88 flood insurance claims·$1.7M paid·8 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 Crawford County, Iowa. 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 river flooding characterize Crawford County, driven by 20 flash flood events and 14 flood events recorded over the last 30 years in the NOAA Storm Events Database. Severe flooding has been triggered by conditions such as the March 2019 event, which involved a deep regional snowpack, frozen soils, and upstream accumulation across Minnesota and the Dakotas. Another significant event occurred in December 2015, when one to three inches of rain fell on saturated ground from a wet fall, causing streams and creeks to reach bankfull or flood, and forcing the closure of county roads.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data indicates that property owners across multiple zones experience flood impacts. Zone X recorded 33 claims with an average water depth of 48 inches and an average payout of $17,404. Zone X_UNSHADED recorded 31 claims with an average water depth of 4 inches and an average payout of $30,822. Zone A recorded 16 claims with an average water depth of 22 inches and an average payout of $16,623, while Zone X_SHADED saw 6 claims averaging 13 inches of water depth and $20,649 in payouts. Zone UNKNOWN accounted for 2 claims with an average water depth of 0 inches and an average payout of $487. Homeowners and real estate agents in Zone X and Zone A should pay the closest attention to these historical claim patterns and water depths when evaluating property risk.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
70% of Crawford County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
53 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 15 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 1996, with 48 claims and $1.3M 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.
26 NOAA storm reports from Crawford County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Iowa flood stories →
23 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 8 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Mar 19, 2025 |
| Severe Storms And Tornadoes | Apr 26, 2024 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Mar 12, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 26, 2014 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 19, 2013 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 19, 2010 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Snowstorm | Dec 23, 2009 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 25, 2008 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
34 since 1996: 20 flash floods and 14 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Mar 13, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Mar 13, 2019 | $200,000 |
| Flood | Dec 14, 2015 | $20,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 31, 2014 | $250,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 12, 2014 | $50,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 12, 2014 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 12, 2014 | $25,000 |
| Flash Flood | May 19, 2013 | $5,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Mar 13, 2019. Reports from the 13h through the 19th in this entry. ||A relatively deep and widespread snowpack existed across the region during early to mid March. Many areas in central and northern Iowa had around a foot to two feet of snow on the ground, along with many areas in upstream river basins in Minnesota and the Dakotas having similar or deeper snowpacks on the ground. Additionally, with the below normal temperatures…
Flood · Dec 14, 2015. Heavy rain that fell across the state in mid-December led to river flooding at many locations across central and southern Iowa. The ground was already saturated from a wet fall, with new rainfall of one to 3 inches fell across the area in a two-day span. The heavy rainfall also allowed for many area streams and creeks to reach bankfull or go into flood. County roads across several counties were closed due to flood…
Flash Flood · Aug 31, 2014. An unstable airmass was in place across Iowa with afternoon highs reaching well into the 80s, and dewpoint readings in the low to mid 70s. CAPE rose to 2000 to 3000 J/kg. Downdraft CAPE was around 900 to 1000 J/kg, with CAPE in the -10 to -30 C layer of the atmosphere in the 600 to 900 J/kg range. Precipitable water increased to around 1.75 inches. The freezing level was quite high at around 15,000 feet. Fair…
Flash Flood · Jul 12, 2014. A boundary extended northeast to southwest across Iowa. Moisture pooled along the boundary with precipitable water values rising to over 2 inches during the night. An MCS developed over Nebraska into western Iowa. In what was a classic Maddox |Flash Flood event, heavy rainfall of 2 to 3 inches occurred in just over an hour over Crawford County. Flowing water closed U.S. Highway 30 and some of the nearby roads.…
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 Crawford 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.