths.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
7% of Lawrence County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
28 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 14 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 2005, with 10 claims and $388,255 paid, the year of Severe Winter Storms and Flooding and Hurricane Katrina Evacuation.
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.
19 NOAA storm reports from Lawrence County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Indiana flood stories →
21 federal disaster declarations since 1974, 4 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Mar 30, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And | Apr 19, 2011 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Mar 8, 2009 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 26, 2009 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Sep 12, 2008 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes | May 30, 2008 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
93 since 1996: 30 flash floods and 63 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jun 30, 2025 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 4, 2025 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Apr 4, 2025 | $25,000 |
| Flash Flood | Apr 3, 2025 | $500,000 |
| Flood | Jan 11, 2020 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 17, 2019 | $1,000 |
| Flood | Jun 17, 2019 | $3,000 |
| Flood | Feb 7, 2019 | $45,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jun 30, 2025. A couple rounds of scattered heavy rains from late on the 28th through the morning of the 29th brought 1 to 2 inches of rainfall, to several areas from Bloomington into parts of Brown County and Lawrence County. Soon after, more impressive rainfall rates occurred over the same areas from the 29th evening into very early on the 30th, where an additional 3 to 6 inches of rainfall fell on a few local areas.||Resulta…
Flash Flood · Aug 4, 2025. During the late afternoon and early evening of the 4th, slow moving thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall and flooding to portions of west-central and southwest central Indiana. Flooding was most significant in southeastern Vigo County near Blackhawk where a video showed flash flooding of a field and nearby road. Later in the day, flash flooding also occurred in Daviess County and Lawrence County with two major…
Flash Flood · Apr 4, 2025. The final round of rain in a stretch of 4 days brought rain amounts of 2-4.5 inches of rain to central Indiana in addition to the 3-5 inches that had fallen. This led to additional widespread flash flooding and exacerbated ongoing creek and river flooding to a point that many main stem rivers ended up reaching major flood stage.
Flash Flood · Apr 3, 2025. A strong low pressure system generated a line of strong to severe thunderstorms that started in Illinois and moved across central Indiana. Multiple severe storms were embedded within the line and some of these produced tornadoes. Eleven tornadoes impacted central Indiana, ten of which occurred along an overall west-southwest to east-northeast area from north of Terre Haute to north of Muncie. Four of these events…
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 Lawrence 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.