192 flood insurance claims·$3.3M paid·9 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 Harrison 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.
River flooding dominates the flood history of Harrison County, Iowa, supported by 20 general flood events compared to 11 flash flood events recorded over the last 30 years in the NOAA Storm Events Database. Recent historical impacts include river flooding along the Missouri River that kept sections of Interstate 29 and the Interstate 29 and Interstate 680 junction closed through the first week of July 2024 as waters receded. Additionally, a line of training storms led to impactful weather during a severe event in May 2023.
Federal Emergency Management Agency flood insurance claims data shows that properties in high-risk zones face the most significant financial and physical impacts. Zone A accounts for the vast majority of claims with 180 filings, resulting in an average payout of $21,848 and an average recorded water depth of 13 inches. In contrast, Zone X recorded only 5 claims with an average payout of $18,278 and an average recorded water depth of 6 inches, while Shaded Zone X recorded 5 claims with an average payout of $11,081 and an average recorded water depth of 11 inches.
Homeowners and real estate professionals near riverfront areas and within FEMA Zone A should pay the closest attention to flood risks, given the concentration of historical claims and structural water depths in these locations.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
3% of Harrison County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
186 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 13 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 2007, with 72 claims and $1.6M paid, the year of Severe Storms, Flooding, and Tornadoes.
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.
15 NOAA storm reports from Harrison County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Iowa flood stories →
24 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 9 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Mar 19, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Jun 16, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 20, 2024 |
| Severe Storms And Tornadoes | Apr 26, 2024 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Mar 12, 2019 |
| Flooding | May 25, 2011 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 19, 2010 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Snowstorm | Dec 23, 2009 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
31 since 1996: 11 flash floods and 20 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Jun 24, 2024 | $200,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 12, 2024 | $25,000 |
| Flood | Jul 1, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 12, 2023 | $500,000 |
| Flood | Mar 14, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Mar 13, 2019 | $2.2M |
| Flash Flood | Aug 20, 2018 | — |
| Flood | Jun 18, 2018 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Jun 24, 2024. A series of shortwave troughs traversing the northern CONUS brought unsettled weather to the area for the end of June. On the 21st, a stationary front was draped across northeast Nebraska into Iowa. Ahead of one of the aforementioned shortwave troughs, several rounds of strong thunderstorms developed near this frontal zone and moved across northeast Nebraska. At 8 pm on the 21st, radar imagery showed training thun…
Flash Flood · Jun 12, 2024. On June 12th, a low-amplitude shortwave embedded in northwesterly flow aloft ejected out into the central Great Plains. At the surface, a surface low-pressure was noted in North Dakota with a cold front extending south into South Dakota. Ahead of this cold front, a surface trough extended from south-central Nebraska into northeast Nebraska. Isolated thunderstorms developed on this surface trough late in the aftern…
Flood · Jul 1, 2024. At the beginning of July, river flooding was still ongoing along portions of the Missouri River extending from east-central Nebraska/southwest Iowa to the southern Nebraska border. Most of the length of the river crested at the end of June, so the greatest impacts are addressed in June StormData. However, sections of I-29 and the I-29/I680 junction remained closed through the first week of July as flood waters rec…
Flash Flood · May 12, 2023. A strong low-pressure system which had been moving slowly off the lee side of the Rocky Mountains had finally progressed into central Nebraska. This left western Iowa in the warm sector as a warm front moved north into the area. The SPC issued an Enhanced Risk for severe weather with a 30% hatched for severe hail. The severe weather mostly stayed west of the Missouri River. In Iowa, there was one report for a seve…
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 Harrison 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.