2 flood insurance claims·$22,662 paid·7 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 Kossuth 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.
Floods dominate the flood character of Kossuth County, with 66 recorded flood events compared to 24 flash flood events over the last 30 years. Recent historical impacts include multiple rounds of thunderstorms in May 2024 that brought torrential rainfall, damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes, resulting from a low pressure system that dropped two to four inches of rainfall and produced flash flooding across northern and central Iowa.
National Flood Insurance Program records show limited claims data for the area, consisting of one claim in an unknown zone with an average payout of $1,104 and an average recorded water depth of three inches, and one claim in Zone X with an average payout of $21,558 and an average recorded water depth of one inch.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay attention to properties located across both standard and undefined zones, as multi-inch rainfall events and subsequent river and flash flooding present consistent regional risks.
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 2 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.
76 NOAA storm reports from Kossuth County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Iowa flood stories →
20 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 7 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Jun 16, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 20, 2024 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Mar 12, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 6, 2018 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 14, 2014 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes | Jun 1, 2010 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 25, 2008 |
| Snow | Feb 28, 2007 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
90 since 1996: 24 flash floods and 66 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Jun 22, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Jun 22, 2024 | $128,000 |
| Flood | May 21, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 20, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 4, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Jul 1, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Mar 17, 2019 | $10,000 |
| Flood | Mar 16, 2019 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Jun 22, 2024. Heavy rain began late on June 21 and continued into the morning of June 22 as storms persisted along a stalled war front over northern Iowa. A widespread 3-4 inches of rain fell in northern Iowa, resulting in a few road closures across the area. This heavy rain also pushed rivers in northwest Iowa even higher, the catalyst for what would be in some cases catastrophic river flooding in the days to come.
Flood · Jun 22, 2024. Heavy rain fell over portions of northern Iowa, especially northwestern Iowa and bordering states later on June 20 through early on June 21. This rainfall caused flash flooding in portions of northwest Iowa and also aided in saturating the soil. As another round of heavy rain fell later on June 21 into the night and morning of June 22, this rainfall led to renewed flash flooding. This rainfall made its way into st…
Flood · May 21, 2024. There were several rounds of rainfall over the period starting around May 20 through around May 25. This is when there were two rounds of heavy rainfall along with severe thunderstorms including tornadoes and straight-line winds, detailed in respective severe entries for the month. 60-hour rainfall totals ending May 21 at 7pm were up to 4 to 6 inches over portions of Marshall, Tama, Poweshiek, and Jasper Counties.…
Flood · May 21, 2024. PLEASE NOTE, for tornadoes, please see separate Storm Data entry for May 21st. ||Multiple rounds of thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall, damaging winds, hail and destructive tornadoes to the state. These thunderstorms were the result of a low pressure system which lifted north into the area on the night of May 20th, 2024, producing slow moving storms that dropped 2 to 4 inches of rainfall. This resulted in f…
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 Kossuth 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.